Baker's Chocolate vs Cacao Nibs

[drudini11]

Brewing a recipe for a Kentucky Bourbon Stout that calls for 24 oz Baker's Chocolate added last 5 minutes of the boil. I'm not a huge fan of using baker's chocolate and want to substitute cacao nibs instead. Thinking about soaking 8oz Cacao Nibs in the 24oz bourbon that this recipe also calls for and adding it all to secondary. Would 8oz be sufficient to replace the 24oz of baker's chocolate or should I use more then this? Not sure if there is any type of conversion between the 2.

 

[ivegot2legs]

24 oz of bakers chocolate is a lot. Is it a 5 gallon batch?

How much chocolate are you looking for? Nibs give a rather roasted, chocolate, subtle flavour. If you want chocolate flavour you need to use chocolate powder, paste, or bakers chocolate.

Soaking whole nibs in bourbon, beer, vodka, water, etc. doesn't yield much. It's comparable to soaking whole coffee beans in water for two weeks. It'll turn dark, and taste kind of like coffee, but you won't have coffee.

Ground nibs are chocolate paste, then cocoa powder. If you want actually chocolate, you'll need one of those products, likely dissolved in warm wort/water.

 

[rocketsan]

Not true...soaking whole nibs does give great flavour you just have to give it time. Have a pound of nibs soaking for six weeks and they are going to be great in my next batch

 

[ivegot2legs]

I did 4 oz of nibs in a fairly low abv sweet stout and I got pretty much nothing after a few months (after a bourbon soak). Added 6 oz more for a few weeks before bottling, still not a whole lot.

Any recipe (presumably 5 gallons) that calls for 24 oz of chocolate is intended to have a strong chocolate flavour. 8 oz of nibs, or even 24 oz of nibs won't get you there.

 

[Rhoobarb]

Drop the coffee and you've got a chocolate delight right here. Brewed it many times:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/chocolate-coffee-stout-chocolate-jitterz-35562/