AHS Double Chocolate Stout (13D) - MINI MASH Homebrew Ingredient Kit

This was my first stout and hoping to mimic Young's Double Chocolate Stout. This was also my first attempt of personalizing the recipe. I followed the recipe mostly but added 1 lb of lactose milk sugar at the end of the boil. I also added 3/4 of 1 dram of English Toffee flavor oil just before kegging it with beer gas. It really came out great and would highly recommend it. It's not overly sweet and has a nice balance of coffee and chocolate undertones with just a hint of the toffee. Next time I would use a little more chocolate and the full dram of toffee flavoring.

I made this expecting a milk chocolate taste, but it had more of a bitter chocolate taste. It just wasn't for me. I will try a milk chocolate next time and hopefully get the taste I was after.

Follow the advice of others. Let this beer age at least 3 months. If you are patient you will be rewarded with an outstanding stout. One of the best beers I have ever made.

I brewed the extract version of this a while back. Aside from the Belgian cocoa I also added a total of 4 extra ounces of cocoa nibs to the beer (2 in the boil and 2 in the secondary) and there is very little chocolate flavor. I've had many other chocolate stouts and this is very similar, but I think that by reducing the black patent malt and black roasted barley the chocolate flavor might come out a bit more while still retaining the color. I know the chocolate name refers more to the color than the flavor, but I feel with the title of "double" it should have more chocolate character.

Absolutely loved this one, and definitely the best kit beer I've made. The chocolate flavor developed a little more over time, and was really there at about 3 months. Next time I will be adding more chocolate to it, but that is just for personal preference (it is great as is).