Chocolate stout chunks

Grains, malts, hops, yeast, water and other ingredients used to brew. Recipe reviews and suggestions.

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Brad
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Chocolate stout chunks

Post by Brad »

I recently brewed a stout using a 6oz. bar of bitter sweeet bakers chocolate. While the beer seems to need more body it tastes very good. But there are small white chunks (wax?) floating in the bottle, and a brown residue around the neck of the bottle, both of wich I suspect came frome the chocolate (I hope anyway). Does anyone have any advice on using chocolate in beer? I would like to brew this beer again using an all grain recipe I am working on minus the chunks.
jayhawk
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Just bottled chocolate porter

Post by jayhawk »

Does every bottle have chunks? I had a few chunks in the secondary, but not enough to make things look nasty. I noticed that there was a lack of body to the beer too. Perhaps you need to be more careful transferring the beer between fermentation vessels. I found that almost all the chocolate coagulated and floated on top of the beer in the primary. I transferred the beer out, and had to leave a little more beer in the bottom than normal because I was picking up too much chocolate gunk with the siphon. I suspect the brown residue is chocolate. I use brown bottles, so I don't know if there is a similar residue. What was your recipe?
Chris
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Take the Chunk out of the Chocolate

Post by IrishRed »

Ghiradelli makes a power form of chocolate called, Gh. Select Brown Chocolate Power ( I also saw it in a recipe in BYO for their Dec issue). This is what I use for my Raspberry Chocolate Porter. It doesn't leave a residue and I have yet to have a problem with the body of this beer. I keg so I know that there is no strange funk floating in my beer, or left in the keg. I also have a friend that uses real hot chocolate (not the instant store bought) in their beer. Good Luck and Happy Brewing!
stumpwater
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Oh my God, that sounds so good!

Post by stumpwater »

Raspberry Chocolate Porter? Raspberry Chocolate Porter? Did you really say Raspberry Chocolate Porter. The only raspberry beer I have had is Kawartha Lakes Brewery's Raspberry Wheat Beer. It is amazing, but I am a porter/stout freak and your porter sounds delicious. Is the recipe a family secret or is it open for public scrutiny?

Stefan
jayhawk
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Raspberry Stout too

Post by jayhawk »

I did a raspberry stout this summer. !@#$ good too. You are right...raspberry + beer = yee haw!
Check Papazian's Homebrewers Companion for recipe if you want, or I can send you the recipe.
(No chocolate in recipe, I'm sure but you can add it)
IrishRed
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I'll add mine, too

Post by IrishRed »

I'll try to get that posted tonight or tomarrow morning...
stumpwater
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all things dark and beery

Post by stumpwater »

I am looking forward to seeing those recipes. If it isn't too much trouble, could you post your brew notes as well. I have yet to brew with fruit and I have promised my brother-in-law that I will try to make up a raspberry beer for him. He is the one that introduced me to the KLB raspberry wheat. Thanks ever so much for the recipe.

Stefan
IrishRed
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Fat Man's

Post by IrishRed »

The name my husband gave the Porter is Fat Man's Chocolate Raspberry Porter. I have it listed now in the database, along with all my (maybe too many) brew notes. I hope you enjoy it.
BobbyK
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Partial Mash

Post by BobbyK »

I'm a newbie and I don't think I'm ready for a all-grain recipe. If it's not too much trouble, can you give me a couple of substitutes so I can go partial? It sounds so good, I'd like to have some for New Years. I know it won't be as good, but it's better than going without!
IrishRed
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Leads but nothing concrete...

Post by IrishRed »

I don't really have a partial mash for a Porter. If I was to go looking for one I would pull Dave Miller's, Charlie Papazian's Books or the Brewmaster's Bible and grab something from there and add the choclate and raspberry to it. If you want I can thumb through those books if you don't have them.

Better yet, grab one of the partial-mashes off the recipe database...Who knows? It could far surpass mine. Good luck...
BobbyK
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Got Charlie's

Post by BobbyK »

I just got one of Charlie's today at a used book store that I haven't looked at yet, but it's a '91 addition. That shouldn't matter from a recipe standpoint, should it?

I appreciate your help, but I'm sure you have better things to do. I'll find an appropriate porter recipe and just add the ingredients. Are there any other adjustments I should make in general because of the addition of these two ingredients?

Thanks!

Bob
Brad
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Thanks

Post by Brad »

Thanks for everyones ideas I guess I will have to switch to another type of chocolate and pay closer attention to my transfers. My recipe was a standard stout recipe other than the addition of the chocolate and a pint bottle of bourbon before bottling(Borboun Ball Stout) which also did nothing for the body. When I brew this beer again it will be an all grain recipe and I will probably use some sort of powdered chocolate. Thanks again for everyones ideas.
jayhawk
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Adapt all grain to partial or extract

Post by jayhawk »

BobbyK, you can take an all grain recipe and turn it in to a partial, or even extract/grain recipe quite easily. There are conversion formulas that allow you to switch from extract to all grain and vice versa. These should be contained in Papazian's book. Also, you can use the recipe calculator here to adjust recipes.

Since you will be supplementing the fermentables with extract in a partial mash brew, simply type in the ingredients for the all grain recipe, but substitute some lbs of extract for some pounds of 2 row. Play with the ratio until you get the same OG as the all grain recipe. This way you will know how many pounds of extract to add to the wort when you boil. You should mash some 2 row, Munich malt, and all the specialty grains normally.

Just one thing: Are you sure mean partial mash or are you referring to extract/grain brewing? Since you are new, I just want to check. I had the two terms confused when I first started out.

Chris
BobbyK
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What's the Difference?

Post by BobbyK »

Those two terms sound similar. I'll tell you what I think the difference is. Please set me straight if I am wrong. Isn't extract/grain where you use non-fermentable grains along with extract to add color nd flavor as opposed to partial mash where the grains actually supplement the fermentation process as well as adding color, flavor, 'texture', etc?

Regardless, thanks for taking the time to help me with this. Balancing a recipe to get the right gravity sure makes sense.
jayhawk
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You got it

Post by jayhawk »

You are right. I hate to question anyone's brew knowledge, so I hope you were not offended by my asking. I just wanted to be sure we were on the same page. May the beer gods smile upon you.
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