A Chocolate Ale
In my last brewing adventure, I set out to make a chocolate-enhanced, normal lager. The Chocolate Lager was good, but unfortunately did not age well. I had a couple bottles left that were a month old, and the flavor seemed to have taken a turn. However, as mentioned in that post, I have duplicated the recipe where the only ingredient changed was the yeast: I made a Chocolate Ale.
The ale yeast that I have at hand is a generically-named “Best West Ale”. One can assume this would be a nod to the Western United States, but more specific yeasts were not being sold by my local online brewing shop. Additionally, I had opened this yeast packet a while ago and it probably is starting to lose its potency – so, trying to get rid of it now.
I had considered using the reminants of the yeast packet in a bit of bread. It is interesting to note that bread yeast and ale yeast are from the same strain of yeast; however, the beer yeast is so selected for its focus on producing alcohol and bread yeast for its focus on carbon dioxide. I am pretty sure that attempt will simply result in a sad, flat bread. Possibly an experiment for another day.
My grain bill, as before, consisted of a mix of base grains (Munich, Pale Ale, and Vienna), some grain for color (Carafa II), and a modified grain for body and head (CaraBelge). I kept the hop schedule simple with a 70 minute boil. During this boil, I will be dropping in 0.4 oz of CocoaNibs to impart some chocolate flavor. After fermentation has ended, I will be adding another 0.4 oz to ensure the chocolate flavor is noticeable.
| Grain | Amount |
|---|---|
| Munich | 1.00 lbs |
| Pale Ale | 0.50 lbs |
| Vienna | 0.25 lbs |
| Carafa II | 0.05 lbs |
| CaraBelge | 0.20 lbs |
| Hop | Amount | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Perle | 0.2 oz | 70 min |
| Perle | 0.05 oz | 15 min |
Similar to the lager, there were really no surprises in this brew day. I did simplify the morning by using a single-temperature mash schedule; I held the mash at 158°F for one hour, as opposed to having a beta and alpha rest. My brew log consisted of the following:
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 09:34 | Dough in water at 60°F ~ 2.5 L without grains, 3 L with grains |
| 09:49 | Added 1 L boiling water – 90°F; turned on burner |
| 10:00 | 122°L |
| 10:30 | Turned on burner – transitioning from Protein Rest to Mash Temp |
| 10:42 | 158°F |
| 11:07 | 158°F, again |
| 11:33 | 158°F, again |
| 11:48 | Turned on burner – heating to mash out |
| 11:54 | 170°F – Mash out |
| 12:04 | Start Sparge |
| 12:15 | Sparge End – Go to Boil |
| 12:33 | Boil Begins – Add first hops |
| 13:28 | Add add’l hops |
| 13:43 | Boil Ends – Add 0.4 oz CocoaNibs – whirlpool |
| 13:44 | Stopped whirlpool – put in freezer ~ 3 L |
| 18:03 | Racked to carboy |
| 18:22 | Pitched yeast – placed on shelf in living room |
| 23:28 (+2 Days) | Krausen begins |
| 18:19 (+5 Days) | Krausen practically done |
| 16:30 (+13 Days) | Add 0.4 oz CocoaNibs |
| 09:34 (+22 Days) | Bottled with 0.7 oz sugar |
In the past, I had had issues with ale yeast as they always seemed to ferment extremely fast and left a harsh, astringent mouth feel. In this case, I used a very small amount of yeast and was glad to see the fermentation take three days to complete.
I again had issues with bottling with all the bits of CocoaNibs attempting to infiltrate my bottling tubes. Having removed the beer from this yeast cake, I then set aside the carboy for a new experiment that my buddy keyed me in on: simply throwing another brew on that yeast. Stay tuned.
This ale ended up being sweet, but not malty. There was nothing in my process to imply that I had not successfully converted the starches, and the minimal yeast should not have had issues converting the sugars (especially since the bottles were all well-carbonated).
The beer had a satisfactory head, and again the chocolate flavor was noticeable, but not overpowering. The beer was drinkable, but too sweet for my tastes. As it was not a failure, I am giving this a thumbs up.
Verdict: successful
