Coffee Chocolate Porter

[siwelwerd]

Someone at the meeting requested I post this, so here it is:

OG 1.062
FG 1.022
IBU 35

Brewed 12/5/10
Kegged 12/22/10
Ready 1/5/10

10 lb Crisp Maris Otter
1 lb Carafa Special ii
1/2 lb Pale Chocolate
1 lb Victory
1/2 lb Crystal 135L
1/2 lb Carastan (~35L)
Mash at 152

1.5 oz EKG (5.9%) @60
0.5 oz EKG @ 10

WLP 013 London Ale

St. Louis water supplemented with 6g CaCO3 and 3g CaCl

4 oz (Missouri Malt Supplied) Madagascar Cocoa Nibs into the secondary (yes Dale, you read that right, in the secondary) for 8 days, then into the keg. 2 days prior to kegging, I prepared a cold toddy brew of Cafe Kaldi (I belive I did 1/2 lb in 2 qts--extremely finely ground, shaken up every time I walked by the fridge). At kegging, I added this (filtered) to taste, approximately 1L worth.

[Witch Doctor Dale]

Excellant ale, Drew. Want everyone to note what great contributions that a secondary can add (that and a top notch brewer!)

[JE]

Great brew, Drew! Don't change a thing about it...it was most excellent!

And, I agree with Dale about the secondary!

[JoeHPhil]

I'm sorry I could not make the meeting, but I thought it polite not to share the flu.

As another recipient of some of the nibs (4oz Rio Caribe and 4oz Markham Valley) I've been looking at recipes for them. Since I generally brew 10g batches but split it for fermentation I thought I'd make otherwise identical beers with the only difference being the nibs.

3 questions:
-I assume you did a 5g batch so the cocoa per 4oz per batch was appropriate?
-Did you pick the cafe kaldi for a particular reason? My brother gave me a really good darker roast for xmas and I wanted to use that.
-Is the water treatment normal for you for a porter or did you do it specifically for this batch?

[siwelwerd]

-I assume you did a 5g batch so the cocoa per 4oz per batch was appropriate?

Yes. I believe it is also time dependent, so I would taste it after about a week; if you want more chocolate, try a little longer. 8 days is when I sampled and it tasted good, so that's when I kegged.

-Did you pick the cafe kaldi for a particular reason? My brother gave me a really good darker roast for xmas and I wanted to use that.

Because I had a 5 lb sack of it from Kent sitting in my kitchen . I believe Larry told me Schlafly uses a darker roast in their Coffee Stout, so I would go with what you have.

-Is the water treatment normal for you for a porter or did you do it specifically for this batch?

That's pretty typical of a Porter for me. I do not care for excessive roastiness, and I've found the calcium carbonate helps that some. The extra chloride helps accentuate the maltiness. I would just use whatever water you normally use.