Specialty Porter Recipe and BJCP Question

[mcgster]

Last time i was home i was lucky enough to pick up a pint of Shane's coffee porter at Bourbon Quarter. At the time i had been putting together a recipe for a double chocolate stout, but thought i'd like to make a chocolate porter instead since the chocolate would play nicely with the allowable caramel flavour in a porter.

Essentially my recipe will be:
Marris Otter
Munich I
Wheat Malt
Pale Chocolate Malt
Caramel (60, 80 or higher)
With some good quality cocoa powder added

Has anyone brewed a nice chocolate porter before, if so any input? Any input on other porter additions other than chocolate?

Also, would this still qualify as a 12A brown porter? The flavour description in the updated BJCP guide states that it frequently has a chocolate character, and often a significant caramel, nutty, toffee, coffee, licorice or biscuit flavour.

[mthibodeau]

I've only brewed chocolate once, but I used nibs instead of cocoa powder and liked the results

[mcgster]

I have definitely read pros and cons of nibs vs powder. But an uncooked powder seems the best way to go in my opinion. The surface are would be much higher and that leads me to believe the flavour would be as well. I think the cooked cocoa powder would also be good but I'm going to try the raw powder.


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[Hobbitfu]

I brewed a chocolate imperial oatmeal stout with cacao nibs in boil and had great chocolate flavour. Just made an imperial Porter that I am aging on cacao nibs in secondary only (after soaking them for a day in Irish Whiskey, adding nibs and whiskey). Will see how chocolate flavour compares...

[mcgster]

Interesting, where did you get the nibs from? Last time i used them in brewing i bought them from a health food store and they were like 14.99 for 250 g or something insane.

[LeafMan66_67]

Interesting, where did you get the nibs from? Last time i used them in brewing i bought them from a health food store and they were like 14.99 for 250 g or something insane.

Superstore has them in the organic section, $9.99 for 8oz.

[mthibodeau]

Bulk barn was the cheapest I could find

[Hobbitfu]

I always got them off OBK... But those other prices sound way better!

[mcgster]

Interesting, where did you get the nibs from? Last time i used them in brewing i bought them from a health food store and they were like 14.99 for 250 g or something insane.

Superstore has them in the organic section, $9.99 for 8oz.

I never thought to check there, i went to sobeys and they didn't have any. Thats not half bad.

[canuck]

Bulk barn was the cheapest I could find

Yep, Bulk Barn is cheapest for sure. I use Cacao Nibs in a few of my beers so I buy them often, and while they are still expensive, Bulk Barn is still the cheapest.

[mcgster]

I will have to pick some up. It would be interesting to compare the nibs vs powder.