I think I will have to change my original plan to make a stout, mainly because the people I get my malt extract from sent me the wrong one. I ordered the Extra Dark and got the standard Pale instead - not a big problem but I have decided to make something different, and finish off the remains of my rauch malt, I am guessing it would be more of a porter than a stout but we'll see what happens, and I have decided to chuck in some cocoa to add a chocolatey flavour.
Basically I am planning to make a smoked chocolate porter using the following ingredients:
- pale dry malt extract
- rauch malt
- black malt
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- Irish ale yeast
- Fuggles hops
if it turns out as I imagine, it should be something of a treat.
Sounds great. When does the cocoa go in? could this cause problems with the clarity in the beer?
ReplyDeleteI think most stouts are made with pale malt and the colour and roastiness comes from the likes of black malt, roasted barley and maybe crystal or chocolate malt. My last stout used just pale, rauch and black malt with roasted barley. You'd be fine using your pale DME.
ReplyDeleteThe rauch malt needs mashing to get eh sugars out though, so if you are only steeping it you may need to up the DME a little to compensate (if you are using lots of Rauchmalt that is). Just in case :)
Mark, on the cocoa front I have read loads of different opinions so I decided to chuck it into the boil. Given that the fermenters are bubbling away dementedly I guess it wasn't a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteIt was very dark on the boil and the smell was fantastic. Should be interesting.
ReplyDelete