Christmas Stout.

[mattfuzzy]

hey everyone
ok so my fermenter will soon be free and i have the spare dosh to make another brew, so thought id get the stuff in for a christmas brew.

idealy i want a stout, but something thats gonna turn out great and impress people with my homebrew skillz, i love guinness (not too keen on that murpheys ripoff mind you) so im guessing something REALLY thick (like guinness) but with a great taste.

anyone recommend anything?
i've seen a coopers stout, muntons imperial stout, and john bull masterclass stout, am i right in thinking if i buy a 3kg kit and mabe shove some unhopped spraymalt in aswell id get a really good brew?
at the moment im swaying towards the later two rather than coopers (1.5kg kit i believe)
-matt

[Sheepy]

Just finished drinking my stock of coopers stout and it was great.
Have got the Muntons one in the FV ate the mo and its going great guns (with SO4 not the muntons yeast). May well have a sneaky taste when it comes to kegging it

[mattfuzzy]

sounds good, i have just came across john bull masterclass CHOCOLATE STOUT!!! omg this sounds great, anyone tried it at all? i hear there is NO place for chocolate in beer acording to DaaB... unless its spray malt, so im wondering.... masterclass chocolate stout? or masterclass irish stout?
its such a pity i cant do BOTH really, must get more fermenters
so yeah if anyones tried these at all and would recommend them
-matt

[LovesDaBrewing]

Hey mattfuzzy,

I did the John Bull Masterclass Chocolate stout about 6 months ago. Had my first bottle after about 2 weeks & I thought it was foul. After about 6 or 7 weeks it was beautiful stuff. Have 10 bottles of it left & it is strictly for my own consumption. Can't recommend it highly enough!

[Graham]

sounds good, i have just came across john bull masterclass CHOCOLATE STOUT!!! omg this sounds great, anyone tried it at all? i hear there is NO place for chocolate in beer acording to DaaB...

Chocolate stouts had / have a proportion of a type of malt known as chocolate malt in them, named, presumably, after the colour. It is not the same stuff as that well-known comfort food.

[sparky Paul]

Had my first bottle after about 2 weeks & I thought it was foul. After about 6 or 7 weeks it was beautiful stuff.

I've done the Masterclass Irish Stout, that's just the same - I thought it was very ordinary at first, but after a couple of months in the bottle it was very good indeed. I would say it's a very simple stout, with no fancy flavours, but very nice all the same.

Although I couldn't drink a lot of it, I quite like Young's Double Choc Stout. I very nearly bought a Masterclass Choc Stout with the last order of stuff - it does sound promising, so I might get one next time after LDB's recommendation.

[StrangeBrew]

There are quite a few recommendations for Coopers Stout on here so I might try it in the future with added Extra Dark DME but at the moment I'm about to brew Brupaks Black Moor Stout with a little added Extra Dark DME and a few extra steeped Fuggles/Pioneer hops.

What's everyone's opinions of Black Moor Stout?

[delboy]

idealy i want a stout, but something thats gonna turn out great and impress people with my homebrew skillz, i love guinness (not too keen on that murpheys ripoff mind you) so im guessing something REALLY thick (like guinness) but with a great taste.

Guiness isn't what i'd call a 'thick' stout its actually quite low in body, which helps to make it drinkable the perceived body or 'thickness' comes from the nitrogen they pump into it for the creamyness.

Like others have said don't shy away from a good chocolate stout, they tend to be more complex stouts than guiness et al, with a coffee like taste in addition to the roast barley, good luck with the xmas brew whatever you decide to brew

[james_m_r]

The only stout kit I have done so far was a Brupaks Blackmoor stout which was excellent. I will be doing another one for sure.

[bconnery]

sounds good, i have just came across john bull masterclass CHOCOLATE STOUT!!! omg this sounds great, anyone tried it at all? i hear there is NO place for chocolate in beer acording to DaaB...

Chocolate stouts had / have a proportion of a type of malt known as chocolate malt in them, named, presumably, after the colour. It is not the same stuff as that well-known comfort food.

Actually many chocolate stouts, Youngs for example, have precisely that.
Yes they have chocolate malt in them but they also have a portion of actual chocolate. Not your block of Cadbury's dairy milk but liquid essence, cacoa nibs, cocoa powder etc. There are exceptions but essentially any form of chocolate without the milk solids is pretty good.
On the US homebrewing magazine BYO's site there is a whole article on brewing with chocolate.
http://byo.com/feature/333.html
Apart from the most excellent Youngs I've had a few others. A microbrewery here in Australia does a stout with Belgian chocolate that has a most wonderful aroma and taste...

[bconnery]

Those are novelty brews (BYO also posted a sweet chocolate and peanut butter recipe ), if you see 'chocolate malt' as an ingredient it's unlikely to have any connection with cadburys.

No. Really? As I said "Yes they have chocolate malt in them but they also have a portion of actual chocolate. "
The post before stated that these beers have chocolate malt, but not chocolate. This is not necessarily the case.
Chocolate stouts may or may not have chocolate malt.
Chocolate stouts may or may not have chocolate.
They may have both.
To quote the article:
"First and foremost, do not confuse what we are discussing with chocolate malt. Chocolate malt is malted barley, kilned to a dark brown color (anywhere between 200 and 400 SRM, usually). It can give beer a roasty, chocolate-like aroma and taste, but it is definitely not a cocoa-based product. Many commercial brewers use the word chocolate in the names of their beers, but only a few actually use real chocolate. Several of the recipes below use chocolate malt as well, just for fun! "

The beers mentioned are not just novelty brews. Yes there are a few fairly left field ones but there is also a 'plain' chocolate stout.
The recipes are intended to show the different types of chocolate that are usable.

[bconnery]

I think that the chocolate stouts and chocolate porters are a bit more common in the US,.
Mind you, Youngs Double Chocolate has survived for a while now.
The Youngs Christmas pudding must be relatively new? I don't remember it from when I lived around Wandsworth 99-02. Mind you 5 years is a while in brewing terms...
Pity. It sounds like the sort of thing I'd love.
It is a dark seasonal ale I assume from the title?
I tasted a few 'festive' ales as they are often termed in the US as well spiced with the same sort of spices so there's a few of them out there...
As to the novelty question? Well, each to their own for sure...
Me, I love em

[bconnery]

I must admit that review doesn't sound that great to me either...
A christmas pudding beer I would like, a coconut beer? Even I, who have made beers with all sorts of things in them, don't really like the sound of that...

[delboy]

Have to say i like the youngs xmas pudding beer, i didn't get any of that Jilly Gouldenesque flavours coming through.
In my book it was a nice dark ale with a bit of alcoholic warmth, a hint of toffee and complexity coming through from the crystal malts.

Orange peel, no
guiness, no
malibu, no

can you really trust the rambings of a man who defers to his wives opinon on a beer

[steve_flack]

My only thoughts about adding chocolate to a beer is that it contains fat and fat knackers the head on a beer. I may be totally wrong though.