Ideas for chocolate pale ale?

[LASERSNAKE]

Hello everyone,

I am trying to come up with something slightly more out of the box than an IPA for a local home brew competition. I am not a huge fan of dark beers (flavour mainly) and have some chillis become ripe in my garden (pretty hot ones) and im thinking about maybe trying a chilli chocolate pale ale.

Now my question is why can't I find much inspiration in terms of recipes/previous brews (good or bad) out there? Taking the chilli out of it does the chocolate (and im talking flavour not colour) and pale ale (thinking an APA type base) just not work?

Anyone have any experience or can point me in the right direction for info on brewing this sort of thing or a recipe to gather some ideas from?

Thanks
Matt

 

[jmcnamara]

I can't give you any actual data or links on this type of brew, but if think you'd be looking for a very fine balance with all that stuff in there. You're going to be brewing a lot of test batches.

A couple of suggestions based on my experience:
Layer the chocolate type malt flavor. That is, don't just use chocolate malt, use a few other similar grains as well.
Look into northern brewer hops, they're said to give a little cholcate note too.
Maybe look into some fruity or tropical late addition hops that might complement the chili flavor and keep the beer "brighter" in terms of flavor.
This is more of a personal pet peeve, but id come at this from a brown ale perspective (or a stout, but you said you didn't like darker beers. Btw, what don't you like about the flavor?). But up the IBU a bit. Also, nobody really expects much from a brown ale, so you may surprise them

Good luck with it, I'll be interested in hearing about your results

 

[GFHomebrew]

Cacao nibs could help too in primary or after fermentation is done to get some chocolate flavour. It's worked alright on my stout ATM.

 

[Nosybear]

Chocolate flavor is cocoa and vanilla. Some vanilla and chocolate malt should give you a chocolate like flavor.

 

[J A]

I'm not big on beers with exotic flavor combinations, but I thought this was an interesting exercise in recipe formulation. When I imagine the beer that might come out of it, I find it pretty appealing.
I came up with this:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/539131/chili-chocolate-amber-ale

Starts with a light Amber Ale using a reasonable amount of sweet/malty grain and keeping hop profile relatively light but interesting. Could go with more Pale Chocolate if desired

The times I've used UK Phoenix (not always easy to find) I've gotten faint chocolate notes along with slight orange and a touch of minty spice. It'd be killer for something like this, but if you can't find it, you'd just sub Willamette and adjust amounts and times to achieve your desired IBUs.
Flavorings are something I don't experiment with so you'd have to do a little research, but the way I describe it in the notes is probably a reasonable way to think about it.
There are other hops, but the Lemon Drop produces fantastic bright citrus/candy flavor notes and is heavenly in the aroma/dryhop additions. Willamette will add earthy spice with milder citrus contributions.

Maybe a place to start, anyway.

 

[LASERSNAKE]

Thanks for the info guys..

When making a tincure.. would using a home distilled moonshine be a suitable substitute for vodka?

 

[jmcnamara]

Thanks for the info guys..

When making a tincure.. would using a home distilled moonshine be a suitable substitute for vodka?

The moonshine has got a more pronounced taste than vodka, so it may not mesh well with whatever beer you're brewing. It'll certainly work since it's still alcohol though

 

[J A]

I would think it would be in small enough amount - in the case of really hot chilis, a half ounce might be plenty - that moonshine flavor shouldn't matter too much. It might worth a try.

 

[GFHomebrew]

I would think it would be in small enough amount - in the case of really hot chilis, a half ounce might be plenty - that moonshine flavor shouldn't matter too much. It might worth a try.

I found in the cacao nibs department a soak in fermentor after primary has delivered some good chocolate notes through on that choc coffie stout but i did double up on the nibd i think about 180g from memory.