Brewing Chocolates by Manoa Chocolate Co.

Brewing Chocolate is a combination of finely crushed roasted cacao nibs and shell. When used in the beer brewing process, it adds a bitter, rich flavor, great for chocolate stouts, porters, and dark ales. Cacao nibs (crushed seeds from the Cacao plant) are the key ingredient in chocolate. While not technically chocolate themselves, they have a wonderful cocoa smell to them, and will provide a very subdued cocoa-like flavor to any beer.

You can add these Brewing Chocolates like you would any dry hopping addition to your secondary fermenter or keg for a couple of weeks (4 ounces per 5 gallons is a great place to start), allowing the beer to draw out the subtle flavors and aromas of the chocolate. They can also be used in the boil or mash – wherever you would like to experiment with them. Adding Brewing Chocolates pre-boil will impart some bitterness, so use a lot less than you would when adding them to a keg. (Recently, our friends at Stone Brewing Company made a stout using cacao nibs in the boil to actually replace some of the hops in the recipe!)