Chocolate/coffee ????

[xian 1g]

I'm thinking about making some wort of extract brew with a chocolate and coffee theme this weds. Any suggestions? recipes? or tips?

I believe I read that you should use bakers chocolate and not candy chocolate?

thanks in advance.

[BrewDog]

Maybe these two searches might help?
search1 (http://www.realbeer.com/search/search.php?db=byo.com&query=chocolate+beer) search2 (http://www.realbeer.com/search/search.php?query=coffee+beer&db=byo.com)

[Bokenyi]

I did that once using a stout for a base recipie. I used baker's chocolate and some lightly ground coffee added pre-boil along with grains. It worked pretty well as I remember.

Good luck.

[xian 1g]

thanks so much for the links and advice. I was browsing the threads here earlier, and came across one that debated, brewing a pot of coffee and adding it to the wort, as well as chill seepingin the secondary... So, I'm going with both... I'll let you know how it turns out in about 7 weeks.

[spraga]

I used expresso and bakers chocolate
awesome

[xian 1g]

I used 1.5lbs of bakers chocolate, and used a pot of coffee for the wort during the brew... one week later, after primary fermentation activity had died down, I tasted the wort before throwing into the secondary and lagering it. wow, tasted really good, but was a bit too sweet. so I added 10 scoops of maxwell to the secondary for a cold seep.

[stronk]

I brewed it with the coffee in the primary and it ended up tasting really overstewed. I think making coffee and adding it to the secondary is the way forward (plus, you can adjust for bitterness, as it's almost completely fermented out already).

[HogieWan]

I would think cold steep is the way to go.

what makes a good cup of coffee doesn't necessarily make a good coffee-taste in beer.

[stronk]

That's what I did (and that was my reasoning). The coffee wasn't heated at all, just ground and steeped in the primary. So, I disagree because it turned out a bad coffee taste (and this was good single estate colombian coffee, too).
I suspect coffee needs heat to convert some of the organic compounds to more agreeable and volatile ones and to extract others from the grounds.

[xian 1g]

I'm not sure stronk.

I originally,

a. boiled a pot of coffee, added it to the boiling wort. mmm. smells like coffee. then, added bakers chocolate. mmm... now smells like chocolate.

one week later, after primary fermentation, mmm. tastes like chocolate.

A little too sweet, so I just added some maxwell coffee grains, 10 scoops. to the secondary fermenter, and tossed it's glass arse into the fridge.

When bottling. It definetly pulled out coffee flavor cold seeping it that way. almost a lil more than I was shooting for. we'll see how it all ages.

[stronk]

Do report what happens, I'm interested. I'd have thought that the residual sweetness would have fermented out in the bottles, depending on the recipe, so it may turn out very bitter.