Chocolate Porter with wild and crazy yeast.

[JayH]

The plan - Start working on perfecting my Chocolate porter.

The test - Make two 1 gallon batches each with 3 ounces of coco in it, one in primary and one in secondary.

The Execution –

Two pots one slightly larger than the other. In the smaller pot, bring 1 gallon of Arrowhead spring water to 160° F.

In the larger pot boil some water

Add to the smaller pot
4.8 ounces British Chocolate Malt
3.2 ounces Belgian Cara-Munich Malt
3.2 ounces US 60L Crystal malt
2.0 ounces Roasted Barley

Place the smaller pot inside of the larger pot to keep the temperature constant and steep at 150° F for 30 minutes. Sparge with 1 Gallon of water at 150° F and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add

1.4 Pounds Pale Malt Extract Syrup
1.5 Pounds Light Dry Malt Extract
2.4 Ounces Malto Dextrin
1.0 Ounce Home Grown Cascade hops at approx 5 IBU

Boil for 45 minutes then Add

0.2 Ounces of Willamette Hops

Boil for an additional 15 Minutes

While boiling rehydrate yeast, Safebrew t-58 as directed by manufacturer.

Split between 2, 1 Gallon carboys, filling to approximately 4 inches below top.

SG of 1.058

Add 3 ounces Hershey’s Coco to one of the carboys.

Pitch yeast evenly between two batches.

Completely clean kitchen

Sit in living room for well-deserved brake and talk to friend for a couple of hours.

Get out of chair and clean kitchen, ceiling, stove, wall, cabinets floor and counter top.

Go to bed.

Get up and clean kitchen, ceiling, stove, wall, cabinets floor and counter top.

As you can probably tell by now, this yeast is really active.

I had never tried T-58 before and the LHBS said it was very similar to an American ale yeast.

After rehydrating the yeast in ½ cup of 73° F water as directed by the manufacturer there was no sign of activity, no bubbles, no foam, nada.

I pitched it and looked at it about ½ hour later, no signs of activity.

2 hours later the first one blew emptying about 2 cups of porter/coco mix all over the kitchen, no simply foaming over here. The trap with the rubber stopper some how managed to make it 20 feet away into the living room. You could use this stuff to make homemade bombs.

The other carboy without the coco seems to be OK, but it has bubbled up and the vodka in the bubbler is pretty dirty, so I clean it and replace the vodka. The room temperature is around 70, but the carboys are around 80, so I place them in a water batch, add some ice and bring the temperature down to around 70. When I went to bed, both traps were bubbling like mad, a good 2-3 bubbles a second out of only around ¾ gallon of must, not bad.

Well overnight the second one blows off, we now have the cleanest ceiling town.

Add some more small frozen water bottles, cover with a towel and place on old newspaper, and head off to work.

It is now 28 yours after pitching the yeast and the carboy with the coco is 1.020 and the one without is around 1.026

I pitched the yeast and 1.058 and was shooting for around 1.015 – 1.017. Either It’ll be done before I go to bed, or it’s going a lot further than that.

38 points in 28 hours, I’ve never seen anything like it.


Cheers
Jay

 

[JayH]

Well I got up this morning and checked the porter, no more blips. My target SG was 1.014 – 1.017

Porter w/ Coco SG 1.012
Porter w/o Coco SG 1.014

So I racked to secondary, and added the coco to the second batch. I'll give it a day or two to make sure it is really finished and then bottle.

I’ve never had a fermentation finish this fast. 36 hours from pitching to completion.


Cheers
Jay

 

[akueck]

Hey Jay,

Couple of things to improve your process. First, no need to keep those grains at 150 for 30 mins. They have no enzymes so all you need to do is suck the sugars and colors/flavors out of them. The easiest way is to throw them into the cold water and take them out when it gets to about 150-160. Don't really need to sparge them either, though I usually rinse the grain bag with a little warm water for good measure. Second, did you use the whole packet of yeast? That could explain the intense activity as you would have overpitched by a factor of 2 or so. No lag phase necessary! :toothy10: Lastly, I would recommend against moving the beer to secondary after only a few days (too late now I know). Even after the gravity stops dropping the yeast are still working on cleaning up after themselves and racking can disturb that process. In fact, unless there's an incredible amount of crud or you're planning on adding something else, there's no need to secondary most beers (exceptions being big beers of 8+% ABV which might need more than a month in the carboy).

How has this one turned out? Popped open a bottle yet? This recipe does sound really tasty.

 

[teljkon]

In fact, unless there's an incredible amount of crud or you're planning on adding something else, there's no need to secondary most beers (exceptions being big beers of 8+% ABV which might need more than a month in the carboy).

I was always working under the understanding That when the activity lags a bit and the lees is about 2 fingers you rack into secondary. Should I stop and just let the beer do its thing.
:happy10:

 

[JayH]

You are correct, I should have left them in primary longer.

These were actually started on the evening of the 16th. I moved to secondary about 48 hours later on the 18th and added the coco to the second gallon.

I discovered I could not keep the coco in suspension. I had dissolved it first in boiling water and stirred it 2-3 times a day (making sure not to add oxygen) after another 11 days most of the coco was still on the bottom of the carboy, the rest was in suspension clouding the porter. I cold crashed it for a couple of days hoping this would help it clear, but didn’t make much difference.

I considered some kind of fining treatment to clear it, but decided as all I was going to have was 6-8 bottles and the whole reason for this experiment was to try to figure out how to get the best chocolate flavor in my beer I didn’t care if it was clear or not. So on October 3rd I tasted both, they were quite yummy, primed and bottle. I was going to allow 3 weeks for proper priming before I opened the first bottles. However I’ll now be out of town for most of the rest of the month, so I guess they will just have to age a few weeks longer.

For those interested in Chocolate flavored mead and beer I also did an experiment with Joe’s quick mead, one with 2 ounces of Coco and one with 3 ounces of Bitter sweet chocolate. The one with the coco has a distinct coco flavor and is dark brown in color. The one with the bitter sweet chocolate though turned out a light yellow in color and most people think that it is more of a caramel flavor if anything than chocolate. Both are still sitting in secondary to see if aging changes the flavors.

I’ve just received an order with both Venezuelan “Ocumare”, a premier Criollo bean and some Dominican Republic “Conacado” a general hybrid Trinatario. I plan to start a couple of batches with these in the near future.


Cheers
Jay

 

[akueck]

I was always working under the understanding That when the activity lags a bit and the lees is about 2 fingers you rack into secondary. Should I stop and just let the beer do its thing.
:happy10:

Yeah there's really no need. The worry about leaving the beer (or mead for that matter) in primary is that you'll start to get autolysis flavors from yeast death. But it takes a good couple of months before all the yeast start dying on you, and by then your beer is in bottles, in the frige, and in your glass. So the rule of thumb I've heard is that if you want to keep the beer in a carboy for more than a month, move to secondary. Otherwise, you're fine in primary the whole way through. I even dry hop in primary now; I just wait for activity to slow way down then drop some hops in. One less racking, a lot less sanitizing.