Beer Forum

At the club meeting last night, I was given some Cocoa Nibs under the condition that I brew something with them and bring it to the January or February meeting. I have never brewed with nibs (or any other chocolate-resembling substance before). I had been planning to brew an English IPA on Sunday; as such I have a vial of WLP013 on hand. What I need is a recipe using cocoa nibs to brew instead. Here are the criteria in order of importance:

1. Use <= 8oz of Cocoa Nibs (4 oz labeled "Ghana Nibs", 4 oz labeled "Madagascar nibs")
2. Be ready to serve in 1-2 months (being brewed this Sunday)
3. Optimally make use of the ingredients I have on hand; WLP013 for yeast, Willamette, EKG, Centennial, Chinook for hops, and limiting malts would be only Crystals 135, 45, Carastan 35; and only Carafa special II and pale chocolate for chocolate/roasted malts. I'd prefer not to make a trip to the LHBS if I don't have to.
4. Not be especially stout-like; I'm not a huge fan of stouts, but milk stouts are okay.

I'm thinking some sort of Chocolate Porter? Chocolate Coffee Porter? A chocolate version of a milk stout? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Not sure about #3, but here's the thread with JP's Oatmeal Stout: http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=20316&hilit=bourbon

I have a chocolate coffee porter working right now. It's been sitting on 4 ounces of cocoa nibs in secondary for about a week now. Next week I will keg it and add homemade Kahlua to taste to get the desired level of coffee. The base recipe is also based primarily on what I had available. Tastes really nice so far. If you are curious as to what I did, here is the recipe. It's a new recipe I wrote and the final product isn't in the keg yet, so if you try to brew it, be warned. It hasn't been fully tested.

Bugeater Kahlua Porter

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 6.00 Wort Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 13.50
Anticipated OG: 1.062 Plato: 15.15
Anticipated SRM: 37.1
Anticipated IBU: 42.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 1.50 Gallons Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 7.50 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.049 SG 12.25 Plato

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
74.1 10.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
4.2 0.56 lbs. Biscuit Malt Belgium 1.035 24
6.9 0.94 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25
5.6 0.75 lbs. Crystal 60L America 1.034 60
5.6 0.75 lbs. Chocolate Malt America 1.029 350
3.7 0.50 lbs. Black Patent Malt Great Britain 1.027 550

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 2.99 9.3 First WH
1.00 oz. Northern Brewer Whole 8.76 30.9 60 min.
0.50 oz. Northern Brewer Whole 8.76 2.6 5 min.

Yeast
-----
Wyeast 1764 Pacman

Mash Schedule
-------------
Mash Type: Single Step

Grain Lbs: 13.50
Water Qts: 20.25 - Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 5.06 - Before Additional Infusions

Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.50 - Before Additional Infusions

Saccharification Rest Temp : 153 Time: 60
Mash-out Rest Temp : 0 Time: 0
Sparge Temp : 180 Time: 5

Total Mash Volume Gal: 6.14 - Dough-In Infusion Only

Notes
-----

Add 4 oz cocoa nibs to secondary for 2 weeks. Add Kahlua to taste in keg.

I really gotta figure out a way to marry Bugeater.

I'm intrigued, Bug. Looking at what I have on hand, the following should give me something similar, if not just a bit less roasty, don't you think?

10 lbs Crisp Maris Otter
1 lb Victory
1 lb Carafa Special II
0.5 lb Pale Chocolate
0.5 lb English Crystal 135L
0.5 lb Carastan (35L)

1.5 oz EKG @60
0.5 oz EKG @10

WLP013

Promash says that's 1.063 with 35 IBUs. Cocoa nibs in the secondary for a couple weeks, and some cold brewed locally roasted coffee to taste at kegging. Or alternatively, to try and turn it around in a month, maybe keg it from the primary, add some cold brewed coffee, and throw the cocoa nibs in a bag in the keg.

Thoughts? Or other suggestions?

That one sounds great too. Keeping the bitterness low like that will keep from overpowering or even clashing with the coffee. Went ahead and kegged that beer this afternoon since the chocolate level tasted right. Added the kahlua and it tastes great! 8 ounces of kahlua seems to be about right.

Wayne

Just put the nibs in. It will either get 8 days or 20 on them due to our travel schedule, we'll see how it tastes next week. I'm thinking 8 days as it already had a good chocolate note from the roasted malts.

Kegged it today with some cold brewed Kaldi's Coffee. Fairly subtle, but noticeable on both the chocolate and coffee, which is what I was hoping for.