Mocha Porter! Now fermenting...

[floydmeddler]

A mocha porter has been on my mind for a while so I finally decided to go for it. The porter is now in a keg/secondary and in 3 days time, I'll add chocolate and coffee I went for coffee beans that had a strength of 6 and were described as deep and roasty. Didn't want the 'fruity' flavours that some coffee beans hold. The chocolate? had to be Cocoa beans of course!

I did a fair bit of research before I decided on a method of adding the coffee and chocolate.

Cocoa beans: Cold soak in vodka and add to the beer. Apparently this brings out the best of the beans according to this guy and many others: http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/15/c ... your-beer/ I went for 150g of cocoa beans in 25L.

Coffee: Cold soak in water for 3 days and add to the beer. I read over and over that soaking coffee in cold water for a few days and adding to the fermenter imparts a smooth coffee hit.

All the advice pointed me towards adding double these amounts but, actually, I want coffee and chocolate notes, not a coffee and chocolate beer if that makes sense... I'm hoping it is enough though. Time will tell I suppose!

Here's the recipe:

Mocha Porter

Size: 28.0 L @ 20 °C
Efficiency: 89.0%
Attenuation: 74.0%

Original Gravity: 1.050 (1.048 - 1.065)
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.012 - 1.016)
Color: 23.5 (22.0 - 35.0)
Alcohol: 4.89% (4.8% - 6.5%)
Bitterness: 40.7 (25.0 - 50.0)

Ingredients:
5.0 kg (88.1%) Maris Otter Malt - added during mash
225.0 g (4.0%) British Dark Crystal - added during mash
225.0 g (4.0%) Roasted Barley - added during mash
135.0 g (2.4%) Chocolate Malt - added during mash
90.0 g (1.6%) Torrified Wheat - added during mash
63.0 g (71.6%) Fuggles (6.25%) - added during boil, boiled 70 m
25.0 g (28.4%) Fuggles (6.25%) - added during boil, boiled 10 m
0.0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
150 g Cocoa Beans - added to keg
100 g Coffee (grounds) - added to keg

The cocoa beans. These smelt absolutely amazing. Like chocolate and oak mixed.



Before a good grinding



Ground. Smelt even better


Mixed with vodka. Around 100ml



Coffee Beans:



I ground the coffee beans and added to around 100ml of water. Covered both bowls with clingfilm and put in the fridge.

The plan is to simply dump these into the keg in 3 days time. I'm pretty happy that the cocoa beans will be sterile because of the vodka. However, I may bring the coffee mix up to 70c in some of the beer then add. I'll pour my first pint 2 weeks after that.

Can anyone see any potential problems with this idea? Bear in mind that the grounds will be in the keg for the 5 or so weeks it'll take me to drink this...

[jmc]

Interesting brew Floyd.
Looking forward to seeing how you get on with it.

Where did you get chocolate beans and will oils / cocoa butter in them make beer really flat?

[jimp2003]

Your method sounds good to me. I have a split batch of oatmeal stout with half sitting on cacao nibs that were soaked in vodka and the other half will have coarse ground coffee beans added in a sealed mesh bag into the FV 2 days before bottling.

jmc -Apparently the cocoa does not inhibit the carbonation/head of the beer (fingers crossed). I got my cacao nibs from Rob at Maltmiller...

[DaveyT]

Nice one, Floyd.
The cocoa with vodka looks really good. Did you try any of it neat?
I know what you mean about a flavour without the hit. Randy Mosher says if you can taste it, you've added too much.

[floydmeddler]

Cheers boys.

jmc, I'm hoping it doesn't affect the head... time will tell I suppose. Not the end of the world if it doesn't

DaveyT, I had a wee nibble earlier. Very nice. Grounds are softer now, so I can only imagine all the wonderful flavour is seeping out.

Look forward to adding to the keg on Sat. Will add around 30g of soft dark brown sugar to carb it slightly. I'm after cask carbonation.

[floydmeddler]

OK... it's in!

My method:

Put the coffee and cocoa grounds into a saucepan. Added 40g of dark brown sugar and topped up with porter from the keg. Brought it up to 80c then immediately started spooning it into the keg. Got a little messy but nothing to worry about. Took a sip and the coffee is really 'there'. Hoping it subsides a little as I want the cocoa to shine through. Early days though. Will leave it for 2 weeks now. Roll on Easter!

[stevetk189]

Sounds great! Does the vodka addition screw with the calculated ABV of the beer at all or does the heating of it before adding drive off the alcohol?

[floydmeddler]

Sounds great! Does the vodka addition screw with the calculated ABV of the beer at all or does the heating of it before adding drive off the alcohol?

I don't think I added enough to alter the ABV really. Plus, I more than likely drove it off as alcohol evaporates at just under 80c.

[floydmeddler]

UPDATE

I think I went too heavy on the coffee. Thank f*ck I halved the recommended amount! Next time, I'll half it again. Chocolate quantity is good I reckon.

Bits still coming through the tap. May transfer it to another keg and leave the coffee/cocoa behind. Plus, I just kinda want it off the coffee now... don't want it to get any stronger coffee wise...

Next time, I will add the coffee/cocoa to primary at the end of fermentation for 2 days then keg leaving the grounds behind.

[floydmeddler]

OK... re-kegged. Feel better now.

[subfaction]

You live drink beer and learn
Thanks for the update, my beans arrived today, I think I'll get them in some spirits tonight and then add to primary a few days before barrelling.

[floydmeddler]

You live drink beer and learn

Never a wiser word spoken.

Sipping a half pint of this now. Coffee still pretty damn strong. I'm hoping this will fade, or at least become more rounded. Enjoying it though.

[subfaction]

hows the chocolate side of it, enough in there?
I was chomping on some of the 500g of beans I received at work today, quite nice, I think I'll remove the shells though as they seem to taste fairly bitter.
What surprised me was for each of the beans they tasted fairly different, some sweeter, some more typically chocy, some bitter. Cool stuff, much bigger than I imagined.

[floydmeddler]

I know! Was really surprised by their size.

The chocolate is defs there... just that the coffee is taking over at the min. I can defs taste it though. Really smooth and ever so slightly slick.

[subfaction]

would you use the same amount of cacao beans again or up it? I'm pondering on grinding up 250g in mine, in spirit for 2 days, then in primary for 7 days.