Friday, October 14, 2011

Vanilla Town Chocolate Stout

I guess I've been failing on the "beer" part of my blog so here's the first beer post!

My first chocolate stout started off as basically a Rogue Chocolate Stout clone and I kind of modified it, as I seem to want to do with every clone recipe. Affectionately named "Vanilla Town Chocolate Stout" because of what the dude that got me started brewing said when he heard the final gravity and how much vanilla extract I used. "That thing will be vanilla town for sure!" The recipe didn't call for vanilla but other chocolate stouts use it to smooth out the chocolate so I thought I'd give it a try. I also added some cocoa powder, and upped the chocolate extract. If I brew this one again I'll just go by the recipe next time.
It is very hoppy for a chocolate stout and the vanilla is not too overbearing. It has smoothed out some since sitting in the bottle. Everyone who has tried it so far loves it, and I'd say it's pretty good myself.

Here's the recipe for a 5 gallon batch:

11.0 lb. 2-row Belgian pale malt
0.5 lb. 120L Crystal Malt
0.5 lb. Chocolate Malt
0.5 lb. Rolled Oats
3.0 oz. Roast Barley
1.5 oz. Cocoa Powder (last 5 minutes of boil)
2.0 oz. Chocolate extract (in secondary)
1.0 oz. Vanilla extract (in secondary)
1.0 oz. Cascade pellet hops (90 mins)
1.0 oz. Cascade pellet hops (60 mins)
1.0 oz. Cascade pellet hops (30 mins)
1.0 oz. Cascade pellet hops (flameout)
US-05 yeast

Brewed on 8/5
Racked to secondary on 8/27
Bottled on 9/4
Final Gravity 1.008

2 comments: