Chocolate Malt Grain Not Exactly Chocolate Beer

So maybe you’re like us and thought that chocolate malt grain might lend your home brew an intensely sweet chocolate taste … something you could enjoy both for the ABV’s and to calm that sweet tooth. Well, that’s not exactly the case, and too much dark roasted malt can really overpower your brew.

BURNT MALT FLAVOR

On our recent Chocolate Irish Stout, we adapted an existing recipe for traditional Irish Stout to include 1/2 lb of chocolate malt grain, in the hopes of imparting a subtle sweetness to the beer. The original recipe only called for black patent, English 2-row pale, English crystal and roasted barley. We thought we were being very clever and certainly bound for home brew greatness by crafting a perfectly blended chocolate beer. The end product wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for. The ABV was low for a number of reasons and the flavor came out burnt and a bit overpowering. Not silky sweet at all! Rather than sulk with our weak 3.12% ABV stout, we looked into the grains used in the recipe and came up with a few reasons why the final flavor came out burnt.

TOO MUCH ROASTED GRAINS

The gang at Brew-Dudes.com offer an excellent overview of the specialty chocolate malt grain, describing the flavor profile as more nutty and roasted than sweet. This could lend richness to a stout or porter, though I am not sure the effect on a pale ale or lager. Some brewers over at HomeBrewTalk.com have complained about the difficulty in using this grain, though I imagine this is more in part to my novice experience than the grain’s fault (oh, I can’t be mad at you, chocolate malt!). The related grain, Black Patent Malt, is similar but roasted longer and at higher temperatures. This can impart a smokey or even burnt flavor on your beer. I think our mistake here was adding chocolate malt grain to a recipe that already included Black Patent Malt as a dominant flavor driver. I believe this overpowering of dual dark roasted malts took over the beer — rather hijacked the beer — and gave the “burnt” taste in the final faux-Chocolate Irish Stout.

CHOCOLATE BEER ON THE FUTURE DOCKET

So, how do you brew the elusive chocolate beer? That will be an adventure for another time, friends, though I am optimistic after trying a few retail chocolate stouts. A submitted recipe for “Chocolate Ale” was well received over at HomeBrewTalk.com, which might make its way to the summer docket for home brewing. The recipe calls for adding unsweetened cocoa directly into the mash during boil, which could be interesting. If anyone has advice on a chocolate beer, be it stout or ale, please share the good word.