looking for chocolate stout suggestions

[Mauri]

I was warming up to the idea of chocolate stout as one of my next brews, but my local HBS in Camborne and hopshop, in Plymouth, where I work, don't have any in stock. So I was wondering if anyone has any suggestion of a good chocolate stout recipe starting from a kit. Would it be make sense to start from an stout kit and add some chocolate malt (how much?? steeped for how long?).Anything else needed in a chocolate stout? Which kit would you recommend as a starting point?
Any suggestion is very much welcome.
Cheers
Maurizio

[BlackBag]

Give these a try. You may be in luck, they may still have stock left . . . .

http://www.brewgenie.co.uk/index.php?p0=products#

[BlackBag]

Aaaaah. Just tried that link and it aint showing the John Bull Masterclass Chocolate Stout, but that's what you want. Most online HBS have ran out of this now but it's worth digging around for it.

[Mauri]

I was going to give the JB choc stout a go, but then I thought that it's getting harder and harder to find shops that have it in stock, and sooner or later they'll all run out. So I was wondering how difficult would it be to recreate something similar starting from another stout kit, adding some chocolate malt and whatever else may be needed(Chocolate essence like in the John Bull?? what else). I'm willing to be the guinea pig here and I'm open to suggestions.

[bevanjon74]

Hi guys
Don't know where you are all based, but my local HB shop Salford Home brew in Manchester has tons of JB choc stout in (he says he has 6 boxes in!) .. so bought one yesterday, looking forward to it!
I checked with the guy there, having remembered this thread, and he says unfortunately they have no web site and don't do deliveries..(useful to you guys I know) but if you know someone up there and really want one getting then I thought I would let you know...
its Salford Home Brew and their address is 96 Fitzwarren St Salford, M6 5RS
Really helpful chap works in there so if you are up that way

[arturobandini]

If you made up a stout kit/chocolate stout kit using lactose instead of your usual sugar type, would you get a milk stout/chocolate stout? I only ask this as my girlfriend is a big fan of milky stouts and I know that the way to make milk stout is by using lactose as your brewing sugar. Does this still hold true for kits aswell? Also, anyone know where to get some lactose for brewing as it seems thin on the ground.

[Mauri]

Does brewer's yeast ferment lactose? I think it doesn't, but I'm no expert

[arturobandini]

You might be right there I've not really looked into this very much. In all likelihood the milk stout is probably made with a combination of some kind of regular brewing sugar for the alcohol (spray dried malt, cane etc) and lactose added which if unfermentable will add something of a milky and sweet calorific taste to the finished stout. Anyone who has had St Peter's Cream Stout will know what I'm talking about here.

[Mauri]

OK i've done it. I know some of you will be horrified, but I thought I'd let those of you who may be interested know what I did.
Anyway here it goes: I used a Coopers Stout kit as starting point (sorry Ditch!). Made it up with 1kg spray malt. Steeped 50g of chocolate malt in the water used to rinse the tin. Fermented. When it came to priming, I mixed 4 table spoons of unsweetened chocolate powder together with 100g of sugar and boiled this with half a pint of stout from the FV. I added this to the bottling bucket as usual and I added one of those little bottles of vanilla flavouring (40ml i think)
Bottled a week ago and i am trying one today. It's nice...the chocolate comes out without being overpowering. It is also a dry taste which goes well with the taste of the stout itself (there's some liquorice taste in there, i think and a lot more). I like it, even though I wouldn't probably drink more than a pint or 2, because it is a bit of a mouthfull, if you know what I mean.
Issues:
-too much CO2, if I was to do it again(and I might) I'd use only 70-80g to prime.
-the cocoa powder sediments in the bottles, so I think that steeping it with the chocolate malt, at the beginning of the process would have been a better idea,so it would have been left in the FV

Anyway...I like it and the gf likes it too.