Milk Chocolate Orange Stout

For my work holiday party I made a Milk Chocolate Orange Stout. I wanted something that reminded everyone of the holidays and I had a bunch of great oranges that needed to be used. I went with a Milk Stout Base and added cocoa powder, quartered oranges in the boil, orange zest, and Gran Marnier soaked oak cubes. I had a shirt window in which to brew, age, keg and serve this beer, so when I tasted it a few days prior to serving, I thought it needed some extra chocolate and orange flavor, so I added an additional can of cocoa powder to the keg as well as some orange zest on the sack that also held the Gran Marnier soaked oak cubes. The oak and zest were great, the cocoa powder became a muddy mess, although it tasted great.

The beer was a hit and I felt I got pretty close to nailing the chocolate orange. However, next time I will bump up the chocolate malts to have the base beer really create the chocolate flavor, so I don't create a muddy mess.

Recipe: US-2 Row, White Wheat, Pale Chocolate Malt, Crystal 120, Roasted Barley, and lactose sugar. Oranges, orange zest, cocoa powder, Gran Marnier oak cubes, Amarillo at 60min, 20 min and Saf Ale US05.