Cocoa Nibs

[Drtanglebones]

I've got some Cho Cocoa nibs from Morebeer. I'm not sure how much to use in a batch...anyone use this method before? Not sure if I should break them up or just throw them into the secondary whole. For length of time, I thought I would just taste the beer every few days until I like it. I'm putting them into a brown porter, so it will have some roast and caramel flavors already.

[Dave M.]

Don't turn it into a pudding beer, like I did!

[speedysk1]

I've got some Cho Cocoa nibs from Morebeer. I'm not sure how much to use in a batch...anyone use this method before? Not sure if I should break them up or just throw them into the secondary whole. For length of time, I thought I would just taste the beer every few days until I like it. I'm putting them into a brown porter, so it will have some roast and caramel flavors already.

I've never tried that, but it sounds good.

[Drtanglebones]

I ended up using 4 oz of the nibs (already cracked) in the secondary for just over a week. This added a lot of cocoa aroma and flavor. I did discover that this process ends up making the base beer a lot more dry on finish than the base beer. I assume it is the astringency from the nibs making the final result so dry. In the future I would alter my recipe to add some more residual sweetness: either add some lactose to the boil or increase the unfermentable crystal malts in the mash.

[Drtanglebones]

I'm using 4 oz of nibs in secondary of a 5 gallon batch of my sweet stout. I've made this stout very sweet (FG 1.024) since last beer I nibbed ended up too dry/astringent. We shall see what happens!

[Drtanglebones]

Nibs away! I kegged this up yesterday and it tastes great. About 6 days in secondary with the nibs and has a great aroma and flavor without overwhelming the beer.

[Sixpack]

I nominate Eric for "Jack of All Nibs"!