Wintergreen Chocolate Stout Recipe

Batch #2 - Wintergreen Chocolate Stout

First off, I will say that I am still in the "getting a hang of it" phase of brewing, and shooting for a certain style is a goal, and not something that I am sure about yet. But I consulted with one of my friends who has been brewing for years, and it sounds like this beer should fall into the Porter/Stout range, which is what I am hoping for.

Brew Date: November 21
Rack Date: December 5
Bottle Date: December 28

OG 1.068
FG 1.022

Here is the recipe:

5.75 Gallons Water
9.3 pounds Golden LME
1 pound Chocolate Malt (Briess)
1 pound Black Malt (Briess)
1 pound Smoked Malt (Briess)
2 ounce Williamette Hops (60 minutes)
1 ounce Cascade Hops (5 minutes)
4 ounces Cacao Nibs dry hopped for 2 weeks
2 ounces Wintergreen Leaves dry hopped for 1 week.
1 packs Safale US-05 dry yeast

So my goal with this beer will be to have a nice and chocolately beer, nicely complemented with a minty wintergreen and hopefully a subtle smokiness.

Potential problems during process:
1) Kept the steeping grains in over 170 degrees, which was the recommended temp i take them out at. Not sure exactly how hot it was, because, again, no thermometer....

Well this beer is in the primary, so my plan now is to keep it in there for about a week, then transfer to the secondary. A week after that I will add the nibs, and a week after that, the wintergreen.

Edit: Some notes: First off, I left the wintergreen in there about 1 week longer than I wanted to. I don't think it's a big deal, as I don't think they are going to impart the flavor I was imagining.

Second, transfering this beer into bottles was extremely frustrating, and I almost swore off the sport while doing so. I think the cacoa nibs were clogging the bottling hose which made it stay in the "on" position, which resulted in a lot of chocolate flavored beer coating the majority of my kitchen. Finally I texted my Sensei, and he said when he used to bottle he never used the wand, but rather bottled straight from the spigot on the bottling bucket. Wise words indeed; saved my soul from certain madness.

From what I tasted, it seems like a fairly solid beer, so hopefully after carbonation it will turn out roughly how I wanted it. I will keep you posted.