Rocky road porter.

[Dave70]

Been ages since I've brewed a dark one so if anything here seems to out of whack, suggestions will be welcome.


For 23 L.

Pale - 4.5kg
Munich II - 1kg
Chocolate - .300g
Roast barley - 100g

N/Brewer - 40g @ 60
Fuggles - 20g @ 5
Fuggles - 10 @ 0

Gets around 1.060 OG and 47 IBU.


150g - unsweetened choc @ 5

Rack onto
1kg - sour cherries
2 or three vanilla pods

Really not looking for a big adjunct hit, just to give it a few subtle hints.

Leave sit for a week or two.

Hows that?

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

I don't know as I've never brewed with fruit, but it sounds delicious!!! Please report back when tasting occurs and pics or it never happened!

 

[Mardoo]

Bochet, burnt honey mead, can have a kind of toasted marshmallow flavor. Maybe try adding some caramelized honey?

http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18680

 

[Dave70]

That's interesting and I might just have a go at doing it as a stand alone drink since I have some honey coming my way soon. I'm sure he meant to say OG 1.080 - FG 1.020, so around 8%, quite a kick.
Forgot rocky road has marshmallow in there. My knowledge of confectionery is pretty woeful as it turns out.

 

[dicko]

I would drop the unsweetened chocolate and add some cocao nibs to the secondary with the cherries and the vanilla. 120 gramms in 20 litres work well

 

[manticle]

Yeah cacao nibs.
Toasted

 

[Grainer]

I would drop the unsweetened chocolate and add some cocao nibs to the secondary with the cherries and the vanilla. 120 gramms in 20 litres work well

even 100g dark chocolate into the boil at finish..

 

[Dave70]

Ok.
Cocao nibs if I can get em, failing that block or two if Lindt 85%.
Gotta be this Saturday cos daddys home alone, which means a day of unimpeded brewing.
Plus I have a keg of Belgian ale ready to go.
Oh man, I'm like all giddy and **** with anticipation..

 

[philmud]

Did you end up brewing this Dave? I was thinking about food and beer and it occurred to me that a rocky road porter could be awesome. I thought I bet it's been done and googled it. This thread was one of the top hits.

 

[Dave70]

Did you end up brewing this Dave? I was thinking about food and beer and it occurred to me that a rocky road porter could be awesome. I thought I bet it's been done and googled it. This thread was one of the top hits.

Please excuse the tardiness of my reply.
Kevo also sent me a PM so I better sort it.

The beer itself was a cracker.
Made this pretty much as you see it - except went for cacao powder - added at flameout - over nibs and chickened out and only used 500g of cherries.
Should have given it a little longer than two weeks to let flavors soak in and used the whole jar of cherries. The flavor was just there. The bitter choc of the cacao really came through nicely. Haven't got the quantity I used on hand, but it would be easy to overdo. A little goes as long way.

Next time, and there will be one for sure, I would rack onto the cherries, give it a couple of weeks and taste as you go. Once happy with that, start making vanilla additions using extract rather than pods and proceed in the same fashion. May as well have just thrown $7.50 in loose change in at flameout as the four vanilla pods. Couldn't taste it at all. The essence is strong as buggery, but I dont know if the flavor would change over time. This sat in the keg for at least a month and as usual, the last session or two out were the best. By then it would have been about three.
Overall the secret ingredient is patience. I wish I could buy it off the shelf.

Much like rye in my ales these days, I'd throw cacao in any stout or porter. Feels like cheating it works so well.

 

[sponge]

Just thinking out loud, but a bit of oak may help bring out the vanilla?

 

[contrarian]

Another alternative is to make your own vanilla essence by soaking them in a high proof white spirit like vodka. Have done this with cacao nibs an it worked well. Steep for a week or 2 and add essence to secondary.

 

[Dave70]

Another alternative is to make your own vanilla essence by soaking them in a high proof white spirit like vodka. Have done this with cacao nibs an it worked well. Steep for a week or 2 and add essence to secondary.

You'd need really high proof to get the most out of vanilla I suspect. Use to be able to get Spirytus at Dans - about 95%, but it was close to $70 for half a liter, plus all the pods you'd need to soak. You can get the fancy top shelf organic extract for far less. Unless you (hypothetically) produced your own, obviously.

Having said that, I produced a nice limoncillo using peel soaked in Absolute 40%. let them sit for over three months, but they never went kind of 'crispy' like the ones you see soaked in the rocket fuel strength spirit.

 

[contrarian]

You'd get better extraction from higher proof but with more time you will get a nice flavour from a decent vodka at 40% and a few vanilla beans. For this porter you could make a mix of vanilla beans and cacao nibs to add to secondary and it would do the job nicely.

 

[philmud]

I made Denny's bourbon vanilla porter & used two pods split & scraped and soaked in about 100ml of bourbon. Added after primary fermentation for about 10 days and there's a decent and detectable vanilla flavour there. It's a back-note, but distinguishable and delicious. I like the idea of the cacao Dave, will definitely give the rocky road porter a go early autumn.