traas.org
The homepage of Aaron Traas — man of faith, science, and very bad humor
Brew session: chocolate raspberry stout
Kevin and I recently brewed a Chocolate-raspberry stout kit from Austin Homebrew. The results were good overall. The only caveats I had were a cheap chocolate taste, an artificial raspberry taste, and lack of raspberry aroma. I tasted it for the first time while brewing my basic wheat experiment.Towards the end of the brew, a friend came over for a scheduled spades game, saw me brewing, tasted the stout, and asked me to show her how to brew. So I made modifications to the kit's recipe, from LME to DME, and conversions for the mini-mash kit to extract + steeping grains, and substitutions for the adjuncts. I then down-sized for 2 gallons. Here's the result:
Serious Chocolate-raspberry Stout
- 1.6oz crystal malt 40L
- 3.2oz chocolate malt
- 0.8oz roasted barley
- 0.8oz black patent
- 2.5lb Amber DME
- 60min: 1oz whole Fuggle (4.0a)
- 12g unsweetened cocoa powder (some high-end brand)
- Muntons premium gold dry yeast
- 2 gallons bottled water
Why Fuggles? The kit had 1oz. Premiant at 10.0 alpha... it was just there for bittering. I have tons of fuggles, and at a 60 minute boil, very little of its characteristics will be left. I multiplied the mass by 2.5 because of the difference in the alpha acid content, and scaled down for the smaller batch size. There's no aroma or flavoring hops. It would likely clash with the subtle chocolate.
Update 7/18/2008, 4:55pm
Brew went as planned. 60 minute boil, added cocoa when there was 10 minutes left. O.G. at 1.055. Tasted fairly light - I was expecting more robust malt character. The hops tasted a bit grassy. The color was lighter than the last batch turned out. I don't know what the pitching temperature was; my thermometer is busted.
Update 7/18/2008, 11:37pm
The small flask I set aside from the hydrometer readings had a bunch of particulate matter, probably mostly hop dust, sediment in the bottom of the flask. What was left is much darker. In the carboy, the kreusen has risen about two inches, and the airlock is bubbling continuously. Below you can see some pictures of the beer.
%%%photo=824%%% %%%photo=823%%% %%%photo=822%%% %%%photo=825%%%
Update 7/20/2009, 9:57am
The kreusen has fallen, and a good bit of the particulate matter has sedimented. The color is now very dark. The airlock is bubbling every 30 seconds or so.
