So for Cerveza de Mayo I had a beer idea but thought I'd get some experts thoughts before giving it a try. I was inspired by some cinnamon churro's I had recently that were drizzled in chocolate and I was going go try to make a cinnamon chocolate beer. This may be a bit out there, but let me know your thoughts.
I was thinking of brewing something with a very low ABV and very mild hops (maybe a lager or pale ale), and then adding some cinnamon sticks and chocolate extract during the secondary. To increase the sweetness (because Churro's are so wonderfully sweet!) I was going to add some lactose but I read on HBT that some Crystal 10L will also increase the sweetness with some unfermentables.
So, to the brewing experts out there, is this a fools errand? Am I crazy (don't answer that :-P)? Can it work? I'd really love to know! Thanks!
Lactose will not add much sweetness but it will add body. For sweetness crystal is the way to go as well as a pils malt base I think would be nice. A bready sweet. For the crystal here is a quick breakdown of the flavors. Depending on your sweetness needs use 1-2 lbs. Reducing the bittering hops to like 15 - 20 with a low alcohol beer would help.
10-20 - Honey like
40-60 caramel like
80-120 raisin to dark fruit
Cinnamon is an easy flavor to get but can cause astringency. Add cinnamon stick to the fermentor to avoid this, dont boil them. Or add cinnamon stick at knockout.
Chocolate is a hard flavor to get. Use creme de caco or chocolate extract flavor, add at bottling after testing with a graduated cylender and scaling up. Coco powder and dark chocolate does not add much flavor.
What do you mean reduce the hops to 15-20? Otherwise awesome info, thanks!
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Oh... my... god. Why haven't we done this? http://thechive.com/2013/09/17/guys-rig-up-buddies-plumbing-with-beer-wh...
ibus, sorry
For my Mayan Midnight Stout, I added two ounces of cacao and a quarter teaspoon of powdered cinnamon into secondary (boiled a pint of water and then added cacao and cinnamon at flame out, cooled and added to beer.)
I have some powdered raw cacao. Dominican, good shit.