Going to do an all grain batch “chocolate porter” my question is in the secondary fermentation do I have to use the “Special organic, hard to find at the store Nibs” or can I just use unsweet nibs that a regular grocery store would have…I know a lot of people use cocoa powder, but complain it clumps up…
Please Advise!
Thanks as always!
You can add anything you like. You’ll get lass chocolate flavor by weight because some of that weight is sugar and the sugar will ferment. Processing may have taken some flavor away too. Nevertheless, there is no reason not to, it just changes the final product slightly.
How many oz would you suggest for a 5 gallon batch…
I’ve only used them once. I read such varying accounts of the effect, I decided to err on the side of caution and add 4 oz to the keg (bagged).
To do it again I would add more. It’s been a couple months and I really never picked up on any significant change in flavor.
Also, I did not boil, soak in vodka, or do anything other than pour dierctly from the packaging into a nylon bag and then into the keg. No contaminant issues, from my one experience.
8oz of nibs in a mesh bag for five gallons. As already mentioned, no need to sanitize if you open a commercial package and go directly to the beer.
Any reason I can’t just dump them in w/o bag? I ferment in glass so hard to extract…I do have some muslin bags used for biab would that work?
@ Steeler d…so u just placed in keg after racking from secondary? Before or after force carbonation?
I tossed them in at the time I filled the keg and then proceeded to carb.
In reference to your other question, if you just threw them into secondary without bagging then I’m sure it would work out too, it would just be easier to contain if bagged. I’m sure you could extract the spent bag/nibs from a carboy by just turning upside down and grabbing it out from the neck. Or you could sanitize some string or dental floss (unflavored), tie it to the bag and pull out when done.
OK–Thanks all, Always helpful!
