I’m getting ready to brew the NB chocolate milk stout. I’ve read that it is best to soak the cacao nibs in vodka before putting in secondary.
Is this to help with the flavor or to sanitize them?
How long should they be soaked?
After soaking, do I pour the nibs & vodka both in the secondary?
Hmmm, I just brewed a breakfast stout and put the chocolate in to the boil at flameout.
I’ve never soaked them and have never had a problem.
I soaked mine in whiskey and put in secondary. I added some bakers chocolate during the boil however in a steeping bag. Came out pretty good, just wish it had more chocolate flavor, still has a bit much of the dark malt/coffee and not enough sweet.
Some people soak in vodka because they are worried about infection, and vodka is both the most effective sanitizer you can get, and it won’t ruin the beer.
The other advantage of vodka is that it can be used to make a tincture. The alcohol will extract the flavor of whatever you are soaking if you give it long enough, and you have effectively made a flavor extract that can be used to mix into the beer at whatever rate tastes good to you.
It usually takes at least a week or two to get the flavor to fully come out into the tincture.
That said, I’d just throw the nibs into the secondary and not worry about infection. Most food products come amazingly clean out of the package, so the odds of infection are very low.
