Pastry Beers
Comedian Denis Leary had a famous riff on how all he wants is coffee-flavored coffee. It wasn’t exactly original, but it was energetic, and a lot of people were nodding along and pointing out that these days it can be hard to find “coffee” on the coffee shop menu because it’s buried underneath two dozen mocha caramel frappuccinos with sprinkles. A lot of folks have made the same argument about craft beer — and you know what? They’re right. There’s a lot of atypical beer out there these days that features unusual ingredients and flavor profiles that focus on sweeter ingredients. Where they’re wrong is in thinking that this is somehow not in keeping with “beer culture” — on the contrary, beer has always had a set of practitioners brewing up things based on popular appeal. So, in an age of unbridled experimentation and a world of specialty ingredients, why is it somehow surprising or negative that we see a boom in things like pastry beers? The short version (too late) is that it isn’t. These are, often, world-class beers. And they are beers, and not just for dessert, either.
If you’re playing the purist and holding up your nose at something because it contains cacao nibs or peanut butter or crushed up cookies, then you’re missing out. And if you’re a brewer who sleeps under a framed copy of the Reinheitsgebot and refuses to even look at the lactose when you stroll through your local homebrew shop, then you’re not only missing out but denying a great experience to the friends and family who drink your beers. You’re also, let’s face it, missing a great opportunity to challenge yourself! This piece will look at the definitional aspects of “pastry beers” (and they’re not all stouts, by the by), review some recipe considerations for those taking the plunge, discuss some process considerations that will increase your odds of making the next great pastry beer, and, of course, provide some awesome clonebrew recipe examples. I can feel the sugar coursing through my veins already . . .
Defining the Pastry Beer
I don’t know that there’s an authoritative definition of “pastry beer,” but let’s try this on for size: “A beer, potentially brewed with adjunct culinary ingredients, featuring a flavor profile reminiscent of baked goods or their identifiable ingredients.” It seems to encompass most of what we think of as pastry beers, which, even when they’re not specific emulators of a finished pastry product, do nearly always showcase their ingredients. So, is this “beer?” Yes, of course it is.
First, beer doesn’t have to be bitter, or even non-sweet. I think that ship sailed when we acknowledged sweet stout as a defined classic style, and it’s hardly the only one – English barleywine, especially in its aged forms, is often a sweet showcase of graham cracker and caramel flavors. Second, there is a long history in brewing of using adjunct ingredients to make beer more palatable, so this isn’t some new-fangled thing. Heck, we use hops in beer because they produced better flavor than the medicinal roots and herbs of an earlier age. Third, brewers have always tinkered with recipes and styles to reach or appeal to a broader market. Pale beer (in the form of Pilsner) swept the world in part because we made beer a less-aggressive and more-appealing product. Pastry beer is beer, just as much as Pilsner is beer and sweet stout is beer.
Recipe Considerations
OK, so pastry beer is beer. Now that we’ve settled that for all time (right?) the nomenclature questions, let’s talk about building them.
First, start with what traditional beer ingredients can already offer us, in terms of flavors, and use them appropriately. We can already count on cocoa, bread, banana, cherry, butter, coffee, caramel, sugar, raisin, and a lot more from traditional brewing ingredients. The advantage of leveraging these first (if not exclusively) is that we have a dense base of brewing history and experience and knowledge to apply to their use. If you’re looking for banana, or apricot, or plum, you already know which yeasts or hops or malts to use to introduce or complement those flavors. Start with what you know.
Second, don’t assume these beers have to be high-ABV. Yes, there are a lot of strong, sweet beers out there — many brewers take advantage of the fact that they’re not hiding sweetness and leverage the native sweet flavor of ethanol to create a certain impression — but it isn’t a requirement. Impressions of sweetness can come from natural process-created flavors (esters), added sugars (lactose – more on that in a bit), and more.
Third, in terms of hops, think fruit. Don’t get me wrong, there are hops out there that taste like almost everything (I’m looking at you, Phoenix, with your cocoa flavors . . .), but fruit is complementary to nearly all of the typical pastry, chocolate, coffee, and sugar flavors that we are potentially adding as well. Even if you’re not using flavor hops and are just adding a few IBUs of balancing bitterness, some small measure of flavor might translate through, and so we should be thinking about what flavors work best. If you are using hops for flavor or aroma, choose hops that complement your overall flavor profile. In one lemon-rosemary recipe I lean heavily on German and New Zealand hops that showcase lemon-lime and floral-herbal flavor compounds. Even when adding the ingredient itself, choose amplifying hops that will reinforce that flavor impression. The one recommendation I’d have is avoid pine. As a flavor, it cuts right through the palate, and if you’re not specifically looking for it you might end up with something that presents much more strongly than you’d like.
Fourth, and maybe most importantly, let’s talk about adjunct ingredients, several of which you’ll likely be using. I avoid store-bought extracts whenever possible; even when used well, they still taste like it. We were at an event for a brewery famous for its extract usage. The head brewer was presenting and said, “see, you can’t even tell it’s an extract!” even as every beer judge at our table was wrapping up a lot of head-nodding that yes, indeed, we definitely all noticed an artificial, chemical flavor in every sample. Use the real ingredients when you can, and as fresh, fresh, fresh as possible!
Two of your best friends in this endeavor will be lactose and vanilla. There’s a smooth, soft sweetness to lactose that you just won’t get from other sources — not from residual sugars from underattenuation, not from ethanol, and not from other unfermentable sugars. Vanilla will help here in that it creates an impression of sweetness (but isn’t actually all that sweet, so cloying finishes are less likely), and in addition vanilla is a pretty ubiquitous baking/pastry ingredient, so it’s going to do a lot of the “pastry impression” heavy lifting for you. Whatever adjuncts you use, consider the final flavor impact, both in terms of the targeted flavor and secondary/tertiary flavors and textures. I once attempted to add coconut flavor to a beer by using shaved coconut (flavorless), coconut milk (gross), and coconut extract (the only thing that worked). Experimentation will teach you a lot, but learn from others’ mistakes, too. Finally, always be willing to set aside authenticity for effect: Maple syrup tastes like maple, but not after fermentation. Don’t even try — it’ll all ferment off. Instead, swallow your pride and use fenugreek instead, which tastes like maple. Brew with the end in mind.
Last, but not least, use more fruit. This is a surprisingly under-fruited sector that leans far more on chocolate, coffee, and caramel than it does on fruit. Fruit adds terrific complementary flavors, especially in lower-ABV or lighter-colored varieties, and so long as you consider the flavor impact of tartness and tannins and the recipe impact of additional fermentable sugars on ABV, you can add a lot of complexity and evocative flavors without too much effort!
Process Considerations
I’m a big believer in the “process is king” view of brewing, so I can’t help but recommend that you keep your process as consistent as you can, even if the target isn’t your typical German Pilsner. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but try to limit the extent to which you’re tinkering with your mash temperatures, boil length, fermentation temperature, etc. Most of what we want we can get out of our ingredients, and ingredient adjustment is more reliable than process adjustment!
Probably the most important process consideration is the timing of additions for your non-traditional ingredients. In other words, what can/should you boil? For how long? And what can/should be added in primary or secondary, and how? I don’t have any hard-and-fast answers for you here, because of the wide range of ingredients you’re probably considering, but I do have some defensible rules of thumb. First, if I don’t have to boil it, I don’t. Some ingredients are just easier to add on the hot side — lactose jumps immediately to mind, which I typically add with 15 minutes remaining in the boil by turning off the heat and stirring until it dissolves, then bringing back to a boil — but if you don’t need to boil it, don’t. Ingredients added in the boil are being put into an extreme environment that might change their flavors or even their chemical composition and add or remove things in ways that mess up our finished product.
Instead, add everything you can (with one exception) at the very end of fermentation, pre-packaging, to taste. Adding to taste right at packaging lets you build your exact flavor profile with all of the flavors “in” except for carbonation effects. This lets you use just the right amount of each, and also allows you to “stack” subtler flavors to make a nuanced, specific profile. Tinctures made with vodka are handy to create simple, sanitary extracts of your own. So, what’s the one exception?
Fruit. Add fruit first, either in primary or early in a proper secondary fermentation (but don’t necessarily feel you need to do a transfer into a new vessel, even in that case). Why the “fruit exception?” Because fruits often contain highly-fermentable sugars that we don’t want lurking around in our packaged beer, especially since they’re sometimes a lot more sugar-rich than we think. Always know how much sugar you’re adding, because that additional alcohol can be meaningful in the final product.
Carbonation matters here, too, but for that I have a pretty straightforward recommendation: Aim low. Carbonic burn isn’t likely to add much in terms of desirable flavors, and we’re also not usually looking to build in more mouthfeel and body. While there are always exceptions, you’ll probably find that most of your pastry beers are either better or no worse when served on more modest levels of CO2, and some genuinely shine on nitrogen.
Finally, let’s talk a moment about wood. Barrel-aging or the addition of oak cubes, spirals, or chips soaked in booze can be a great addition to your beer, but it’s also easy to overdo. This is a final-step ingredient, and is very much a perfect candidate for the “to taste” methodology noted earlier. Take the advice of the brewing world, but take it with a big grain of salt. My beer aged for four weeks on Bourbon-soaked oak might be perfect, but your version of that same beer might be a tannin-riddled hellscape that was “ready” two weeks ago.
Process matters. Set yourself up for success.
Thinking Beers
A good friend who modestly did not want to be mentioned by name in this piece told me that pastry beers are “thinking beers.” What he meant by that was not just that they require careful planning by the brewer — that’s something that’s true of almost all beers — but that they’re beers that you should brew with an eye towards making the people who drink them scratch their head and think, “how did they do this?” and “however they did it, it reminds me so much of _____!” Use your imagination. Go wild. Make what you want to drink.
And make people think.
Pastry Beer Recipes
Conshohocken Brewing Co.’s Glazing Saddles clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.055 FG = 1.014
IBU = 11 SRM = 4 ABV = 5.5%
Ingredients
10 lbs. (4.5 kg) American 2-row pale malt
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) flaked oats
Half of one glazed donut (brewer should eat the other half)
3 AAU Columbus hops (60 min.) (0.25 oz./7 g at 12% alpha acids)
8 oz. (0.23 kg) lactose sugar (whirlpool)
0.5 oz. (14 g) cinnamon sticks(whirlpool)
0.25 oz. (7 g) vanilla extract (post-fermentation)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale)or Fermentis US-05 yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Mill the grains (and break up the glazed donut half) and mix with 3.4 gallons (12.7 L) of 164 °F (73 °C) strike water to reach a mash temperature of 152 °F (67 °C). Hold this temperature for 60 minutes. Vorlauf until your runnings are clear. Sparge the grains with 4.3 gallons (16.2 L) and top up as necessary to obtain 6 gallons (23 L) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at the beginning of the boil. Whirlpool for 15 minutes after flameout, adding cinnamon sticks and lactose at the start of the whirlpool.
After the whirlpool, chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 65 °F (18 °C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch yeast.
Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C) for 7 days, then raise the temperature to 70 °F (21 °C) for 72 hours. After completion of fermentation, add the vanilla extract. Crash the beer to 35 °F (2 °C) for 48 hours. Then bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.5 volumes.
Conshohocken Brewing Co.’s Glazing Saddles clone
(5 gallons/19L, partial mash)
OG = 1.054 FG = 1.013
IBU = 11 SRM = 5 ABV = 5.4%
Ingredients
6 lbs. (2.7 kg) extra pale liquid malt extract
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) 2-row pale malt
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) flaked oats
Half of one glazed donut (brewer should eat the other half)
3 AAU Columbus hops (60 min.) (0.25 oz./7 g at 12% alpha acids)
8 oz. (0.23 kg) lactose sugar (whirlpool)
0.5 oz. (14 g) cinnamon sticks(whirlpool)
0.25 oz. (7 g) vanilla extract (post-fermentation)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale)or Fermentis US-05 yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Bring roughly 3 quarts (3 L) of water to approximately 162 °F (72 °C) and hold there. Place the pale malt, flaked oats, and donut in a grain bag and submerge in the water, being sure to wet all the grains and donut. Hold for 45 minutes, maintaining a temperature above 150 °F (66 °C) but below 162 °F (72 °C). Remove the grain bag and place in a colander. Wash the grain bag with 1 gallon (4 L) hot water. Add malt extract while stirring, and stir until completely dissolved, then top off to 6 gallons (23 L). Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops according to the ingredient list. Whirlpool for 15 minutes after flameout, adding cinnamon sticks and lactose at the start of the whirlpool.
After the whirlpool, chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 65 °F (18 °C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch yeast.
Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C) for 7 days, then raise the temperature to 70 °F (21 °C) for 72 hours. After completion of fermentation, add the vanilla extract. Crash the beer to 35 °F (2 °C) for 48 hours. Then bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.5 volumes.
Tips for Success:
Conshohocken Brewing Co.’s Andrew Pope (“Keg Slinger”), Andrew Horne (Director of Brewing Operations), and Co-Founder Ken Buonocore very generously offered up this smooth, creamy, blonde “krapfen-style ale” (from the German word for “donuts”) recipe that every brewer should attempt at least once. It is deceptively simple in its construction, but the flavors come through as clear as day. Clean bake shop notes abound, and the traditional brewing grains and yeast stay well out of the way. One important process note: Andrew says that “one of the batches might have been missing a donut or two . . .” and in consequence the conversion scaled down the 0.63 donuts to be added in the mash to a baseline half-donut, but you might consider adding more to increase your donut-perceivability (if you’re willing to forgo eating it for yourself).
Those who want to try this beer “live” can find it on special occasions at CBC’s Bridgeport Brew Pub in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania.
Forgotten Boardwalk Brewing Co.’s Funnel Cake clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.054 FG = 1.014
IBU = 26 SRM = 3 ABV = 5.4%
Ingredients
9 lbs. (4.1 kg) Pilsner malt
1.25 lbs. (0.57 kg) flaked oats
0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) light Munich malt (6 °L)
0.25 lb. (0.11 kg) flaked maize
0.25 lb. (0.11 kg) lactose sugar (60 min.)
0.5 oz. (14 g) vanilla beans (dry hop)
7 AAU Magnum hops (60 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 14% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Fermentis US-05 yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Mill the grains and mix with 3.5 gallons (13 L) of 164 °F (73 °C) strike water to reach a mash temperature of 152 °F (67 °C). Hold this temperature for 60 minutes. Vorlauf until your runnings are clear. Sparge the grains with 4.3 gallons (16.2 L) and top up as necessary to obtain 6 gallons (23 L) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, adding lactose and hops at the start of the boil.
Conduct a 15-minute whirlpool after flameout and then chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 65 °F (18 °C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch yeast.
Ferment at 66 °F (19 °C) for 7 days, then raise the temperature to 70 °F (21 °C) for 72 hours. After completion of fermentation, add the vanilla beans and rest for three days. Crash the beer to 35 °F (2 °C) for 48 hours then bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.5 volumes.
Forgotten Boardwalk Brewing Co.’s Funnel Cake clone
(5 gallons/19 L, partial mash)
OG = 1.054 FG = 1.013
IBU = 26 SRM = 3 ABV = 5.5%
Ingredients
4.5 lbs. (2 kg) Pilsen dried malt extract
0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) Pilsner malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) flaked oats
0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) light Munich malt (6 °L)
0.25 lb. (0.11 kg) flaked maize
0.25 lb. (0.11 kg) lactose sugar (60 min.)
0.5 oz. (14 g) vanilla beans (dry hop)
7 AAU Magnum hops (60 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 14% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Fermentis US-05 yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Bring 1 gallon (3.8 L) of water to approximately 162 °F (72 °C) and hold there. Place the crushed grains in a large grain bag and submerge in the water, being sure to mix the grains well to avoid dough balls. Hold for 45 minutes, maintaining a temperature above 150 °F (66 °C) but below 162 °F (72 °C). Remove the grain bag and place in a colander. Wash the grain bag with 1-gallon (4-L) of hot water. Add dried malt extract while stirring, and stir until completely dissolved, then top off to 6 gallons (23 L). Boil for 60 minutes, adding lactose and hops at the start of the boil.
Conduct a 15-minute whirlpool after flameout and then chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 65 °F (18 °C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch yeast.
Ferment at 66 °F (19 °C) for 7 days, then raise the temperature to 70 °F (21 °C) for 72 hours. After completion of fermentation, add the vanilla beans and rest for three days. Crash the beer to 35 °F (2 °C) for 48 hours then bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.5 volumes.
Tips for Success:
Forgotten Boardwalk Brewing Company, located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, describes their Funnel Cake sweet cream ale smelling like “old-fashioned Nilla wafer” and tasting like classic Jersey Shore boardwalk funnel cake. The light Munich, flaked oats, and flaked maize create a rich pastry background, while the lactose and vanilla (a light touch of each) provide just enough sweetness. If you find your version is a bit cloying, just bump up the bittering hop addition by a few AAUs.
Imprint Beer Co.’s Black Forest Cake Stout clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.100 FG = 1.028
IBU = 65 SRM = 69 ABV = 9.6%
Ingredients
15.5 lbs. (7 kg) American 2-row pale malt
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) Munich malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) Carafoam® malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) British chocolate malt (350 °L)
1 lb. (0.45 kg) British crystal malt (65 °L)
1 lb. (0.45 kg) roasted barley
12 oz. (0.34 kg) Carafa® Special III
3 lb. (1.4 kg) Vintner’s Harvest sweet cherry puree
16 AAU Magnum hops (90 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 16% alpha acids)
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) Cholaca liquid cacao (original flavor) or 12 oz. (0.34 kg) toasted Ecuadorian cacao nibs
5 Madagascar vanilla beans
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) or White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) or Lallemand London ESB English-Style Ale yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Several days before brewday, scrape open and cut the 5 vanilla beans into 1-inch (2.5-cm) segments and soak in vodka or Bourbon until ready to add to the secondary.
Mill the grains and mix with 6.8 gallons (25.7 L) of 167 °F (75 °C) strike water to reach a mash temperature of 155 °F (68 °C). Hold this temperature for 60 minutes. If you have soft water, you may want to hold off on adding the roasted grains and British crystal malts until the final 15 minutes of the mash. Vorlauf until your runnings are clear. Sparge the grains with enough water to obtain 7 gallons (26.5 L) of wort. At this point, you may want to test the wort’s gravity. The goal should be to have 7 gallons (26.5 L) of 1.072 SG wort at the start of the boil. You can add dried malt extract (DME) at this point if the SG is low or you may want to wait until the beer is in the fermenter. If you wait to add the DME, be sure to add it after fermentation begins to calm down.
Boil the wort for 90 minutes or more, adding hops according to the ingredient list. After the boil, turn off heat and chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 65 °F (18 °C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch yeast. There should be 5 gallons (19 L) of cooled wort in the fermenter. Be sure to have room in your fermenter for the cherry puree.
Ferment at 66 °F (19 °C) for 10 days (adding the fruit puree on day 6), then raise the temperature to 70 °F (21 °C) for 3–4 days. Carefully rack into a secondary vessel containing Cholaca/cacao nibs and vanilla extract, and age to desired taste. Crash the beer to 35 °F (2 °C) for 48 hours. Bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.25 volumes.
Imprint Beer Co.’s Black Forest Cake Stout clone
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.127 FG = 1.033
IBU = 65 SRM = 69 ABV = 14.6%
Ingredients
11 lbs. (5 kg) extra light dried malt extract
1 lbs. (0.45 kg) Munich dried malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) Carafoam® malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) British chocolate malt (350 °L)
1 lb. (0.45 kg) British crystal malt (65 °L)
1 lb. (0.45 kg) roasted barley
12 oz. (0.34 kg) Carafa® Special III
3 lb. (1.4 kg) Vintner’s Harvest sweet cherry puree
16 AAU Magnum hops (90 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 16% alpha acids)
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) Cholaca liquid cacao (original flavor) or 12 oz. (0.34 kg) toasted Ecuadorian cacao nibs
5 Madagascar vanilla beans
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) or White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) or Lallemand London ESB English-Style Ale yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Bring 4.9 gallons (18.5 L) of water to approximately 162 °F (72 °C) and hold there. Steep milled specialty grains in grain bags for 15 minutes. Remove the grain bags and let drain fully. Add dried malt extract while stirring, and stir until completely dissolved. Bring the wort to a boil.
Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops according to the ingredient list. The remainder of this recipe is the same as the all-grain version.
Tips for Success:
Brewer and Co-Founder Ryan Diehl of Imprint Beer Company in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, says he subscribes to the approach of building a luscious, deep chocolate stout that can stand on its own, and then adding elements specific to the individual beer. Diehl recommends Crisp and Fawcett malts for the grist, and strongly suggests a large yeast starter — this gravity level is tough on the yeast! Or, you may want to repitch yeast from a smaller beer such as a mild ale or ESB. This yeast often attenuates better when it gets repitched. He also says they sometimes boil their pastry stouts for two to four hours, but if doing so be sure to adjust your sparge water to account for greater evaporation.
Neshaminy Creek Brewing Co.’s Maximum Mocha Porter clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.066 FG = 1.017
IBU = 30 SRM = 32 ABV = 6.8%
Ingredients
9.5 lbs. (4.3 kg) American 2-row pale malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) crystal malt (120 °L)
0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) chocolate malt (350 °L)
4 oz. (113 g) black patent malt
1.5 lb. (0.68 kg) lactose (30 min.)
5 AAU Target hops (90 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 10% alpha acids)
2.25 AAU Fuggle hops (15 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 4.5% alpha acids)
2.5 AAU Willamette hops (15 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 5% alpha acids)
8 oz. (0.23 kg) roasted Colombian coffee beans
4 oz. (113 g) coffee-infused dark chocolate
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast (see Tips for Success for more)
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Mill the grains and mix with 3.5 gallons (13.3 L) of 164 °F (73 °C) strike water to reach a mash temperature of 152 °F (67 °C). Hold this temperature for 60 minutes. Vorlauf until your runnings are clear. Sparge the grains with 4 gallons (15.3 L) and top up as necessary to obtain 6 gallons (23 L) of wort. Boil for 90 minutes, adding chocolate at the start of the boil and hops and lactose according to the ingredient list (remove beer from heat when stirring in lactose).
After the boil, turn off heat and chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 65 °F (18 °C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch yeast.
Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C) for 7 days, then raise the temperature to 70 °F (21 °C) for 72 hours. Add the coffee beans and age for 5–7 days or to taste. Crash the beer to 35 °F (2 °C) for 48 hours and then bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.5 volumes.
Neshaminy Creek Brewing Co.’s Maximum Mocha Porter clone
(5 gallons/19L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.064 FG = 1.016
IBU = 30 SRM = 32 ABV = 6.7%
Ingredients
6 lbs. (2.7 kg) extra pale liquid malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) crystal malt (120 °L)
0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) chocolate malt (350 °L)
4 oz. (113 g) black patent malt
1.5 lb. (0.68 kg) lactose (30 min.)
5 AAU Target hops (90 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 10% alpha acids)
2.25 AAU Fuggle hops (15 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 4.5% alpha acids)
2.5 AAU Willamette hops (15 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 5% alpha acids)
8 oz. (0.23 kg) roasted Colombian coffee beans
4 oz. (113 g) coffee-infused dark chocolate
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast (see Tips for Success for more)
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Bring 5.4 gallons (20.4 L) of water to approximately 162 °F (72 °C) and hold there. Steep milled specialty grains in grain bags for 15 minutes. Remove the grain bags and let drain fully. Add liquid malt extract while stirring, and stir until completely dissolved. Boil for 90 minutes, adding the chocolate at the beginning of the boil and hops and lactose according to the ingredient list (remove beer from heat when stirring in lactose).
After the boil, turn off heat and chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 65 °F (18 °C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch yeast.
Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C) for 7 days, then raise the temperature to 70 °F (21 °C) for 72 hours. Add the coffee beans and age for 5–7 days or to taste. Crash the beer to 35 °F (2 °C) for 48 hours and then bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.5 volumes.
Tips for Success:
Co-Founder and Brewmaster (and multiple time Great American Beer Festival medal winner) Jeremy Myers offers two choices on yeast for this recipe. At Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company, in Croydon, Pennsylvania, they prefer the British yeast, pairing its esters with the coffee, but for those who prefer a cleaner chocolate-coffee flavor the American ale approach also produces a great beer. Expect discrepancies in the final gravity though, as the attenuation range between these two strains is fairly significant.
The gang sourced their chocolate from a local chocolatier (Pierre’s of New Home, Pennsylvania) who infused Colombian coffee (single-sourced, just like that used in the beer) into their house dark chocolate. Your commitment doesn’t need to be as high, and you can sub in any high-quality dark chocolate, but feel free to get creative!
