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Recipe Critique: Chocolate Mint Stout

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Fisher kel Tath

Fisher kel Tath

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 7, 2009
649
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Kalamazoo, MI
Basic Stout base
  • 6lbs Briess Dark LME
  • 2oz Black Malt
  • 1lb Chocolate Malt
  • 8oz Caramel 120L
  • Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale
  • 1oz Northern Brewer (60min)
  • 1oz Northern Brewer (15min)

OG: 1.053 FG: 1.013
35*SRM
29.4 IBU

Now here is where I'm arguing with myself on how to approach this. I can, either use Chocolate Mint tea (made from chocolate mint leaves) or mint leaves and chocolate itself.
 
This is just my personal take on the choice of ingredients, no matter what I'm doing, be it cooking or mead making. If you want the most control over the quality and balance of the flavors, you should try to use the best ingredients possible. Now, ideally this would mean growing your own or knowing specifically how the ingredients were grown and processed. For chocolate...not so feasible. :)

So, that being said, I think you'll have the most control over how chocolate-y and how minty your stout is if you use the mint and chocolate. Chocolate mint is a nice flavor, reminiscent of chocolate, but it won't give you much in the way of actual chocolate mouthfeel. But again, this comes down to personal taste. You could even find that you want to use the chocolate mint with chocolate and not use any "standard" mint variety.

All in all, this sounds like a tasty mixture. ;D
 
Recipe(s) taking inspiration from, say to use 6oz baker's chocolate and 4oz of mint leaves. Chocolate in the boil (30mins) Mint in the secondary for 7 days, then bottle
 
I wouldn't use chocolate, too much oil to deal with. You'd probablly be better off with cocoa powder (or better yet nibs).
 
Shadar Aman said:
I don't know if I would do a tea or a direct addition, but I do know I would use chocolate mint and chocolate.
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Seconded...

I've done applemint tea both ways but haven't tasted the second batch (much darker when you leave the leaves in and it didn't want to clear), the frist batch was very nice made with a tea not steeped terribly long.
 
Fisher kel Tath said:
I'm thinking Powder, not sure enough would be extracted from 30min boil of the nibs.
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I don't think I'd boil it honestly, you're going to get some extra bitterness from that. I would just put it into the primary or secondary so that you can get the least-bitter chocolate flavour.
 
Yeah I'd add the chocolate after the fermentation is done. Cocoa powder + heavy fermentation = gooey ceiling. Mint I'd add in secondary too to prevent loss of aroma. Then just rack & bottle when it tastes good.
 
Decided to make some small changes to the base, in concern about too much bitterness being their from the cocoa/chocolate malt:

  • 6lbs Briess Dark LME
  • 1lb Chocolate Malt (Simpson)
  • .5lb Caramel 120L
  • 4oz Roasted Barley
  • 4oz Milk Sugar
  • 1oz Northern Brewer (60)
  • 1oz Northern Brewer (10min)
  • Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

OG: 1.053
SRM: 42.5
IBU: 46.5

Now that I'm thinking about it, how much chocolateness does Chocolate malt put out?
 
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The bitterness of the cacao nibs mellows out over time. Especially if you do a light toast in the oven before adding to secondary. Also, they should just extract on their own, especially if you leave them in for awhile (like a few months).

Sorry I'm no help on the brewing aspect... My friend is the brewer, I just started straight into mead.
 
YogiBearMead726 said:
The bitterness of the cacao nibs mellows out over time. Especially if you do a light toast in the oven before adding to secondary. Also, they should just extract on their own, especially if you leave them in for awhile (like a few months).

Sorry I'm no help on the brewing aspect... My friend is the brewer, I just started straight into mead.
Click to expand...

I'm gonna use powder for this, I have nibs, but I'm saving them for a mead, and If I had more nibs, i'd still add them to the mead :P
 
Chocolate malt does not taste like chocolate. It is chocolate-colored, that is its only connection. [there are other malts that have similar misnomers, like honey malt which is "honey colored" but actually tastes nutty.] It is a roasted/charred malt so you will get some flavors that are similar to chocolate or coffee, i.e. roasted, but it will not taste like chocolate per se.

If you are using dark malt extract, I'd suggest not using so much dark malt on top of it. Dark extract already has a lot of the roasted malts in it.

For the cocoa powder, frequent gentle stirring or swirling would keep it mixed up in secondary. I'd imagine you'd only be doing this for a few weeks before bottling.
 
Hrmm... that goes against every description of chocolate malt I've read, in small quantities for color, large quantities (8-10% grist) for chocolate flavor

Funny enough, changing it to Gold LME, doesn't change the SRM by more than 5 pts in ProMash, but thats from 47 to 42 o.O
 
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It could be a phenomena similar to how brewers make a perception of a flavor by using spices closely associated with that flavor. So that roasted flavor akueck is referring to could make you think of chocolate as you drink it due to aroma, spicing, oak, almost anything. But I agree, without actual cacao/chocolate, you won't really get that flavor. Vanilla also helps enhance the perception of chocolate.
 
Yes, perhaps I should clarify. It's not that chocolate malt has no flavors in common with chocolate, it's that the only common flavor is "roasted". You could just have easily called it "coffee malt" and no one would be the wiser, as the roasted flavor is also shared with coffee. Or any other food product which gets roasted. If you want it to actually taste like chocolate, and not simply roasted-which-can-remind-me-of-chocolate, use cacao.

The color thing is true though. There are even "pale chocolate" malts out there, which of course are not meant to taste like pale chocolate but rather look like chocolate malt, only paler. Or think about black malt. It doesn't taste black, it is black in color.

Sorry for the crusade, I just see lots of folks saying "I want my beer to taste like chocolate so I added lots of chocolate malt" and I just want you to have no illusions about what that malt really does for you.
 
Well, sure, if you just eat them, they'll be very bitter. But after aging in alcohol for a few months, it's a very pleasant chocolate flavor, which can always be sweetened with some honey. :)
 
Cocoa on its own is pretty bitter, even what most people would consider very dark chocolate is still at least 15% sugar.
 
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