Base style for a lamington ale

[megabyte]

I had a Quiet Deeds Lamington Ale a few weeks ago and it struck me as something that my non-beery friends could really appreciate over winter if I put one on tap.

I wasn't sure what kind of base beer to start with, but I ended up going with a Northern English brown because I though that the "nutty" and "biscuity" characteristics would go well with lamingtons.

Today I racked to secondary, ready to add some toasted coconut, but after sampling I'm having second thoughts about my choice of beer style because it's a little pale and there's hardly any chocolatey flavour and we all know chocolate is a big part of lamingtons.

The Quiet Deeds beer isn't very dark so I don't think a stout or porter is called for, and I chose the northern brown over the southern and american browns because I didn't think dark fruits or hop forwardness were ideal traits.

Here's my recipe:
3.6Kg (79.1%) Maris Otter 5.6EBC
0.35Kg (7.7%) Voyager Special Roast 165EBC
0.25Kg (5.5%) Victory 73EBC
0.25Kg (5.5%) Simpsons Crystal Light 80EBC
0.1Kg (2.2%) Light Chocolate Malt 886EBC

50g East Kent Goldings @60min

WLP013 London Ale

I'm wondering:
Should I have started out with a different beer style, or should I just up my chocolate malt in future?
Would I get more lamington chocolate flavour if I substituted some dark chocolate malt instead of the light?
Do you think I might even need to add some real chocolate to the recipe?
Also, is this a beer that might benefit from a touch of diacetyl? (I think of lamingtons as having a buttery cake mix taste)

 

[Tex083]

Cocoa nibs in secondary with your toasted coconut should do the trick

 

[megabyte]

Cocoa nibs in secondary with your toasted coconut should do the trick

Thanks, I've done some reading and this sounds like a great plan.

It's hard to find the roasted cacao nibs but I might pick up some raw ones from woolies tonight and roast them myself.

 

[contrarian]

Did you get to taste Scott's coconut porter from the IBU fruit challenge? It tasted exactly like a bounty with plenty of coconut and chocolate flavour. If you want the chocolate flavour but a lighter body you could try mashing low to dry it out as well.

I've used cacao nibs in a beer before and found that steeped in vodka for about a week before adding to fermenter worked pretty well.

 

[megabyte]

Did you get to taste Scott's coconut porter from the IBU fruit challenge?

I sure did. That was the first time I'd tried a beer with coconut in it and it was a good one

Vodka steeping the nibs sounds like a good idea to get the insolubles out. Did you use roasted or raw nibs? Woolies and our local health/placebo store only sell the raw kind so unless you've had luck with these I assume I'll have to roast them before steeping.

 

[contrarian]

I think I used raw, I'll have a look tomorrow and let you know. I never would have beloved coconut beer was a good idea until I drank that.

 

[tugger]

Do you plan on adding some coconut essence.

 

[megabyte]

Not for this brew, I bought about 500g of shredded coconut so I'll roast it and give it a whirl. One of the guys from Quiet Deeds actually commented on my Untappd checkin and said to roast up 350g for a 5gal batch so I'll try that first. If it's not enough flavour I might top it up with some extract.

 

[sponge]

Could always cold steep the choc malt. I've found it softens the roasty bitterness with a more mellow, chocolate flavour.

 

[megabyte]

Thanks sponge I'll keep that in mind for next time. That way I can up the chocolate additions without it going all roasty on me

 

[snails07]

Hey Michael,
How did this end up? I loved this beer and looking to do one of my own.
Any tips?

 

[megabyte]

I had a number of problems with this brew. It ended up going oily and slick from with the roasted coconuts or the cacao nibs. It also tasted really sweet in the end and I ended up tossing it. Oh and the shredded coconut got into my ball lock and clogged it so make sure you use a bag of some type! I suspect the cacao nibs weren't necessary, next time I'd mash low, steep some extra choc malt and just add the 350g of toasted coconut to secondary.

 

[mosto]

Maybe sub some / all the Choc malt for Brown malt. Despite the name I've never gotten much choc flavour from choc malt alone, usually get it more from brown malt or a combo of the two. I was listening to an old Beersmith podcast a while ago which suggested the same and mentioned the name for choc malt came about more from it's colour than flavour profile.