Mocha (4/15/12)

Since the last coffee stout we brewed, Surly Sunday, was one of the best we've ever made, we decided to brew another. For this batch, we're using dark crystal malt instead of dark candi syrup, which both contribute flavors of caramel and dark fruit. Crystal malt contains many more unfermentable sugars than candi syrup, though, so the substitution should make the beer less dry, and hence fuller-bodied.

We also added 4 oz of Dutch cocoa powder (Peet's brand) to the boil. This is 100% Dutch-processed powder, so it won't add any sugar or other flavors to the beer. Compared to the nibs I used in the Aphrodisiac, the powder adds a less complex, but smoother, more familiar chocolate flavor. The powder has been processed, unlike nibs, to remove most of the cocoa fats, which means that we can add it to the boil without risking an oil slick on top of our beer. One advantage of adding chocolate to the boil is that I expect to achieve much more efficient utilization. It also means that I don't have to wait an extra week or two for the beer to extract flavors from the nibs, and needn't worry about the chocolate infecting the beer.

For the coffee, we added five-percent cold-brewed Arabian Mocha-Java to the beer at bottling, as we did with Surly Sunday. I ground three-quarters of a pound of coffee by hand for this beer, which took 45 minutes, even at a fairly coarse grind. Half a pound was Mocha-Java, and a quarter of a pound was Sumatra Blue Batak, which I added to 5 bottles of the batch. Call it special reserve.

Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Volume: 4 gal
Calculated OG: 1.089
Measured FG: 1.033
Calculated ABV: 7.3%
Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): 44
Pitching Temperature: 68F
Yeast: Wyeast American Ale 1056
Starter: 2L
Fermentation vessel: Bucket

Malts Mashed		Amount	%	Max Pts.	Color
Chocolate		1.5	9%	28.00	350.00
Roast Barley		2.2	13%	25.00	300.00
Crystal 120		1.25	7%	33.00	120.00

Other Fermentables		Amount	%	Max Pts.	Color
DME		8.1	62%	42.00	2.00

Hops/Additions		Amount	Time	AA%	IBU's
Magnum		1.4	60	13.0%	44.38

5/15/12: Bottled with 5% cold brewed coffee. 5 bottles have Sumatra Blue Batak, the rest have Arabian Mocha-Java.