Adding Chocolate and Mint to the cask

[shakyrob]

I have been asked to produce a cask of chocolate mint stout. However I have to add this directly to the cask as a one off as cannot afford to brew 4 barrels of it. Any ideas on what to add and amounts. I have seen other recipes using cocoa powder and crushed mint but these are added to the boil. Any ideas when adding direct to cask, amounts and time to mature?

[brewinhard]

A buddy brewer of mine recently made a thin mint stout in which he brewed a base sweet stout and blended in chocolate extract and peppermint extract from Olive Nation. These extracts are some of the best and are quite expensive. They really do come across as more natural than any other extracts I have tasted. If you are interested in his amounts used, I could find out for you. Just pm me and I will get back to you!

His stout was well balanced esp. for his first attempt at this style of specialty beer.

[BenTheBrewer]

I had given this a try when I was a new brewer. In my "WOW! What can I make that will change the world?!" phase. I was inexperienced but managed to make a good stout. I then dumped in some cheap peppermint extract. I added way too much and screwed up the entire batch. So the moral of my story... A little extract goes a LOOOOONG way.


Ben