I figured a stout might be a nice early spring beer. At the last minute I decided that I’d make 2 batches, one cherry stout and one chocolate. For some reason I assumed that the chocolate would go in the secondary. Now, checking some recipes, I see chocolate added all over the place.
My wort is currently happily beer-ifying, and is about ready for secondary fermentation (which I usually don’t bother with).
Should I bother with the chocolate at this point?
If so, what do I add? I’ve seen “cocoa nibs”, and have a vague idea of what they are. I’ll look around for them, but if I can’t find them, what else can I add and how much?
I have a Mocha Cherry stout in secondary now. The chocolate was a late thought and I couldn’t find any cocoa nibs. But, I did find a 90% cocoa baking chocolate bar, so I used that. Crushed up 4 oz. of that and steeped it in light rum(had lots of rum, no vodka) for a week in the fridge. Then added everything anyways, along with 4oz. crushed Kenyan AA coffee beans that I also cold steeped for a week. Plus the 4oz. bottle of cherry extract and 1/2 lb of cherries that i dehulled back in the fall and stored in the freezer. Did that a week ago, and it did kick the fermentation on again( because of the sugars in the cherries I presume). I’m going to let it go for at least a week after the kraesen settles, then cold crash and bottle.
I did something similar last year, but added the coffee and cocoa to the boil. We’ll see how this changes things.
[quote=“nola mike”]I figured a stout might be a nice early spring beer. At the last minute I decided that I’d make 2 batches, one cherry stout and one chocolate. For some reason I assumed that the chocolate would go in the secondary. Now, checking some recipes, I see chocolate added all over the place.
My wort is currently happily beer-ifying, and is about ready for secondary fermentation (which I usually don’t bother with).
Should I bother with the chocolate at this point?
If so, what do I add? I’ve seen “cocoa nibs”, and have a vague idea of what they are. I’ll look around for them, but if I can’t find them, what else can I add and how much?[/quote]
A glass of stout in the right hand and a pound of chocolate easter eggs in the left would work.