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killbz

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Before I start I would like to say Hi to everyone, and then bore you all with a description of my limited experience so you will hopefully forgive my stupid questions.
I was first shown how to homebrew a couple of years ago by my father who used to make beer and wine but gave up wine when we moved to back to Oz. I have two uncles who make beer or wine so it kind of runs in the family a bit. Anyway dad stopped brewing a while ago as he moved to being predominatly a wine drinker.
I was shown what I now consider a half arsed way of doin it which I contribute to my failures. So far Ive made about 6 or so batches:
one came out all right,
One failed as I added honey without any other treatment
one failed when I added some Malt that I bought at Safeways (not brewing malt)
one failed when I added honey again instead of priming suger
one failed when my fermenter broke seal and I thought it was stuck so I added another yeast satchet
last one failed for an unknown reason but it got infected and dumped it in the toilet this morning. (first batch in over a year)

I have not been much of a beer drinker as I primary drink whisky... Until recently.
A week before my 23rd Bday I was going to a party and was broke so decided to get some beer instead of Jack and coke. While staring at another boring red sixpack of Carlton draughft I thought "F##k it, Ill get something different".
I bought a six of James Squire Malt runner winter '10 limited release... WOW this is awesome I thought when I tried it and promptly finished all six.
I then started buying and trying severl different sorts and brands of beer thru out the next week and had a Beer taste test with my father for my bday. For the next month I bought six or so diff beers every week. I then decided to make the Stout kit I had sitting in the pantry for the last 6 months, I had decided I Love Dark Malty beers, It failed.... hence was the one I dumped down the toilet. However the day before, I went to my local Brew n' Grow and had a small chat with the storekeeper and ended up buying a can of LME and a bag of DME and some maltodextrin and dextrose, I made that batch last night in my second fermenter Its going text book perfect at the moment and cant wait till I can finally taste it in a few weeks.
At the first sign my Stout had failed dad dug out a book which I have since been reading called 'The complete joy of Homebrewing, by Charlie Papazain' Old but with a ton of info. I have since modified my procedure since reading it which I believe is why this current batch is going very well.
Any way I bought a couple of bottles on wednesday of Double chocolate stout which I liked a hell of a lot and was wondering if I could make it for my self.
I now have a free fermenter so waas considering trying out several micro batches at a time of something like 5L to 11.5L just to try out to see if I could make a chocolate beer.

Is there a somewhat easy way for a begginner to make a chocolate beer? I dont think my local BnG has chocolate malt or many grains however I can probably order off the net.
Ive looked a bit in the Recipe section of this forum and havent quite found what I was looking for.
Second is there any tips if I tried just to concoct this off the top of my head?


If you have managed to read all of that and are still awake well done :)
Any help would be much appreciated
Thanks
Killbz

Ps excuse any spell errors Ive had a few JS porters after work
 
Im so tired, but for some reason found your story interesting. There is a recipe for a choc stout on the database, but its all grain.
here it is: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...&recipe=848

Now, as a stab in the dark, i'd try:
1.7kg Coopers stout
500g milk sugar
500g LDME
250g Sugar
1x Block of 70% Cocoa Lindt Chocolate
195g cocoa

Give that a shot, theres some chocolate!

Also, maybe get some spec. grains in there. Im not really sure what you would add for those.
hopefull a pro can help you out.
 
I'm omw to bed, but to give you something to think about, yes, you can attempt this beer. It won't be the same though you may come damn close.

I would say if you are going to do micro batches (good idea) then you should buy smaller fermenters. There is a 15-20l plastic one and 5l glass demijohns are also great. You want to avoid having lots of head space above the beer, but at the same time, you want to have enough space for the yeast to krausen (make the thick foam on the top). Less headspace means less chance of oxidation, esp when it is 5l in a 30l fermenter.

As for the beer, if I was to do a trial batch I'd go with the following (assuming extract and grain steep):

80% LME
10% Med Crystal
7.5% Paler Choc
2.5% Roast Barley

Bitter to maybe 35IBU with EKG or Fuggles (if you want to be traditional) or something like Magnum or Warrior for new world.
1.5g/l EKG/Fuggles @ 15 mins.

And when in the HB shop, never buy the hop teabags they sell. Buy hop pellets or plugs from the fridge.

*note: i've not tried this beer in a while, what i have written here is what I would do if I was going to make an extract steep beer and wanted a choc flavour without adding choc essence/extract*
 
If you want that real choc hit you get from Young's Double choc stout I would recomend using cocoa powder. If you are using kits I would dissolve 200-250g of cocoa powder (unsweetened) in some boiling water and add that to the fermenter with the your other liquid/dry malts. The longer you let it sit in the fermenter the more chocy it should get, try up to 2 weeks. It will get pretty sludgy so you may want to rack to a secondary fermenter before bottling to help it clear up a bit. Use a stout/dark kit as the base beer or if you'r feeling up to it a pale ale kit and some grains for colour/flavour. Try...

0.6kg of pale crystal
0.6kg of pale choc malt
0.2kg of roast barley

Get the grains cracked and steep in 1.5L of 73degC water for 30mins - remove the grains, then boil for 20mins, adding the cocoa powder 10 mins into the boil. Chuck into the fermenter and add your other extracts/sugars to dissolve, top up with water and pitch your yeast (english ale perhaps) at 20 degC and ferment away.

Just came up with it from one of my AG brews, someone with more extract experience may have something add/change.

K
 
Thanks for the replies.

When I went in to buy the ingredients for the batch which is currently still fermenting, I also had a look for smaller fermenters which they did not have, though it is a small store. However I have a few 5L glass demijohns which shall try using, just need to buy some bungs and a few air locks. My local store I dont think has much in the way of grains either unfortunatly, however there is another brew n grow about 30mins away that I can hit on the way to work which is a bit bigger I think (havent been there yet).
I shall try all the suggestions and some other combinations that I can come up with.

I would like to buy in bulk as it is cheaper and then I can have it on hand when I wish to try something.
How long can I store grains, LME, DME and other various sugars?
What is the best way to store each of them?

Tommorow I shall check out the local BnG.

now to start making a list of ingredients. :icon_cheers:
 
A bit of lactose can boost the choc character.

Young's use a choc essence as far as I'm aware.

I've used cocoa successfully in brews before - just add to the boil.

ended up buying a can of LME and a bag of DME and some maltodextrin and dextrose

Was there anything else to this brew? Did it combine with a prebittered beer kit (coopers, muntons etc) or did you add your own bittering hops?

If you are up to doing hop boils then any recipe starting with pale malt extract and building up colour and flavour with spec grains would be my vote. Hop additions - any UK hop (northern brewer is a great neutral bittering hop), single bittering addition only.
 
hmm I replyed to a question on this thread but it must have gone astray as it is not here.

I used a pre bittered LME for my current batch to re answer the question.

To save myself from rewriting a long post I shall make it quicker lol.

I shall brew 3 nano batches of about 4L in some 5L demijohns.

Batch 1: Will be made from dried malt extracts and sugars with cocoa added to the boil.
Batch 2: will be made from some dried malt extracts and some sugar and will use Choc malt Grain instead of Cocoa.
Batch 3: will be all grain and will also be my first all grain.

With nano sized batches I will be able to make adjustments to successive batches to determine the correct recipe.
If I can nail it I will post the recipe in the DB.

A 4L batch should come out to about 12 stubbies worth.

a quick question.
What is the best sugar to use for bottle priming?
I normally disolve refined white sugar in boiling water, let it cool then add to my racked off beer give it a calm quick stir and bottle.
Is there a better way of doing this?

I will be adding yeast and hops as I am not using kit malts, also does DME contain yeast nutrients or would I have to add them?
 
Your priming method is fine. You can use ordinary table sugar, malt extract, dextrose, fermenting beer or even lollies. Plenty of info out there about amounts to use and what effect each has - for the minute, if what you are doing is working for you then stick with it.

Malt contains things yeast like. You can call them nutrients. You can add nutrients - generally they won't harm your brew (or yeast) and may help but you can make beer without. If you make cider or gnger beer the yeast will benefit from the extra nutrients.
 
I wasnt sure if dried malt had enough food for yeast as Im pretty sure they would add it to the liquid 'kit' malts.

Here is what I have come up with for the first batch (malt and sugar)

To make 4-4.5L of wort

200g Dark dried malt extract
300g pale dried malt extract
100g Dextrose

40g Maltdextrin (help retain a small head)
100g Lactose (for a bit of sweetness)
50g Cocoa

2g Super Alpha Pellets 15.10%
English Ale Yeast WLP002

Please be aware I have never brewed at this small scale nor with this type of ingredients. Also I have never used hops before and have relied on the hops from a kit.

If you think there is too much of something or not enough of something please let me know.
This is the first planned malt/sugar batch and any successive malt/sugar batches will have adjustments made following how this one went.

ANY feedback is much appreciated as the closer I can get to a successful chocolate beer on the first try then the less tweaked follow up batches are required.
thanks in advance.
 
Have you used any kind of calculator to work out an IBU or OG?

As mentioned, I would use pale extract then build up with grains (choc, crystal, black, roast barley) rather than just dark male extract. Just extract will be a bit one dimensional.
 
Dark male extract is one dimensional. Where there's yang there needs to be yin (or sue or meg or kirsty)
 
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