I brewed what should have been a doppelbock quite awhile ago. Unfortunately, I badly missed my gravity and have a super malty bock with not nearly the alcohol I was anticipating. It’s not bad, just way too malty for me.
So, I added some rum that had been soaking with oak chips. The bock is much improved, but could still use something. I was thinking maybe chocolate or coffee.
Any thoughts on adding chocolate in the keg? Process, amounts, etc.
Or other recommendations for flavors to add. I’ve also thought about just adding more rum…
If you plan to add chocolate, get some nibs and soak them in vodka, then add your chocolate extract to taste. Do it in a glass first, that way if you don’t like it you still have some chocolate extract for another batch. You could also soak the nibs in the beer directly then pull them when you like the flavor.
It might be good with some chile flavor and a little bit of burn.
I get cocoa nibs from my local homebrew store and they come in 4 ounce pkgs (I think). I put those in a small muslin bag and throw them in the keg for 3 days, but you can try it on a daily basis to see how it goes. It worked really well in a bock I made last year.
Just bottled 3 gal of a richly malty, belgianized wee heavy that had sat on nibs since April 2012. I used 3 oz in 3 gal and it was not too much. The nibs add a nice subtle chocolate-toast flavor and somewhat drying character that helps to offset the tremendous malt sweetness of the ale.
I recommend Theo organic roasted nibs if you can find them. Theo in Seattle is the only organic and fair trade chocolate factory in the U.S. that does the entire process in house, from raw beans to finished chocolate.
Sanitizing in rum and then adding both the rum and nibs to the brew would be a great way to go. If you don’t want to wait too long before enjoying the results, go 1.5 to 2 oz per gal. This will help cut through the wall of malt sweetness.
