Adding cocoa and sugar!

[Immy's Dad]

Anybody think that adding cocoa and unrefined molasses cane sugar to a porter kit is a good idea?

I have a John Bull 1.8kg porter kit and 1kg of dark spray malt. I have bought some organic cocoa and unrefined molasses cane sugar.

Can I add these to the kit?

If so, at what stage?

How much?

Will I get any flavour?

Are there any fermentables in cocoa?

Where am I?

Sorry for all of the questions but I really want to spruce up my kit! Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[tubby_shaw]

Anybody think that adding cocoa and unrefined molasses cane sugar to a porter kit is a good idea?

PoP will
I don't see any problems using the molasses sugar in the kit, it is very strongly flavoured and that flavour will come through. Use it at the same time you would use any other sugar. You are going to have to decide how much of that flavour you want and guess at an amount to give you that level of flavour.
The cocoa is an altogether different thing, it is not actually soluble in water and has a high fat content of 10 to 20% which will destroy any chance of a head on your beer

[maxashton]

My wife loves Hershey's cocoa. You add it to hot water, not milk.
Perhaps it contains a humectant or wetting agent of some kind to make the cocoa water soluble?

[sparky Paul]

Apparently Cocoa Powder can be used in a brew, I have a tried and tested recipe that uses it (just not tried and tested by me). Specificaly it calls for approx 1/4kg of Hersheys Cocoa Powder

250g is quite a bit of cocoa powder, it sounds very intriguing...