Young's Double Chocolate Stout

[bird]

I'm sold mark. Added 1ml a litre to my porter and the choc flavor comes through beautiful. Was a hit with all my mates. One which works at a brewery and dissed the idea because he thought the choc flavor would be artificial but he loved it. Time to dose the second keg. Thanks again will work on the cherry ripe porter next time. Sounds delicious.

 

[MHB]

Glad you are happy. Just go easy (very) on the coconut, it tends to dominate at pretty small doses.
One lesson I learned early on was that its a lot easier to add more later than it is to go back and add less.
Mark

 

[BrewLizard]

Reading this thread with great interest. I have the BYO Big Book of (300) Clone Recipes, and don't really trust the recipe due to its description saying the beer has chocolate malt, and then not including any in their grain bill (as mentioned on the previous page). Going add pale chocolate malt in roughly the proportions from this clone.

I'm also thinking of substituting both sugars for just golden syrup, as it's mostly inverted, and has a bit of colour. Though MHB makes a good point that it really shouldn't matter much...

 

[MHB]

If you look back at the recipe that uses invert syrup its listed as 70L(post #29), close to black at around 180EBC Treacle might be closer.
Treacle what Americans call molasses, not the term we use, what we call molasses they call Black Strap... would add a lot more colour.
Me I would rather rely on Chocolate malt for colour. Adding any sugar (sucrose or invert) later in the ferment, too much available sucrose early on can make the yeast lazy so it fails to attenuate well.
Mark

 

[peterlonz]

A successful commercial "craft brewer" I talked to in NZ advised nibs for the flavour with of course chocolate malt grains.
It was intended as a confidential tip so I can't say more except the chocolate stout made there was exceptional.
At that time I knew too little to question the issue of fats defeating the head.
The use of nibs is now seen quite frequently so I can't see it being too much of a problem?

 

[contrarian]

A successful commercial "craft brewer" I talked to in NZ advised nibs for the flavour with of course chocolate malt grains.
It was intended as a confidential tip so I can't say more except the chocolate stout made there was exceptional.
At that time I knew too little to question the issue of fats defeating the head.
The use of nibs is now seen quite frequently so I can't see it being too much of a problem?

I’ve tried a number of ways to add chocolate to beer and cacao nibs is by far and away the best I have used (I haven’t used an extract).

My method is to steep them in vodka for a week or two, strain and then you can add to taste the in the fermenter.

In my experience adding chocolate, cocoa etc to the boil adds very little to the finished beer.

 

[peterlonz]

Now that's a great tip which I probably would not have thought of.
Can you say the amount of nibs & Vodka you use in what I presume is a 23 litre brew.

 

[MHB]

As above Water/Sucrose/Alcohol is a better solvent than just Alcohol/Water, sugar acts as what is called a "carrier" in food chemistry. Means it drags some flavour's along with it.
Mark

 

[contrarian]

Now that's a great tip which I probably would not have thought of.
Can you say the amount of nibs & Vodka you use in what I presume is a 23 litre brew.

I'd start with about 100-150g and cover completely vodka. When you are ready to add to the fermenter take a sample of the beer that is a known quantity, say 100mL and then add 1mL at a time and taste until it is where you want it. Although remember that every sip changes ratios etc.

Full disclosure though, I have always just strained the lot in and it has been fine. Just use a fine strainer because little bits of nibs in kegs or bottles is a pain!

 

[Luxo_Aussie]

As above Water/Sucrose/Alcohol is a better solvent than just Alcohol/Water, sugar acts as what is called a "carrier" in food chemistry. Means it drags some flavour's along with it.
Mark

What's your ratio for this mix? I'm just making my first spice tincture with only vodka & spices - curious to know how much sucrose / dextrose to put in.

Furthermore, I'm guessing if there's sugar in the mix then it would be necessary to add and then allow for it to ferment out prior to bottling/kegging or adjust the bulk priming quantity if going in that direction.

 

[MHB]

Somewhere in the 10-12%W/V sugar/liquor range would be good, I would be tempted to use about 4-5 times the solvent to nibs. So if you extracted say 100g of nibs at 25% we are talking something like 300mL of solvent at 10% we are talking about 30g of sugar. Across 23L it isn't much of a much add very late in the ferment or use as part of your bulk priming calculation...
Mark

Just a thought
Some herbs don't give a very nice flavour when alcohol extracted, you can get very different flavour's from hot and cold extraction. Have a little book somewhere called "Straightforward Liqueur Making" by Gerry Fowles, lot of good basic info worth having a look.
M

 

[Coalminer]

A successful commercial "craft brewer" I talked to in NZ advised nibs for the flavour with of course chocolate malt grains.
It was intended as a confidential tip so I can't say more except the chocolate stout made there was exceptional.
At that time I knew too little to question the issue of fats defeating the head.
The use of nibs is now seen quite frequently so I can't see it being too much of a problem?

I have used nibs many times with good success. some tricks are:
crush the nibs (sturdy plastic bag and hammer the **** out of them on concrete floor)
Lay out thinly on paper towels on a baking tray and put in the oven @ 160C for 15min - lots of oil ends up in paper towel
soak in vodka for a few days and all into the fermenter
(I treat my shredded coconut the same way)
Don't usually have much problem with head
But in saying that I have also used Prestige brand Creme De Cacao liquer with good success (3rd State and 3rd Nationals)
Prestige brand hard to come by, Top Shelf common but have not tried that brand
Hmm have not tried the water/sugar with the vodka yet but I will soon, Thanks Mark

 

[Luxo_Aussie]

Watched Fast Homebrew's latest video this morning and started thinking about the roasting the cocoa nibs. From reading a bit on a BYO article and on a BeerAdvocate thread + AHA thread looks like roasting before making the tincture is the way to go - is this fair to say?

I've seen mixed opinions for using cocoa powder late in the boil for the Double Chocolate Stout, and also much lower quantities than what's been suggested in the 300 clone book (50-100g tops). Worth skipping the powder to just use the cocoa nibs tincture?