GF Double Chocolate Coffee Stout

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akueck

Certified Mead Mentor
Certified Mead Mentor
Jun 26, 2006
4,958
11
0
Ithaca, NY
Credits to evenstill for creative inspiration here and to Wolfie for getting me on the gluten-free adventure train. :)

Recipe, followed by very long instructions:
~3 gallons, target OG 1.055

1.75 lb sorghum extract (from morebeer)
2 lb rice extract (dry)
2 oz molasses
4 oz whole quinoa--wet roasted
8 oz whole quinoa--dry roasted
8 oz flaked quinoa--black roasted
3 oz coffee (dark French roast)
36 g cocoa powder
Amylase enzyme
3/4 oz Nugget (13.8% AA originially, been in the freezer for ~2 years) 60 mins
1/4 oz Nugget 30 mins
1 whirlfloc tablet 15 min
1/2 oz Fuggle 2 min
US-05 yeast

Advance prep:
Cold brew coffee--combine coffee (coarse grind) and 18 g cocoa with 3.5 cups water. Steep overnight or ~24 hours. Strain to remove grounds before adding to wort.
Quinoa--soak 4 oz of whole quinoa in enough water to cover overnight.

Roasting grains:
This is essential to get the color and flavor, as the extracts have very little of either. Spread grains out evenly on a cookie sheet. Single layer will cook the fastest. I used about a double layer. Stir often to cook evenly and avoid burning.
First dry-roast the 1/2 lb whole quinoa at 350ºF for about 20 minutes or until they are turning a light golden-brown color.
Next wet-roast the quinoa that was soaked. Drain the excess water and spread on the cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for ~20 mins, stirring often. They will turn a dark yellow color and smell really good. :) Then bake at 425-450 until they are a deep brown color. They will pop and crackle (maybe snap too) as they are close to being done.
Lastly black roast the flakes. Bake at 450, stir very very often to avoid lighting them on fire. Bake until they are about 50% black. Avoid having your head near the oven when you open it--big smoke puffs come out and they will sting your eyes.

Now that the grains are roasted, they must be cooked to release the starches (aka cereal mash). Boil with excess water for about 20 minutes or until softened. Let cool slightly, then spoon into grain bags and add to brew kettle with ~3 gallons water (unless you have a nice mash/lauter tun, then add directly to mash tun--sans bags--instead).

Bring to 153ºF and add ~3/4-1 tsp of the amylase enzyme. Keep at 153-155 until you're satisfied with the results. I let mine go 50 minutes. For the first 20 minutes, my temp was 155-58. After that it was pretty steadily 155. The flavor lost some grainy-ness, which is what I wanted to get rid of. Not much sweetness developed, but at that high temp, not much would. After the enzyme action is complete, heat to above 170 to destroy the enzymes.

Remove from heat, add extracts (rice and sorghum) and molasses. Boil, do the hops thing, etc. Add the second 18 g of cocoa with 5 mins remaining in the boil.

Cooled with the immersion chiller. Add the coffee extract to the primary with the cooled wort.

OG 1.055, waiting now to pitch the yeast (78 and dropping). Will pitch at 70 or so. (dry yeast must be used unless you get one of those GF packs)
 
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Chugging along nicely today. 68º this morning, 66º this evening. I'm guessing that is where it will settle.

Not as black a color as I wanted. Next time--burn more grains!
 
Well, GF beer just looks weird. If memory serves, my test batch awhile back looked the same. Fermentation is very stratified, even if I give the carboy a good jostle. The yeasties live in giant clumps that swim around. It looks really gross. But...it's fermenting. It doesn't smell funny (or more funny than it should).

I think I'll thief a sample this weekend and see how it is coming along.
 
Well I didn't think it has been that cold, but apparently it has. Was at 64 most of the week but the last few days it's been 62. Still plugging along and no signs of clearing.

Thiefed a sample, SG 1.022. Tastes a lot like beer, even a stout with coffee. ;D It's a sad yellow-brown color instead of black, but the flavors are pretty well on for a stout. It's in my kitchen now where it is a little warmer, I'll see if I can get it to finish over the next week.
 
Keeping an eye on this, going to be trying a GF beer next month sometime. Eager to hear results.
 
It looks done; I'll see if I can get it in bottles soon. I'll definitely check the SG tomorrow.

Thanks for the interest guys. I hope it won't disappoint!
 
SG = 1.016, it looks done.

Taste is less coffee than before, slight hint of chocolate. It has a mouthfeel, even flat, which is promising. "Stout" flavors are there but not perfect. There is also a bitterness to the flavor that lingers in the mouth. I'd say it's from the coffee since I've never used that in beer before, but it could be from the burnt grain too. Yeah, maybe it's the burnt grain. On a positive note, a chocolate flavor also lingers.

I'll see if I have time to bottle it tomorrow. I hope to brew that blueberry beer with a friend too.
 
Bottled with 1.75 oz cane sugar. Yield was 26 12oz bottles + spillage.

I forgot to mention the color. It's not a sad yellow-brown anymore, it's more of a medium brown and fairly pleasant-looking. It's not "stout" in appearance, but I did what I could. Next time I would say more wet-roasted grain vs. dry roasted for more color. Maybe even cook them a little longer to see if they get closer to black instead of deep brown.

It's only 60º in my beer cave, so it will be at least 3 weeks before I open a bottle to see how they turned out.
 
60 seems to have been an overestimate of the temperature in the cave. It got cold here and temps dropped down to 56-57, so carbonation has been slow. I did open a bottle yesterday (?) and it was about 75% carbonated.

It's not all that stout-like after all, more halfway between stout and brown. The coffee presents mostly as an aroma, which is pleasant. The chocolate shows up towards the finish.

Overall it's a pleasant beer and a great improvement over my first GF experiment. The grainy flavor the last one had is gone, so the amylase treatment must have worked. It's also not too thin and I think the grain contributions were nearly perfect, except for color. Perhaps more burnt flakes next time, or maybe also more of the "crystal" quinoa.
 
60 seems to have been an overestimate of the temperature in the cave. It got cold here and temps dropped down to 56-57, so carbonation has been slow. I did open a bottle yesterday (?) and it was about 75% carbonated.

It's not all that stout-like after all, more halfway between stout and brown. The coffee presents mostly as an aroma, which is pleasant. The chocolate shows up towards the finish.

Overall it's a pleasant beer and a great improvement over my first GF experiment. The grainy flavor the last one had is gone, so the amylase treatment must have worked. It's also not too thin and I think the grain contributions were nearly perfect, except for color. Perhaps more burnt flakes next time, or maybe also more of the "crystal" quinoa.


Could you take a picture of it?

I'm going to make a GF porter and would like to see how dark you got it. I still need to find someplace where the grains don't cost an arm and a leg. I'm going to try malting them and doing a partial mash, so this might be a while before it gets started, but I have most of my recipe figured out.
 
I would but I can't find the little cord that goes from the camera to the computer. Been looking for that damn cord for months. Maybe I should just buy one...

If it helps, it's darker than Newcastle and more brown than red. I'll work on finding a cord for the camera and see about a picture.

Quinoa whole is about $3.50/lb and flaked $8-9/lb here. A couple of years ago it was 1/3 that price. Damn inflation...
 
No chalky taste that I noticed. The cold-brew cocoa solids settled out of the liquid and never made it into the fermenter. I assume some of the cocoa added to the boil also settled to the bottom of the kettle during cooling.

Honestly it's not a very chocolately beer. "Double" is a bit of an overestimation, as there is just a hint of something identifiably chocolate. It might be adding other flavors that I don't realize too. It would be interesting to add some nibs to the fermenter and see if you could boost the cocoa flavors. I thought of adding one or two to each bottle but I was way too lazy that day.
 
Brought a sixer to my "impartial" gluten-free associate. She loved it! She said she couldn't tell that it was gluten-free and it tasted better than some commercial chocolate/coffee stouts she's had (not gluten-free), Bison in particular. Personally I thought Bison's chocolate stout was blah the one time I tried it, so I'm glad mine is better than that. :)

She also said I should try to market this stuff. Too bad the economy is tanked and I'm broke. Any commercial folks out there willing to hire me as your gluten-free consultant? ;D
 
Hey Akueck I cant believe I missed this!

Congrats on the successful brew! It's true, so many of the commercial GF beers out there are just crap (New Grist comes to mind). Now if you could figure out how to make THIS into an extract, you'd have a serious micro business without those pesky liqueur laws. ;)


/wolfie
 
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Hey Akueck I cant believe I missed this!

Congrats on the successful brew! It's true, so many of the commercial GF beers out there are just crap (New Grist comes to mind). Now if you could figure out how to make THIS into an extract, you'd have a serious micro business without those pesky liqueur laws. ;)


/wolfie

From someone who doesn't have a problem with gluten, I actually like New Grist.
Redbridge is hit or miss. I swear that sometimes I find it tolerable and others I think it's gross.
I haven't tried Bard's Tale because it's way too expensive and I refuse to pay it. Although my girlfriend mentioned them on her blog and they sent her a free six pack.
Sprecher's has the best GF beer I've had so far.

I started malting my amaranth and quinoa last night. So hopefully I come up with something tastey.
 
Sprecher's has GF beer? Neat! I love their root beer, it's so tasty.

Let me know how the malting goes, I'd love to play around with that angle of it.
 
The malting is going well. The quinoa started to sprout 2 hours into the first steeping. I wouldn't be too shocked if I'm kilning it by Monday. The amaranth is lagging behind, like it did in my test batch and doesn't look much different.

The Sprecher beers are a limited release. I heard from the owner that they haven't made any more in the last year, but you can still find them and they're still pretty good. Although I got tired of the banana one after a bottle.

Mbege:
Bananas are the main ingredient in mbege style beers popular in Eastern Africa. In keeping with tradition, this is brewed with real bananas and presented unfiltered. Light hints of banana remain present in the aroma and flavor of this unique offering.

Shakparo:
Sprecher's gluten free Shakparo Ale is a West African Shakparo-style beer brewed from sorghum and millet. An unfiltered, light, crisp ale with a cider or fruit profile and a dry vinous aftertaste, it is best characterized as an easy-drinking or session beer perfect for summer gatherings. This beer pairs nicely with lighter fare such as sandwiches, salads, chicken, fish, and spicier foods.

Originally conceived of in an effort to provide a traditional African style beer for Milwaukee's African World Festival, our Mbege and Shakparo have won the hearts of people here at the brewery and have been promoted to year round beer status.

Because barley and wheat are not grown in large quantities in sub-Saharan Africa, traditional Mbeges and Shakparos are brewed with sorghum and millet and are therefore able to be brewed gluten-free since neither sorghum nor millet contain gluten. Being gluten-free make Shakparo and Mbege excellent alternatives for those suffering from celiac disease, a genetic disorder that inhibits the digestion of gluten. Our Shakparo and Mbege offerings have been brewed with celiacs in mind and are carefully crafted to ensure they remain gluten-free.

http://www.sprecherbrewery.com/beer.php?cat=5
 
I noticed the Specher brews at my local liquor store--I haven't tried one yet myself but they caught my attention, Specher is my fave root beer too.

Akueck--I looked over yr recipe again and didn;t see how much coffee grounds you used. Do you remember?