chocolate oatmeal stout feedback requested

[bpgreen]

I've brewed a number of stouts, but they've all been variations on one recipe. I want to get a little outside my comfort zone with my next stout. I bought a bunch of cacao nibs to add to smoothies and I realized that I can also add them to a stout. And since I'm adding the nibs, why not add oatmeal, as well?

So here's my recipe:
2 oz cacao nibs (bought raw, ground and roasted)
12 oz black patent malt
8 oz C-80
8 oz oatmeal
8 oz 2 row
8 oz raw wheat
6 lbs Pilsen LME
.5 oz HBC-342 60 minutes
.5 oz HBC-342 7 minutes
Nottingham yeast (I keep my house pretty cool in the winter and Nottingham is the only ale yeast I'm confident will ferment well).

My plan is to add the cacao nibs and oatmeal to the mash with the other grains. I'll boil the hops in the wort from the mash and add the LME at flameout (increases hop utilization and reduces maillard reaction with the LME).

Thoughts?

[BigPapaG]

Overall it looks pretty good Mr. Green...

You will get some nice complexity from the C80 and decent mouthfeel from the oatmeal.

The wheat is a nice touch and will aid in head retention...

I do the LME at flameout or T-10 all the time... As you said, helps with utilization and prevents it from unintended flavors from Malliard reactions or kettle carmalization.

I'ld brew this in a heartbeat.

The only thing I would change would be to move the cocao nibs to late primary so as to not loose any of the flavor or aroma of the cocao... I'ld probably add another ounce as well... Or maybe some in the mash and some after primary... Interesting...

But still, a solid recipe overall IMHO.

[bpgreen]

Thanks for the feedback.

I hate to admit it, but the main reason I add raw wheat is that I'm a cheapskate and I get big buckets of wheat at Costco for less than 40c/lb. As a bonus, when the bucket is empty, it becomes a fermenter.

Adding the cacao at late primary isn't an option, because I won't be home. A lot of the recipes I found on line added the cacao in the mash, and since I no longer have a dog, I don't make biscuits, so the theobromine isn't an issue.

From what I read, grinding the nibs finely allows you to use less. I ran it through the coffee grinder, so it's basically a powder. I figure it's probably better to add too little than too much. I can adjust the recipe later if I don't get enough chocolate from this.

[mashani]

FWIW, I don't know what the weight was exactly but I have used 1/4C of dutch processed cocoa powder (very low fat) as a 10 minute addition in a 2.5 gallon batch of a chocolate oatmeal stout and it was not too much. But I was careful not to use too many bitter dark malts, I did it with a very smooth creamy stout base. The nibs have more fat, so you have to be more careful with them I think, or you might kill your head retention and possibly have the beer get a rancid note given too long in the bottle. Fat and beer typically don't mix well. But I don't think you will run into trouble with the amount your using.

I also do the LME late additions. I like 'em.

I never thought about mashing cocoa nibs. Just never occurred to me to even try that.

You won't see me complain about using the raw wheat. I will use just about anything.

The HBC-342 should be interesting. If it gives you a lot of citrus, it might turn out like a chocolate orange (the kind you smack to break into segments) in liquid form. I put bitter and sweet orange peel into a beer like this as a late addition and that's what it was like. I loved that beer. If it gives you more tropical then I dunno, you will have to let us know how well that goes with the chocolate.

[bpgreen]

FWIW, I don't know what the weight was exactly but I have used 1/4C of dutch processed cocoa powder (very low fat) as a 10 minute addition in a 2.5 gallon batch of a chocolate oatmeal stout and it was not too much. But I was careful not to use too many bitter dark malts, I did it with a very smooth creamy stout base. The nibs have more fat, so you have to be more careful with them I think, or you might kill your head retention and possibly have the beer get a rancid note given too long in the bottle. Fat and beer typically don't mix well. But I don't think you will run into trouble with the amount your using.

1 oz of nibs is about 3 T, so 2 oz would be about 6T or 3/8 c. I'll be kegging, but it may be a few months before I drink it.

I also do the LME late additions. I like 'em.

For the first year or so that I was brewing, every batch was built around a Mr Beer HME. When I switched to making my own recipes, I was using LME because my LHBS sells it in bulk. It used to be $1.80/lb if I bought above a certain amount (33 lb? 36 lb?). It's still only $2 in quantity or $2.50 in smaller quantities. I don't get into SLC often, so I tend to buy in large quantities most of the time.

I've been doing late addition pretty much all along, because it's just a lot easier doing stovetop boils than doing full volume boils.

I never thought about mashing cocoa nibs. Just never occurred to me to even try that.

I may need to redo my searches, but I'm pretty sure a lot of the articles I read about using cacao recommended adding it to the mash. I don't think it's actually getting mashed. I think it's more a matter of just soaking for that amount of time. Since you've got dogs, you probably want to keep the cacao/cocoa away from anything they might get into. From what I've read, some dogs are more susceptible to theobromine, but if I had a dog that wasn't supposed to be susceptible, I think I'd err on the side of caution.

You won't see me complain about using the raw wheat. I will use just about anything.

Me too, obviously .

The HBC-342 should be interesting. If it gives you a lot of citrus, it might turn out like a chocolate orange (the kind you smack to break into segments) in liquid form. I put bitter and sweet orange peel into a beer like this as a late addition and that's what it was like. I loved that beer. If it gives you more tropical then I dunno, you will have to let us know how well that goes with the chocolate.

I've never used it. I bought a pound of whole leaf citra from BeerWarrior (AKA Music City Brew Supply) and he threw in a bunch of random 1-4 oz packages of hops. This was one that he included. When I was making the recipe, I looked through my hops and checked descriptions. One site said that this is a good choice for stouts. Maybe that's throwing too many unknowns in at the same time (oatmeal, cacao, new hop). Maybe I'll save that for a different brew.

Edited because autocorrect changed citra to city.

[bpgreen]

This is in the fermenter now. During the boil, it smelled like I was baking a chocolate cake.

I could definitely tell there was some fat in the wort. When I squeezed the bag, it felt a bit slick. And I whisked for quite a while with an electric whisk but didn't get any foam.

[Pudge]

You ever respond to a post and think you hit send, but it turns out you actually hit preview? Wow, I've been doing that often here of late.

I've only dry hopped (dry nibbed) with cocoa nibs. The beer picks up a lot of the nib character. Ground and in the mash sounds interesting. Ground up I think might draw much more and I doubt that is a flavor/aroma that will boil off. It'll most likely concentrate.

I'm very interested how this beer turns out.