Cooper Irish Milk Chocolate Stout

[Shanna]

Personally I can't stand Hersheys either. I actually used an Aldi brand chocolate sauce that was more like chocolate flavoured sugar.

Shanna

[nigel_c]

If you want extract flavor I'd recommend the like of...

http://www.regimestorecompany.com/www-regimestorecompany-com-English-bbdaaaeja.asp

I used it for a nut brown ale for Christmas and it received good feedback. Holland & barret is where i got this and they have a few different types. More expensive but a far superior product. I used about 1 tsb per gallon. 

[benji]

My fermentation seems to be stuck for the last few days on 1017 my OG was 1045 which should give a ABV of around 4.2% when bottled. Seems a bit low to me, I would expect this brew to be around 5%. What do you guys reckon

[LordEoin]

I reckon that's the hershey's chocolate syrup messing with your brew

[benji]

Really, dang. Any suggestions on to get it going again, I gave it a stir the other night but not much action. The airlock doesn't seem to be bubbling but When I push the lid top down in the morning it seems to up again by the evening. Maybe its just gone into hyper slow fermentation? , from the recipe I provided what do you reckon the ABV should be?

[Garry]

The lactose will give you a higher finishing gravity too since it doesn't ferment. Leave it alone for another week and it might drop a few more points. Maybe you could try bring up the temp and see does it help? 4.2%ABV sounds OK to me though?

[LordEoin]

forgot there was lactose in this too

[benji]

Cheers guys, so would I be right in saying that lactose doesn't actually ferment it just adds taste and density

[LordEoin]

yup, lactose is non fermentable and adds a little sweetness and mouthfeel etc.
maltodextrine will do the same with less sweetness.

[benji]

Yep it seems to have finished fermentation, just wondering about adding some cane sugar to up the abv a bit. Can I put some in now if I boil some in water. Is it a no no to introduce fermentables (is this a word)  at this stage, brew has been in the FV for a week now

[Garry]

You can add more sugar at this stage if you want. Some brewers recommend adding the simple sugar adjuncts in secondary anyway. Just make sure you leave it in the FV for a least a week to make sure it ferments out, you don't want bottle bombs!

If it's a 23L brew, you should need 400g of sugar to bring it up 0.5%ABV.

[LordEoin]

You could if you really wanted to, it's done for some stronger brew styles like doubles etc.
I'd be more inclined to leave it, live and learn.
The less poking, opening, stirring etc the better.

[benji]

Hey peps just an update on this brew, so I added 500g of cane sugar to boost the ABV (and make sure my yeast was OK), so yeah no problems there it fermented away for a few more days but a waited a week before bottling.
I dropped in 0.5ml in to each bottle "Little Pod pure chocolate extract" which i procured from Fallon & Byrne's on Exchequer St and I bulked primed at 7g/l.
So its been 2 weeks in the bottle and I thought I'd have a sneaky taste test, so far so good. I'm defiantly getting a strong dark chocolate taste from the brew without over powering it, its still a bit malty as you would expect at this stage. Not really picking up the sweetness from the lactose but maybe that will come in time, the carbonation is perfect I think and I've a nice head on this brew already, with a bit of lacing on the glass.
I shall move the bottles from my hot-press to my garage for a couple of weeks and report back then, this brew has plenty of potential me thinks.

[benji]

Hey peps, so yeah a month since the last my last update.
Drinking a pint now and it has turned out pretty good, pretty pretty good, pretty pretty pretty good (Curb Your Enthusiasm reference  there).  So to me at this stage it testes more like an extra stout but there defiantly is a dark chocolate taste, not really getting much sweetness from the lactose so I'm thinking maybe upping it to 750g next time. But yeah all good so far, I'd say another few months and it would be great.
@Blueshed I live in Offaly but I work in the CC so if you still want a few bottles I'll hold on to a few for you