Saturday, March 17, 2012

Enjoy St. Patrick's Day with Chocolate Stout!

It's St. Patrick's day and it's a day to enjoy a great tasting stout.  I know what I will be drinking today.  A chocolate stout that I made to be ready for the festivities. 

With this recipe, I steeped the grains in two separate bags. This was done because I has used so many grains.  Steep the grains at 150-160°F for 30 minutes. Dried malt extract (DME) was used for this recipe and to keep the hop utilization at its best, it was added at two separate times. The first 3 lbs was added at the beginning of the boil like normal. The second was added at the last 5 minutes of the boil.  Stir in the remaining extract and kill the heat and continue as before, cooling the wort. 

After a week, rack the beer to a secondary fermenter and add the cocoa nibs directly to the beer.  If you do not have a secondary fermenter, add the cocoa nibs to the primary, being careful not to splash or come in contact with the beer.  Reseal and let it sit for another week.

To add a little bit more of a complex flavor, when I bottled, I used pale DME instead of corn sugar.  To do this, bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add the extract.  Keep it at a low boil for 15 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent boil over. ***Be warned, it will happen.  Do not walk away from this.*** Once it's cooled, continue with bottling as usual.

Enjoy St. Patrick's Day in the right style, with beer and friends. 

Sláinte!

Chocolate Stout

Recipe:

Malts:
  • 3 lbs dark DME (dry malt extract) in boil
  • 3 lbs dark DME at knockout 
  • 1 lb chocolate malts
  • 0.5 lb crystal 60L malts
  • 0.5 lbs roasted barley

BG (3 gallons): 1.052
OG (5 gallons): 1.055

Hops:
     Total IBUs: 33.
  • 0.5oz Nugget hops at 60min boil. IBUs: 22
  • 1 oz Fuggle hops at 30min boil.  IBUs: 11
Yeast:
     Wyeast Irish Ale 1084

Fermentation:
     1 week in primary fermenter at 65°F and 1 week in secondary.
     *If secondary fermenter not available, 2 weeks in primary will be fine.

Additives:
     4oz cocoa nibs to be added after primary fermentation.

Priming Sugar:
    1 & 1/4 cups pale DME extract

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