Anyone For Sensational Head?

[stux]

Cacao nibs might be good or even great for you but they taste like *****. Only a distant hint of choc in there behind all this dirt and bitterness. I got no idea how they make chocolate out of this *****. But it does the job in a beer.

They add sugar

 

[fcmcg]

So many stout lovers here - we dead set should have a stout lovers community/recipe thread and keep brewing/contributing until the damn thing throws a chocolate flavor!

Westgate Brewers...down here in Victoria , run our annual Stout Extravaganza Competition in July , each year...
At Westgate we love the dark beers...
However...as far as i am aware...any beer that has chocolate ( and coffee for that matter) added to it , to obtain some of those flavours , pretty much means that it should be enetered into the specialty category, and we don't have that category at our competition.
You can get all the choc flavour you want from grain !!
Not that some people admit that that's how they got those flavours , but in my opinion , if your entering a porter or sweet stout or oatmeal stout and you have added adjuncts to get those flavours , and not obtained them from grain only , then you shouldn't be entering.This is , of course , my opinion....hell add as much choc as you want and do what you want with it ...just don't expect me to agree with you if you enter a comp with it....

 

[Kranky]

Not even fat is added to cacao nibs, its just Cacao beans that are the seeds of an Amazonian fruiting tree and source of all chocolate and cocoa products. Nibs are from the criollo variety and are simply the shelled and crushed chocolate beans.

Cocoa beans will often contain 50% fat and so will cocoa nibs. I ground some cocoa nibs up the other week and put them through my coffee machine. The result was a hot chocolate type of drink that was undrinkable because of the amount of fat.

I understand that some brewers put cocoa nibs in the boil as a late addition. I wouldn't. Great to use in secondary.

 

[Bribie G]

Men have finally moved on after 2000 years - 'how to make a women orgasm' is behind us - it's now 'how to make stout/porter taste like chocolate'!!!!

I note that you are into threesomes

Ive just started doing step mashes recently and have been loving the results of better flavor and head
But my 2nd last brew i did was Smurtos golden ale ... and god damn i have to throw the whole batch out because it managed to burn the crap out of my element to the point i had to sand the black off the element and without knowing that it would impart such a strong flavor i fermented it. Well its a taste of burnt biscuit and puke and about to go down the drain
Im going to avoid doing another step mash with wheat in it again until I figure out how to not burn the crap out of it

Did you have the element running in the ramp from protein rest to saccharification rest (eg 62 ?) - that just about rooted my element as well, I think because theres a lot of starches in the wort at that stage, not having been converted by the amylases, it just cakes on an electric element and turns to toast. I chucked my Bo Pils, $40 down the drain, tasted like burnt crumpets and like you I had to use Kryptonite to get the bloody thing clean again, still got crap underneath it.

 

[pk.sax]

Gas sounds good

 

[Fourstar]

A bit of wheat does it for me - goes well in just about everything (I don't do lagers any more)

My regular house beer, Moby Wheat (Whale Ale tribute) is 50% and it never lets me down.

Holy **** bribie! That foam looks like meringue. :icon_drool2:

I just bottled off some porter from my first HERMIT step mash. 55-63-71 rests. Nice mild carbonation and small tight foam cap that persists throughout the pint. I've been staring at a half empty pint for 15 mins and the foam cap hasn't budged. It seems to do its job not to mention the clarity from the rest compared to previous beers made with this base malt and no protein rest. Always had some mild haze. Can't wait to make a bitter with it.

Crisp MO for those playing at home. I almost always have haze issues with it.

 

[troopa]

I note that you are into threesomes





Did you have the element running in the ramp from protein rest to saccharification rest (eg 62 ?) - that just about rooted my element as well, I think because theres a lot of starches in the wort at that stage, not having been converted by the amylases, it just cakes on an electric element and turns to toast. I chucked my Bo Pils, $40 down the drain, tasted like burnt crumpets and like you I had to use Kryptonite to get the bloody thing clean again, still got crap underneath it.

Yup i did

 

[iralosavic]

I note that you are into threesomes





Did you have the element running in the ramp from protein rest to saccharification rest (eg 62 ?) - that just about rooted my element as well, I think because theres a lot of starches in the wort at that stage, not having been converted by the amylases, it just cakes on an electric element and turns to toast. I chucked my Bo Pils, $40 down the drain, tasted like burnt crumpets and like you I had to use Kryptonite to get the bloody thing clean again, still got crap underneath it.

I apologise for the HJ, but this seems an important question given my intention was to do an element ramp from 55c to 63c in my BIAB on the weekend. Would it be worth the risk of pouring 11L of boiling liquor (I'll have to stove top the HL) into the mash to perform an infusion step to 63c?!

 

[Fourstar]

I apologise for the HJ, but this seems an important question given my intention was to do an element ramp from 55c to 63c in my BIAB on the weekend. Would it be worth the risk of pouring 11L of boiling liquor (I'll have to stove top the HL) into the mash to perform an infusion step to 63c?!

Dough in at 55, element off. Infuse to 63,wait for some conversion and go from there is my guess

 

[glenwal]

I apologise for the HJ, but this seems an important question given my intention was to do an element ramp from 55c to 63c in my BIAB on the weekend. Would it be worth the risk of pouring 11L of boiling liquor (I'll have to stove top the HL) into the mash to perform an infusion step to 63c?!

If i understand correctly (and hopefully someone will either confirm this, or tell me im way off the mark) - but isn't that exactly how a 3V brewer would have to do it?

 

[troopa]

I have only found the problem with one brew out of 5 and it was the only brew that contained wheat and it was at nearly 20% worth of the bill
I have read else where that wheat seems to be the main cause of the problem in some peoples herms systems and one or 2 other electric biabs
But you wont know untill you give it a go but its your brew and if you want to play it safe i would do a 2 vessel brew but personally i would want to find out for myself if it will burn but would avoid using wheat and maybe keep the bill simple

 

[iralosavic]

Glen: in a 3V rig with herms, the element is not exposed to the mash, so this would not be an issue. Most people would still prefer to infuse their steps. I tend to avoid infusions, as I have no HLT, just a pot and stovetop.

I'm not sure how substantiated the theory is that a 50-56c rest will aid head retention in highly modified malt, but I'm willing to experiment. I'm keen to see how a glycoprotein rest helps head too.

 

[Bribie G]

Our German cousins do their steps by adding hot liquor, AFAIK so it's a tried and tested method.

There are plenty of hot water mixing calculators online, I use one of them when I'm doing a cereal mash for my killer malt liquor so I can pour the near boiling cooker mash (rice / maize whatever) into the main mash without having to wait for it to cool back down to 63 degrees whatever. Works within a half of a degree with most liquids and slurries. Come to think of it, what I've been doing with my Midnight Train is probably doing a protein rest with the main mash as well, use the cooker mash to ramp it to sacch rest. Hmmm.

I'm making an 8% Midnight Train Malt Liquor for the July case swap, I'll do some calcs.

 

[Bada Bing Brewery]

I have been doing step mashes with infusions of boiling water for years, and i will agree they do help to make a better beer. I also found the extra effort helped obtain better head retention.

I find i can get better control over mouthfeel and FG, better clarity and better efficiency, usually hovering around 82% into the fermenter.

I usually infuse to between 1.8 and 2L/kg for a 10 min rest @ 52 deg
I add boiling water which brings me to about 3L/kg for 45 min at between 63 and 66 deg.... depending on the beer I'm making
I then infuse again to between 71 and 74, depending on the beer and mash out.

I adjust the initial infusion ratio to give me a final mash volume of about 48L in my 50L mash tun..... and using between 10 and 11Kg of grain for my regular batches, its a tight fit.

+1 - step mashed last 6 brews using full Hermit system. Makes a huge difference on mouthfeel, head and clarity.
Cheers
BBB

 

[Bada Bing Brewery]

+1 - step mashed last 6 brews using full Hermit system. Makes a huge difference on mouthfeel, head and clarity.
Cheers
BBB

Big fairy clap - I'm finally a beer god ...... i shall now retire and live of hte royalties from my posts ....
BBB

 

[Deebo]

So if I am reading this calculator right..(http://www.onlineconversion.com/mixing_water.htm) If my mash was 55c with about 25L of water.. then added 8L of boiling water.. I should be round about 65.9 C ?

 

[iralosavic]

So instead of 27L strike water, I reserve around 5-6L of it to use to raise from 55 to 63 (closer to 5800ml), so I strike in with 21-22L~ instead?

 

[manticle]

However...as far as i am aware...any beer that has chocolate ( and coffee for that matter) added to it , to obtain some of those flavours , pretty much means that it should be enetered into the specialty category, and we don't have that category at our competition.
You can get all the choc flavour you want from grain !!
Not that some people admit that that's how they got those flavours , but in my opinion , if your entering a porter or sweet stout or oatmeal stout and you have added adjuncts to get those flavours , and not obtained them from grain only , then you shouldn't be entering.This is , of course , my opinion....hell add as much choc as you want and do what you want with it ...just don't expect me to agree with you if you enter a comp with it....

I completely disagree ferg.

A beer in a comp is judged as a beer and what flavours it has upon the tasting (and how they balance up etc), not how those flavours got there.

Next you'll be saying kits can't be entered in comps.

The beer should be judged on the merits as it presents and judged by the only tool the judge has - their palate. You don't know how someone made a beer so you can't judge based on your presumptions. You taste coffee in a stout? Could be choc malt, roast barley, instant coffee, chicory essence or ground arabica beans. You don't know and if it's done well you won't have any idea. If it's done well, it also deserves to be recognised.

Furthermore, if there is no specialty category offered then people can't enter their beers into said category so it's not even an option. If a porter with cacao nibs beats a porter without, it's going to be based on more than just the cacoa - it needs to be a good beer, fault free, well balanced and judged within the guidelines.

 

[mje1980]

Just completed brew #7 on the Braumeister, and I have been wondering why all my beers have had sensational head. I have narrowed it down to the multi step temp mash I can now do so easy. 54, 62, 71 & 75. Brew number six I just did single infusion at 66 deg C and you guessed it the head was crap. So brew #7 was a choc Porter with the 54 deg C rest for 15 min, and against good advise I added 100g of pure Cacao nibs into the fermenter. Now if anything was going to screw up head retention it would be cacao with 50% fat. Anyway, I just poured my first after it being in the keg for 24 hours. Even after this short time, it was a little under carbed but had a dense thick mousy head about 1/4" thick that lasted right to the bottom of the glass.
So I will be including a 54 degC step in all brews in future.

Steve

Been having problems lately regarding head. I sure can't afford a BM, but i have been playing with the low 70's glycoprotein rest to help head and retention, as per advice from manticle. I love KISS, but gee, a herms/rims/bm type setup looks the goods!!!!. I think step mashing has made a difference for sure, as most have said regarding body, mouthfeel etc.

 

[yum beer]

I completely disagree ferg.

A beer in a comp is judged as a beer and what flavours it has upon the tasting (and how they balance up etc), not how those flavours got there.

Next you'll be saying kits can't be entered in comps.

The beer should be judged on the merits as it presents and judged by the only tool the judge has - their palate. You don't know how someone made a beer so you can't judge based on your presumptions. You taste coffee in a stout? Could be choc malt, roast barley, instant coffee, chicory essence or ground arabica beans. You don't know and if it's done well you won't have any idea. If it's done well, it also deserves to be recognised.

Furthermore, if there is no specialty category offered then people can't enter their beers into said category so it's not even an option. If a porter with cacao nibs beats a porter without, it's going to be based on more than just the cacoa - it needs to be a good beer, fault free, well balanced and judged within the guidelines.

here here