Adding cocoa nibs to Coopers Stout Kit

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northernbeermonkey

Adding cocoa nibs to Coopers Stout Kit

Post by northernbeermonkey » Mon Oct 27, 2014 2:18 pm

Hello,

I am a relatively novice home brewer and am seeking advice on how to add cocoa nibs to a Coopers stout kit.

I understand from previous posts that it is recommended to add cocoa nibs soaked in vodka (to sanitise them) to secondary fermentation but what I don't know is how much to add, how to add, for e.g. should I put the pre-soaked nibs in a muslin bag so it doesn't clog up my keg? and how long should I leave them in the keg for? How much vodka should I use and do I add the vodka to the keg?

Also, how long should I soak the nibs in vodka for first?

I made my beer last Thursday and it is 23litres.It is the basic Coopers kit with 1kg brewing sugar and I added around 110g of chocolate malt that has been boiled (for 5 minutes) and strained through muslin (I only added the liquid and not the grains to the wort).

It is still fermenting at 24 degrees and the initial reading on Hydrometer was 4%. I should imagine it will be ready to keg/secondary in next few days (giving it a week) so this means I have only a few days to make a cocoa nib/vodka infusion.

The other thing I was thinking of adding was a shot of espresso coffee to the keg as well as the nibs. Or should I simply add oven roasted coffee beans as well as some one roasted cocoa nibs? (presumably the roasting will sanitise them)?

Again, I am unclear on quantities and time in the keg infusing.

Any ideas and suggestions most welcome as completely lost as how to proceed!!

Thank you

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Jim
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Re: Adding cocoa nibs to Coopers Stout Kit

Post by Jim » Mon Oct 27, 2014 7:06 pm

Hello and welcome to JBK! :)

SInce this is a brewing question rather than an introduction, I'm moving it to the appropriate subforum.
NURSE!! He's out of bed again!

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Liverpool-Lad

Re: Adding cocoa nibs to Coopers Stout Kit

Post by Liverpool-Lad » Mon Oct 27, 2014 8:23 pm

A shot of espresso wont do a lot. I used 4oz cocoa nib soaked in vodka for a day and cold brewed half a pound of quality ground coffee overnight and filtered that into the brew.

Tasted really good :)

This was made up with 1 can WIlko Stout, 1 can Newky Brown, 1 kg medium DME and quarter tin treacle also.

The other bits were added in secondary (filtered coffee and cocoa vodka!) before bottling.

Nexia333

Re: Adding cocoa nibs to Coopers Stout Kit

Post by Nexia333 » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:39 am

Welcome! Starting homebrewing and diving right into the Stouts! Good to see the ambition. Cheers

northernbeermonkey

Re: Adding cocoa nibs to Coopers Stout Kit

Post by northernbeermonkey » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:32 pm

Thanks Liverpool-lad, I have decided against the coffee in case it tastes too bitter. So I have roasted 100g/4 oz of organic cocoa nibs for 10 minutes then ground them in a coffee grinder, added to a sterilised container, topped up with quality vodka and will leave for up to 72 hours, then strain into a muslin bag and add the bag of grains and vodka to the keg once it's ready to go in (in about 3 days time).
My question is then, will 100g cocoa nibs add sufficient chocolate flavour to 23litres/5 gallons of Coopers Stout kit (with additional 110g/4.5oz of chocolate malt already added to primary)?

Hope you can help?

Thanks

northernbeermonkey

Re: Adding cocoa nibs to Coopers Stout Kit

Post by northernbeermonkey » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:33 pm

Also, for priming sugar, could I use dark brown sugar or treacle? Or should this only be added to primary and not secondary?
And how much sugar for 23l keg?
Thanks again!

Manngold
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Re: Adding cocoa nibs to Coopers Stout Kit

Post by Manngold » Sun Nov 09, 2014 2:13 pm

Just read this, probably too late. From my understanding you can use brown sugar to prime, however, at this stage it will do little to impart flavour. Some great advice I was given was to try the kit as normal first of all, and from there when doing again make additions, so you have a benchmark. As for priming, I would use 100g of normal caster sugar dissolved in 200ml of water and then siphon your beer onto this ready to bottle/ keg. This is known as batch priming, and saves time.

For a truly superb stout, see the thread Ditch's Stout. It is great, and only require minor changes to what you currently have. I served it at a party and people loved it.

Hope this helps.

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