Paul’s Chocolate Porter

Description:

The cocoa went in beautifully. I strongly recommend making a cocoa syrup as I have to anyone interested in making a chocolate beer. The inspiration for this came from The Joy of Cooking, as good in its idiom as TCJOHB is in its.

This recipe is underhopped. If you try it, I recommend doubling the hops (or using something with more bittering potential). I orignally wanted to use chocolate malt, but it wasn’t available locally. You could probably do fine with 1 lb. chocolate malt instead of the black patent/crystal malt combination I chose.

Now to the good stuff. This beer came out very nicely. It’s very dark, though if I look through a narrow amount of it, it has a very nice reddish hue. The flavor is rich, with a nice chocolate undertone. If you really like it, you could probably double the amount of cocoa in this recipe.

All in all, I consider the experiment a success. I’m not sure how often I’ll make this stuff, as I like porters, but LOVE pale ale. In any event, Njoy.

Relax. Don’t worry. Have a chocolate beer.

Ingredients:

• 1 can dark John Bull malt extract syrup
• 1 can amber John Bull extract syrup
• 1/2 lb. black patent malt
• 1/2 lb. cyrstal malt
• 4 oz. cocoa
• 1 lb. dextrose (corn sugar)
• 1 oz. cascade hops (boiling)
• 1 oz. cascade hops (flavor)
• ale yeast

Procedure:

Add dextrose to 2 c. hot water. When dissolved, add cocoa. Bring this to a boil and stir while boiling for five minutes. Set aside.

Crack crystal malt and add to 1.5 gallons water. Bring to a boil and remove crystal malt with strainer. Add malt extract syrups, cocoa syrup, and boiling hops. Boil for 45-60 min.

During last 1-2 min. of boil, add finishing hops to wort. Pour hot wort into fermenter containing cold water. Add enough cold water to bring to five gallons. Pitch yeast when cool, ferment, and bottle as usual.