Chocolate Stout Recipe

[BlackDuck]

Thanks to everyone for their input and suggestions on my other thread about the stout recipe. Here's what I've come up with. Hopefully, I can get this brewed next weekend.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Chocolate Stout
Brewer: Antler Brewing
Style: Sweet Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.84 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.29 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 34.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 73.9 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.7 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3 8.7 %
4.0 oz Roasted Barley (500.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.2 %
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 15.5 IBUs
0.75 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 Hop 6 9.9 IBUs
8.00 oz Cocoa Powder (Boil 10.0 mins) Flavor 7 -
12.0 oz Milk Sugar (Lactose) [Boil for 10 min](0 Sugar 8 6.5 %
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast 9 -
3.50 tsp Chocolate Extract (Bottling 0.0 mins) Spice 10 -
2.25 tsp Vanilla Extract (Bottling 0.0 mins) Spice 11 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 3.36 gal of water at 167.4 F 153.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 5.77 gal water at 170.0 F

[Beer-lord]

What's not to like?
But, do you think 4 oz of roasted barley is enough? Maybe since you have lots of chocolate and too much roasted barley will take things over.
I say brew it today.......go home now, take the day off and brew!

[BlackDuck]

I do think it's enough....I'm looking for a dark chocolate milk with some alcohol in it, not one that has a strong roast profile. That's why there is so much chocolate malt, cocoa and extract in it. That's also why the IBU's are on the lower end of the spectrum for the style, I'm thinking I'll get some bitterness from all that chocolate too.

[DaYooper]

I do think it's enough....I'm looking for a dark chocolate milk with some alcohol in it, not one that has a strong roast profile. That's why there is so much chocolate malt, cocoa and extract in it. That's also why the IBU's are on the lower end of the spectrum for the style, I'm thinking I'll get some bitterness from all that chocolate too.

Let me know how this turns out. SWMBO is not a coffee/roast fan by any means and so far the only dark she will drink is my peanut butter stout using MrBs old Oatmeal Stout HMEs. This may be something she would enjoy (especially if I added peanut butter extract).

[BlackDuck]

I am going to brew this one up tomorrow. I have to stop at the store today to get the cocoa powder.

Is this the stuff that I need to get:

Hersheys.jpg (6.05 KiB) Viewed 892 times

And what are your opinions on using a Special Dark variety? I love dark chocolate, but would it be too bitter?

HersheysSD.jpg (9.06 KiB) Viewed 892 times

[Beer-lord]

I know nothing about this but I've seen recipes using Baker's Chocolate. What about cocoa nibs from your LHBS?
I saw this mentioned here:http://allaboutbeer.com/brewing-with-cocoa/

Cocoa powders can also be used directly, but bear in mind that their high fat content makes them harder to dissolve directly in the kettle than prepared syrups and, depending on the variety, can impart harshness. They are nothing more than pulverized raw or roasted cocoa beans. Dutch-processed cocoa is mellower than natural cocoa powder, and is the better option for experimentation and tweaking.

Cocoa powders are perfect for mashing, where they can be evenly distributed without problems and still find their way into the kettle. Start with about two to three ounces in a five-gallon recipe and work your way up―you can always augment later with syrup if desired.

Chocolate or cocoa bars will need to be melted before adding to the kettle to avoid scorching. Baker’s chocolate, which is unsweetened, and bulk chocolate bars, sweetened for ready consumption, can be equally useful. They should be dissolved in a small amount of hot wort prior to use.

This brings us to cocoa nibs, the most raw, and hence, most intense of cocoa products. Nibs are essentially crushed cocoa beans that are either raw or slightly roasted. Raw nibs are lighter in color and don’t have the burnt edge that roasted nibs do, so pick your appropriate confection. Taste them before using and trust your instincts, which is often the homebrewers’ best directive. Raw nibs would fold nicely into a brown ale or porter, with the roasted nibs more at home in a stout. Each unaltered nugget is roughly the size of a barleycorn. They can be used directly in the mash, the boil, or suspended in conditioning beer like hops or spices.

[BlackDuck]

Interesting reading...thanks. I don't have time tonight to make it to the LHBS, so the nibs are out. And I'm not even sure they carry them. I've never seen them there. But maybe adding the powder to the mash is the way to go. I might get more out of it in a 75 minute mash as opposed to 10 minutes in the boil. And maybe I should use a little less than 8 ounces. I got that amount from a recipe I found on HBT.

[DaYooper]

For what its worth, Ive used powder several times in the past and to me it seemed to take a long time until it conditioned to my liking. It was relatively early in my brewing days so not sure if it was the taste or the bitterness (or both) but I have long switched to extract.

[Beer-lord]

Funny thing is, that while reading this thread, at the bottom of my browser an add for cocoa nibs mysteriously popped up.
http://www.sunburstsuperfoods.com/organ ... 7AodG1EAyA
Now how can that be?

[BlackDuck]

Funny thing is, that while reading this thread, at the bottom of my browser an add for cocoa nibs mysteriously popped up.
http://www.sunburstsuperfoods.com/organ ... 7AodG1EAyA
Now how can that be?

It's the NSA spying on your web browsing!!

For what its worth, Ive used powder several times in the past and to me it seemed to take a long time until it conditioned to my liking. It was relatively early in my brewing days so not sure if it was the taste or the bitterness (or both) but I have long switched to extract.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm brewing this tomorrow and I don't have the chocolate extract yet, as I had to order it online. Adding the powder to the mash/sprage seems like a viable option. So, I've decided to use the full 8 ounces of powder that was suggested in the recipe that I'm basing mine of off. But, I'll had 4 ounces to the top of the grain bed right before sparging, then add 4 ounces to the boil at T-15 minutes.

[BlackDuck]

Just finished this up. I ended up using the regular cocoa powder instead of the Special Dark. And the other adjustment from the originally posted recipe was the addition of the cocoa. I added 4 ounces to the top of the grain bed immediately before the sparge. Then added the remaining 4 ounces as originally scheduled. I overshot my volume by about a 1/4 gallon. The total volume into fermenter was appx 5.75 gallons. I also overshot the gravity slightly. I ended up at 1.057 instead of 1.053. I would rather overshoot my numbers slightly than come up short. Good brew day!!

[Beer-lord]

If you overshot your volume and gravity, you did pretty well.
I hope this makes its way to Nashville so I can enjoy every bit of your hard work on a cold day!

[BlackDuck]

It will most definitely make it's way to Nashville. And I'm also planning on doing a Session IPA for the trip too.

[Beer-lord]

You go boy! Bring all you want.

[BlackDuck]

I couldn't find the chocolate extract in any of my local stores so I bought a bottle on-line. In my original recipe, I was planning on adding 3.5 teaspoons chocolate extract and 2.25 teaspoons vanilla extract at bottling. It was recommended by a few of you fine folks to add the vanilla to enhance the chocolate.

So the pure chocolate extract came in the mail today. The ingredients are listed like this: alcohol, water, vanilla extract, chocolate concentrate.

My question is this.....since this pure chocolate extract is already made with vanilla extract, should I even bother adding it at bottling? Or should I delete the vanilla extra addition and up the amount of the pure chocolate extract? Keep in mind that I am after a Chocolate Stout, not a Vanilla Stout.