Question on Chocolate Milk Stout

Currently fermenting a batch of chocolate milk stout and the recipe calls for adding in the cocoa nibs to the secondary 2 weeks before kegging. I plan to ferment for about a month and see no reason to transfer to a secondary. I only use a secondary on lagers or high gravity porters such as the bourbon barrel porter. I assume there are no issues with doing this? I have a large Spidel fermentor and can add the nibs through the air lock.

Shouldn’t be an issue. How how you going to add them? I have used them in the past and will be using them in a few weeks. I think this time I’m going to soak them in vodka and then add the nibs and vodka to the fermenter to see if it extracts any additional flavor.

I had just planned on dumping them in. Hopefully no issues with contamination? I never though about Vodka; any particular brand?

I’m not worried about contamination. I just want to extract as much flavor as possible. NI would use the cheapest brand available.

How much vodka do you soak the nibs in and you pour it all into the secondary? Also if I wanted to add more chocolate flavor what is the best way to accomplish that?

Soak them in just enough to cover the nibs. Then add it all to the secondary. You can add chocolate via extract and cocoa powder. With cocoa powder you want the lowest amount of fat as this can cause problems with your head retention.

Loopie, thanks for the suggestions. I added the nibs on Saturday directly through the air lock bung hole. Since this is my first true chocolate milk stout I opted to follow the directions and see how it comes out. If it’s as good as I think I will be brewing it again and if needed I will add the vodka.

Thanks Loopie. One more question, would i add the cocoa powder at the end of the boil, say like with 15 minutes left or at flamout?

I add mine with 5 mins remaining in boil. Not sure it maters too much.

Thanks! Care to share how much you add.mi was thinking of added Hershey’s dark chocolate cocoa powder.

Off the top of my head I added 4oz. for a 5gal batch. I use enough boiling water to make a slurry so it helps dissolve when added to BK.

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Great thanks so much!

I kegged it on Saturday and plan to tap on Xmas eve. One thing of note, the cocao nibs were all over the place some had sunk and some were floating while others were suspended in the beer. When I was siphoning into the keg the siphon plugged several times. My FG was a bit lower than expected but it smells fantastic and doesn’t taste to bad. We’ll see how it is on Xmas eve. I also need to add in some gelatin I got some yeast/trub in the keg.

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I tapped it today after a week on the CO2 and it is good although it probably needs another week or 2 to age. I would highly recommend this beer to you all. It’s gonna be awesome once it ages properly. The chocolate notes are very subtle which is the way I prefer it. In retrospect I think it would have been fine to add the nibs on week one and simply ferment for 3 weeks and age for another 3 weeks. I may start doing some natural carbonation on my kegs. That might remove the temptation to tap too early :slight_smile:

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So I’m brewing this tonight and started soaking the coco nibs in vodka. Will soaking them for the 6-7 days while this beer is in the primary be ok? Didn’t think about that before I started soaking them.

Shouldn’t be any issue with that.

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Great. Thanks loonies!

Todd just an FYI that beer really needs a good 30 days after kegging. I try a small glass every other day or so and it just keeps getting better and better

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Good to know. I am bottling this so will make sure I leave a good month for it to bottle condition. Thanks!

Just a quick update…held in the primary for 8 days and currently in the secondary for at least another week. Soaked the cocoa nibs in vodka for about a week and also added 4oz of Hershey 100% dark chocolate cocoa mixed with 16oz of boiling water to the last 5 min of the boil. Hoping this comes out nice. Going to bottle condition it for at least a month.