Chocolate coffe stout

[Cummy]

Hey,
I've brewed a coffee chocolate stout and have a nice coffee taste but it's lacking the chocolate. I have used 200grms of coco nibs after fermentation, first 100 and then another 100. Am I not using enough or could I be doing something else to extract the flavours? Advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[manticle]

Toasting coca nibs helps a lot.
Also may depend a bit on malts used.

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Kegging or bottling..?

Successfully added drinking chocolate to kegs to add flavour.

 

[manticle]

You should try adding fruit, Fatz.......

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

The flavours in cocoa nibs are not very water soluble, so you won't get good flavour adding them to an aqueous solution (beer).

IMO this is an insoluble* problem; the solution** is not to add chocolate to your beer.

Bad puns aside, this is a notorious problem in food technology: no water based chocolate flavouring tastes anything like real chocolate. You can do an almost acceptable milk chocolate but you can't do real chocolate.



* Yes, that was intentional.

** Sorry, couldn't help.

 

[labels]

I went to the local cake making shop in our area and bought chocolate essence. Comes in a tiny little bottle probably no bigger than about 50ml and it's in an alcohol solution. It's pretty bloody powerful stuff. I added small amounts to the keg until I got the concentration to my liking. Apparently, Young's chocolate stout uses essence.

 

[manticle]

Yeah but young's tastes like syrup.

 

[peteru]

I find that Gladfield light chocolate malt will give you quite a nice hint of chocolate. Not full on chocolate bar taste, but enough to give that choc/coffee (mocha) hint. It works really well when combined with Gladfield rye malt.

 

[labels]

I find that Gladfield light chocolate malt will give you quite a nice hint of chocolate. Not full on chocolate bar taste, but enough to give that choc/coffee (mocha) hint. It works really well when combined with Gladfield rye malt.

I've got agree there, I've used chocolate malt (not Gladfields) with great results and adds a far more natural flavor than using chocolate. And, as Manticle stated, Youngs does taste somewhat artificial. I've used the essence once only but I am unlikely to use it again. Brown malt is good too for a chocolate-like flavor.

 

[manticle]

Pale choc and choc, lactose if you like milk rather than dark, dry toasted nibs in boil and secondary, some residual sweetness (mash temp and/or crystal cara additions) will all aid.

Bacchus brewing who make some great choc beers (including a white choc pils) have also recommended adding high cocoa content actual chocolate to the mash.

 

[fdsaasdf]

I recently split a no-chill double batch into a session IPA and Brown IPA just for some fun. After cubing the first half (with 20gms of hop pellets in the cube) I extending the boil by 10 minutes while steeping 500gm of Gladfield's dark chocolate malt.

I was very pleased with the result at 5% ABV. There was a strong dark chocolate flavour that matched the tropical Mosaic hop notes initially, while the IPA body (mashed at 66) was interestingly complex but sessionable.

 

[Dave70]

I've had 'better' results using cacao powder than nibs or coca. But as already alluded to, most of the flavor components in chocolate are released when the fat component dissolves on your tongue, so you''re only ever going meet with limited success getting it into beer. Far better to rely on roasted and / or black malts to do the job. Same goes for pissing around with coffee adjuncts.

 

[Fatgodzilla]

You should try adding fruit, Fatz.......

Same principle.

Got nothing against fruit in beer, as long as your don't call it beer! Or brew with them. Though I made a decent banana brew once for a club comp. barely touched the dark arts, rather than embracing them.

I added drinking chocolate to a carbonated keg of porter that lacked flavour. After settling down, the chocolate flavour improved the brew. Certainly wouldn't try it as a permanent style, just gave me 12 or so litres of better drinking.

Made a dark brew that failed to taste like much Half way through fermentation. Rather than chuck it, added a box of drinking cocoa. Final result was good enough to put in a case swap. Not perfect again, not a planned brew, but sometimes you got to improvise.

Band aid solutions. Best use proper brewing techniques and appropriate materials.

 

[Gigantorus]

I've found that using a good chunk of Chocolate Rye gives a very nice chocolate flavor to the brew. I used 500grams of choc rye in a 23L batch and it still retains a nice choc flavor even after 6 months.

How did you add the coffee flavor incidentally? I've done an experimental batch last weekend (12Litres) of black ale/stout and plan to dry-hop with 50grams of whole coffee beans that I've been soaking in Bundy Rum since Xmas. Will drain beans from liquid and enclose in hop sock and put in fermenter 4 days from bottling. This is a bit of a trial on how best to add good coffee flavor to a brew, which I will ultimately use on my Russian Imp. Stout.