Chocolate Imperial Stout

Discussion in 'Homebrew Recipes' started by daem3384, Apr 15, 2016.

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  1. daem3384

    daem3384 Zealot (691) Nov 24, 2015 California

    All grain
    OG - 1.082
    FG - 1.014
    ABV - 9.5%
    IBU est. - 61

    Grain bill:
    Briess 2-row barley - 12lbs
    Crystal 60L - 1 lb
    Chocolate Malt 350L - 1lb
    Flaked Barley - 1lb

    Hops:
    Columbus pellets (13.8%AA) - 1oz - 60 min boil
    Fuggle pellets (5.3%AA) - 0.5oz - 30 min boil
    Fuggle pellets - 0.5oz - 15 min boil

    Other boil additions:
    Wyeast nutrient - 1/2 tsp - 10 min boil
    Irish Moss - 1/2 tsp - 10 min boil

    Water:
    Alkalinity as CaCO3 - 45
    Cl - 3 ppm
    Ca - 50 ppm
    Mg - 7 ppm
    Sulfate - 7 ppm
    Sodium - 3 ppm

    Mash (70% efficiency):
    Sacch. rest @ 152F for 60 min
    Mash out @ 160F for 10 min

    120 min boil

    Yeast:
    1 packet WLP007 added to 1.5L of 1.035 OG wort and placed on stir plate for 18 hours

    Fermentation:
    Primary - 66F - 1 week
    Secondary - 66F - 2 weeks

    Fermenter additions:
    Cocoa nibs - 4oz - added to beer when it was racked to secondary
    Light toast American oak chips - 25g - added to secondary during final 7 days before bottling
     
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  2. daem3384

    daem3384 Zealot (691) Nov 24, 2015 California

    Update: scored a 36 in competition for the wood-aged beer category. Feel and look recieved perfect scores. Most points were lost in the flavor category; the oak flavors "took away from an otherwise excellent base beer. Remove the wood or attempt using a darker toast."
     
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  3. Dan_K

    Dan_K Pooh-Bah (1,980) Nov 8, 2013 Colorado
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Did you pre-boil the oak chips before you added them to the secondary?
     
  4. daem3384

    daem3384 Zealot (691) Nov 24, 2015 California

    I put them on a cookie sheet and put them in a 200F oven for about 10 min to kill off any of the bugs. This also made my kitchen smell really good for the rest of the night. Boiling oak, especially with such a high surface area:volume ratio, might bring out too many astringent/undesireable tannins from the wood. You can also put them in an alcohol of your choosing for ~48 hours (or longer), but I didn't want any alcohol flavors to clash with the really strong chocolate flavor and aroma that the nibs were putting off.

    All this being said, the beer is sitting at ~9% when these get added, so I wasn't super concerned with an infection.
     
  5. warchez

    warchez Zealot (545) Oct 19, 2004 Massachusetts

    Does the use of 350L chocolate malt really present enough roasted character in this stout. I've always been curious about just going that route, but usually end up with a little roasted barley or BP or something roastier than chocolate alone. I just haven't tried it yet.
     
  6. daem3384

    daem3384 Zealot (691) Nov 24, 2015 California

    I felt like there was a good level of roasted character from just the 350L chocolate, but I don't think a little black patent or roasted barley would hurt if you want to tweak the recipe a bit.

    The reason I didn't use any of the darker malts is because my local homebrew store has been a little unreliable with the quality of the dark malts. I've done some batches where I got some green pepper flavor using fuggle and bullion hops, neither of which have any green pepper flavor. After some research, I found that if dark malts are roasted poorly, there can be some green pepper aroma and/or flavor contribution. Personally, I don't like pepper flavor in any beer, and I especially didn't want to risk it in a chocolate stout.
     
  7. Billam

    Billam Initiate (0) Jul 31, 2016

    Is this a 5 gallon recipe?
     
  8. daem3384

    daem3384 Zealot (691) Nov 24, 2015 California

    Yes, this is for 5 gallons
     
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