Chocolate Stouts

I have "dry hopped" in the past with Cocoa Nibs, but it seemed to be pretty bad for foam retention, I'm assuming because of the high fat content. The next time, I'll use cocoa powder, which has a lot less fat.

I don't know what Dutch Cocoa Powder would do vs. regular Cocoa Powder. I think the Dutch process neutralizes the natural acidity. My guess is that this wouldn't make a large difference in the acidity of the final beer, though it would be interesting if someone did a split batch A/B comparison some time. I know bakers definitely have their preferences flavorwise.

 

I use cacao nibs in secondary (usually 4 ounces) and sometimes like a hopstand. Everyone loves the flavor!

I buy my nibs from an awesome local source, Night Owl Chocolate from Greenville SC. Same nibs Thomas Creek uses in their chocolate brews as well. Great price and fast service... NightOwlChocolate.com or get in touch on Facebook.

 

I once used Hershey's cocoa powder, added to secondary. It was several years back, and I wasn't brewing great beer at the time. While my cocoa powder stout was not great, I believe cocoa powder is the ingredient used in the award winning beers that include a chocolate element in Brewing Classic Styles.

 

I recently brewed a chocolate oatmeal stout that used cocoa nibs in the last 10 minutes of the boil, and 7 days into fermentation. 2 gallon batch with 0.5 oz of cocoa nibs in the boil. "Dry hopped" with 1 oz for an additional 7 days after a week of fermentation. Had a great chocolate aroma and flavor. I undercarbed it a little on purpose, so I can't speak to head retention. I did another 1 gallon batch with 0.5 oz of cocoa nibs added after a week of fermentation. That one had slightly less chocolate aroma and flavor, but it was still present.

 

It's not necessarily the flavor that makes bakers choose one over the other, more often than not it is how the acidity will interact with the leavening agent in the recipe.

 

I used cocao nibs and bakers chocolate @ flameout for my fbs clone. It was fan freaking tastic.

 

I've used Ghirardelli bakers chocolate powder with ten minutes left in the boil. For five gallons I used 4oz. It was light. If you want more, hit it with more.

 

I have melted bakers chocolate in water with brown sugar and sriracha and added that to secondary with some nice success in a second runnings stout. The brown sugar and chocolate helped add some depth to a fairly small beer.

 

Actually there's something I'd like to try. Boil 4 oz of cocao powder, store it in a jar in fridge for 3-5 days. This will allow most of the powder to sink. (similar how you wash yeast), then pour the top chocolate water into the bottling or kegging. Has anyone tried this?

 

I doubt you'd get as much chocolate flavor by boiling in a small amount of water. But that's just an educated guess. I haven't tried it.

 

Last year I brew 5 gallon with 4oz Cocoa Nibs add @ last 10min, the coco present became to high for my flavor.
Next time I will do 2 oz in the boil and 2oz on the secondary.

 

If any chocolate addition goes in my kettle it is dutch cocoa powder. I save nibs for the cool side (secondary). If I want to turbo charge the chocolate aroma, I add a home made ancho chilli tincture to the bottling bucket or keg. In my opinion, the ancho chilli tincture is the most efficient out of the three options and I would take it over the cocoa nibs if I had to choose btw one or the other.

 

Do not do as I have done! I once added dark chocolate in the boil kettle. After fermentation was complete I had to rack underneath a major oil slick on top of my beer. The beer was drinkable but not worth doing again. Good luck!

 

Cocoa nibs, enough said! Soak them in vodka for a week or two and dump the whole thing into a co2 purged secondary. Done!

 

Here are 2 good threads on extracting from cocoa nibs. I'm using @drewbage vodka/nib extract recipe for my Randy Watson's Sexual Chocolate stout recipe next month. I haven't made it yet but I trust the peeps suggesting it.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...ing-with-a-chocolate-stout.43189/#post-556040

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...a-nibs-and-cinnamon-sticks.43181/#post-548544