adding chocolate to a stout

[Robbo851]

Hi,

so in the future I am looking to try and replicate a raspberry milk stout that I've had in the past but im just a kit brewer, I don't want to get into boiling grain and all that just yet so I was going to get a stout kit and add some frozen raspberries half way through the ferment along with some lactose. The stout I had was also a bit chocolaty so I'm looking for a way to add a bit of a chocolate taste, I guess adding extract at the end would work but seems a bit easy to just add at the end like you would add a syrup to a coffee almost.
Could I roast some cocoa nibs and add them with the raspberries and a vanilla pod in a muslin bag?

 

[-Bezza-]

I brewed a stout recently that had chocolate in it. Just put a few squares of dark chocolate into a cup, poured a bit of hot water over the top to melt it and chucked it in at the start of fermentation.

 

[Robbo851]

really that simple . Great! me over thinking it again probably.

 

[-Bezza-]

I suspect I've over-thought it. I'm sure a couple of teaspoons of cocoa would have achieved much the same result!

 

[Leon103]

I would soak some cocoa nibs and vanilla pods in some vodka and then add

 

[terrym]

You don't boil grains. If you are using crystal malt or other grains where they are not involved in mashing you steep in water at about 65/70*C for about 30 minutes, filter liquor from the grain, sparge at about 80/85*C to remove most of flavours and then boil the liquor for a while to sterilise before mixing in with the wort. I have started to use chocolate malt in stouts and it works well.

 

[strange-steve]

I'm currently brewing something very similar, a milk chocolate and raspberry porter. I added 500g of lactose to the boil plus I'm going to add to the secondary 2kg of raspberries, 175g of cacao nibs, 15g cocoa powder and 4ml vanilla extract.

 

[jceg316]

I have used cocoa nibs, raw cocoa powder and chocolate extract.

With nibs I put some in the boil and dry hop post fermentation. I used powder in the boil with nibs as a dry hop (so far this has been my favourite).

I've used chocolate liqueur by pouring some in at bottling. Was nice and flavour was there, but I preferred the flavour of nibs and powder.

With kits do you do an hour boil?

 

[Robbo851]

the kits I use are just the ones that come in vacuumed bags or cans that you pour straight in to the bucket and top up with water, I then add fruit and/or hops half way through the fermentation depending on what recipe to make it my own.

so I like the idea of simply adding chocolate that has been melted in boiling water to give the chocolate taste. In a 5 gallon (23 litres) how much dark chocolate would you add and a what stage?

 

[-Bezza-]

I put 10g into a 19l milk stout and it's enough to taste it - although it could also be that the darker grains help emphasise the chocolate flavour. I would suggest 10-15g for a 23l brew would be sufficient. Use dark chocolate rather than milk though.

That was an all grain brew so it went in for the last 10 mins of the boil. For an extract kit, I would just stick it in the fermentation vessel on day 1.

This is making me think that I want to somehow make a Milkybar Stout!

 

[terrym]

Chocolate has a highish fat content. Fat kills the head on your beer. In my view you should avoid using chocolate in your brew. There are better alternatives as other posts indicate. And even cocoa has about 20% fat.

 

[Robbo851]

I put 10g into a 19l milk stout and it's enough to taste it - although it could also be that the darker grains help emphasise the chocolate flavour. I would suggest 10-15g for a 23l brew would be sufficient. Use dark chocolate rather than milk though.

That was an all grain brew so it went in for the last 10 mins of the boil. For an extract kit, I would just stick it in the fermentation vessel on day 1.

This is making me think that I want to somehow make a Milkybar Stout!

Thanks, yes I would add the highest percent dark choc I could find - Milky bar stout, now that would be something. Ive had a white stout but not a white chocolate stout.

Chocolate has a highish fat content. Fat kills the head on your beer. In my view you should avoid using chocolate in your brew. There are better alternatives as other posts indicate. And even cocoa has about 20% fat.

if you mix with boiling water the fat should separate somewhat and float, so can be skimmed off to minimize amount of fat going in.