I am working up a recipe and I want to be able to say it has “Belgian Chocolate” in the beer. I found this: http://www.callebaut.com/usen/products/cocoa-products/cocoa-powder
I plan on finishing the beer off on cacao nibs but wanted to add some real “Belgian chocolate” to the whirlpool.
Does anyone have any recommendations? I think a powder would be easiest to use.
Couldn’t you just use Callebaut nibs instead? http://www.callebaut.com/usen/products/cocoa-products/nibs
Plan is to use the nibs I can get cheaper from BSG. But I wanted to add some Belgian Chocolate to the whirl pool. In the business world we call this a “gimmick”. 
I’ll send you a bar of Callebaut. Just wave it into the direction of the beer, and you have your Belgian Chocolate beer.
Ha! So, is that chocolate pretty good? Is there another one you would recommend that I could secure here in the US?
Callebaut is by far the best commercial Belgian chocolate. Côte d’Or is also quite good, but not as good als Callebaut. There is better, of course, but then you go into the realm of the “single origin” stuff. Very very expensive and silly to put into beer.
Gimmick deserves the most over the top ingredients. Go with one they can google and be blown away with how gimmickly awesome it is.
Then don’t take Côte d’Or. No American is able to google "Côte d’Or ".
Alright, just what I was looking for. Thanks!
When I last put chocolate in my boil kettle, it took me an entire day to get my plate chiller clean. Flush, flush and re-flush with hot PBW. Chocolate is greasy and when melted will plate out on the first cold thing it touches. Beware.
I agree that Callebaut is probably the best Belgian chocolate you can get your hands on in the US. Chocosphere is where I get most of my chocolate fix satisfied, and I do think they have some Callebaut cocoa powder:
As an aside, when I had my dark chocolate blog I would consistently get 10 times as many hits when I posted about some mediocre mass-market stuff like Godiva, compared to the really high-end single origin stuff from guys like Pralus and Amedei. You know your audience, so you should consider whether Godiva may be a better choice for name recognition’s sake.
TBH, I find cocoa powder an inferior product. I don’t understand what people see in it.
I plan on using it only in the BK at flame out and bumping up chocolate flavor with nibs.
Thanks for that feed back I am now rethinking this!
That is interesting feed back and I appreciate it. I’m not sure I want to go so gimmicky as to use a brand name. Just “Belgian” is enough for me, as long as it is factual. But of course most people are idgits (not a typo, direct from looney tunes) and what you post makes so many damn sense!
I used to use Ghirardelli in my stout just cuz I could tell people it had Ghirardelli chocolate.
I’ve gone to using simple baking chocolate. Whatever they have at the store. It’s been years since I used powder.
I add it in the last 5-10 minutes of the boil. Never tried the whirlpool, but the baking bars are thick and I’m not certain they would fully melt in the whirlpool. Powder wouldn’t give you that issue.
I think that just saying “Belgian” chocolate is sufficient. There aren’t too many people who would know Coat da Oar from Callebaut, IMO.
Hey Keith…long time!
Powder in the boil seems like the best way to go. Of course nibs in the fermenter. Anyone ever try chocolate syrup in the fermenter? Chocolate extract? Liquor? Combination there of?
Man…I need to try reading some posts here more often.
Food for thought:
First off, this post is silly. Second off, you are missing the point on this one. I appreciate more your posts before which were helpful. this one I might as well have seen on Facebook.
Yes, you need to be around here more often! I know you aren’t too busy.