So, me_not_you and I made the first of three (!) beers that we’re making this weekend yesterday.
Ingredients:
3.3 lbs Dark Malt Extract
3.3 lbs Amber Malt Extract
0.5 lb Black Patent malt
0.5 lb Crystal malt
4 oz cocoa
1 oz Cascade hops (boiling)
1 oz Tettenang hops (boiling)
1 oz Cascade hops (aroma)
Wyeast European Ale yeast
Procedure:
| Step | Time | Instruction |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | X | Place the bags of malt extract into hot water to make them more manageable. |
| 2 | X | Make a slurry by combining the cocoa with four cups of boiling water. Set aside. |
| 3 | X | Add 2 gallons of water to the brewing pot. |
| 4 | X | Pour the Crystal and Black Patent malts into a muslin bag and tie the bag closed. |
| 5 | 14:28 | Place the bag into the cold water and allow the grains to steep. Raise the temperature to 130-140 degrees F but no hotter. |
| 6 | 14:58 | After 30 minutes from turning on the burner, turn off the burner. |
| 7 | X | Lift the bag from over the water with tongs. Pour 0.5 gallons of hot water through the bag. Discard the grain bag. |
| 8 | 15:05 | Add the Dark and Amber Malt Extracts to the pot. |
| 9 | X | Stir the pot until everything is completely dissolved. Make sure no syrupy liquids remain on the bottom of the pot. |
| 10 | 15:07 | Restart the burner and bring the pot to a boil. |
| 11 | X | Place 1 oz. of Cascade and 1 oz Tettenang hops into a muslin bag. |
| 12 | 15:27 | When the pot begins to boil, add the Cascade hops to the pot. |
| 13 | X | Monitor the pot for the first 20 minutes to make sure it does not boil over. If it appears ready to boil over, turn down the heat. |
| 14 | X | Place 1 oz. Cascades hop pellets into a muslin bag. |
| 15 | 16:22 | 55 minutes after the pot started boiling, add the Cascades hops to the pot. |
| 16 | 16:22 | 55 minutes after the pot started boiling, add the cocoa syrup to the pot. |
| 17 | 16:27 | Five minutes later, turn off the burner. |
| 18 | X | Place 2.5 gallons of cold water in a sanitized carboy. |
| 19 | X | Cool the pot as quickly as possible. |
| 20 | 16:37 | When the temperature of the wort is below 120º F, pour it into the fermenter. |
| 21 | 16:40 | When the fermenter temperature is at 70º F or below, pitch the yeast. |
| 22 | X | Pull a sample from the fermenter and measure and record the Original Gravity: 1.046 |
This had an incredibly dark look to it, with a reddish tinge due to the cocoa. Tasted fairly normal for an unfermented wort – the hop bitterness certainly overshadowed any flavor from the cocoa.
The original recipe called for making something analogous to hot chocolate – combining the cocoa with one pound of dextrose. This seemed to be to be a bit unnecessary, since the dextrose, being a fermentable sugar, isn’t going to be around when fermentation is complete to provide any sweetening. It might up the alcohol a bit, but it also introduces the possibility of that nasty “cidery” taste you get from brewing with large quantities of dextrose. So out it goes!