CHIP: Drinking by myself at HQ?
BRAD: Not really. I'm standing right over there.
CHIP: What's going on? Friends, family and followers of Northern
Brewer Homebrew Supply. I'm Chip Walton, the digital producer for Northern Brewer.
BRAD: I am Brad Segall, head development brewer at Northern Brewer.
CHIP: And we are here because you often see Brad in our Behind the Brew videos, which are how we
introduce a new beer kit. Or maybe we introduce you to an older beer kit you didn't know about a
portfolio. But, in those Behind the Brew videos, you rarely see how we got to the end product.
BRAD: Behind the Behind the Brew.
CHIP: Right. You just know how awesome it is because Brad's spilling,
like spitting science, dropping science on said kit.
BRAD: In glasses.
CHIP: But, what we have here is an opportunity to actually talk about,
kind of Behind the Test Brew because we have three variations of our most recent kit, the Mexican Hot
Chocolate Stout, and kind of how it progressed and evolved to the kit that we now all know and love.
But before we get into these little glasses of beer,
if you like these kinds of videos, if you like to see Chip and Brad nerd out on a random Wednesday
at the end of a workday, all things homebrewing, some homebrew nerdy -- Like and Subscribe,
hit all notifications so that, you know the next time we're just sitting around nerding out.
Version one is kind of the base beer plus, but what is the base beer?
BRAD: The one that should be right about here, but is not because it is gone, is a
pretty standard -- maybe a slightly less intense -- American stout. It comes in at about 5.2% to
5.4% ABV depending on your attenuation. You know, pretty simple: it's 2-Row, some dark caramel malt,
chocolate malt, and black malt. Bittered with Columbus hops. So it's pretty standard for an
American stout, even though it is not quite as strong as the BJCP would want you to believe.
CHIP: And, it's been in your repertoire for a minute. Scores well.
BRAD: Yup. Does well in competition. I have been brewing that beer for ten years, so that
was one that I knew I could kind of skip because I know that beer is good; now let's augment it.
CHIP: For anybody that doesn't know a Mexican hot chocolate, it's a decadent,
rich beverage. It's chocolate-y, it's got cream most often as the milk element. It's got cinnamon.
BRAD: Cinnamon. It's got oftentimes cayenne
rimmed on the glass or cayenne powder sprinkled over the top.
CHIP: So, we had four things we needed: creaminess, cinnamon, heat and chocolate.
BRAD: Yes.
CHIP: And to get two of those, we have the first beer that is actually in front of us:
the stout with cinnamon and lactose in the boil.
BRAD: Yeah. This is the the original base beer that this kit was modeled on. And it is
then boiled with cinnamon sticks and lactose. So, we're halfway there, flavor-wise.
CHIP: Kind of tastes like a cinnamon bun, stout but not nearly, you know, if somebody is really
intentionally making one of those, it would have more lactose, probably higher finishing gravity.
BRAD: It would be more like a pastry stout than an American-style stout with spices added.
CHIP: Right. But it's a really fun twist, and it starts to get us there. I guess I
didn't even ask you this during the whole process: Why wouldn't you boil the cocoa nibs
and the peppers? Why wouldn't this just be like a one-pot meal/ [laughs]
BRAD: Well, the peppers and the cocoa nibs actually go into the secondary as you would
normally dry hop. So, what I did is I took both the peppers,
chopped them up, deseeded and threw them into a jar with the cocoa nibs.
CHIP: Right.
BRAD: Covered that in a high of spirit just to make sure everything's kind of sanitary.
And what's awesome about the high-proof spirit is it also really draws out a lot
of the flavors in the beer from the peppers and the cocoa nibs. And so,
you're getting an extra wallop of flavor with the added benefit of basically being sanitary.
CHIP: That boiling might have like stripped out some flavors?
BRAD: Too hot.
CHIP: OK.
BRAD: Too hot, would've stripped out a lot.
CHIP: You did a ten-gallon batch and then five gallons got that
secondary treatment with cocoa nibs and ancho, and five got it with chilies de arbol.
BRAD: Yup.
CHIP: The ancho is really interesting on its own, but does not have any heat.
BRAD: No.
CHIP: It smells like it taste in this glass, and that is Raisin Bran.
BRAD: Raisin Bran with a little bit of cinnamon on top.
CHIP: Yeah, it literally smells like roasted -- I
think raisin bread. Because now we have cinnamon, we've got this raisin-y pepper.
BRAD: Figs.
CHIP: If you just sat here and ate this,
there's like zero heat to it almost; even the seeds in the ribs.
BRAD: So although it tastes fantastic, like, that's a darn good beer on its own, right?
It just wasn't what we were looking for.
CHIP: Somebody on the Internet is going to be like, Where's the heat?
BRAD: Yeah, exactly. We'll get called out for that one.
[laughs]
CHIP: So where the heat is, is in those guys.
BRAD: Chilies de arbol! This was the next iteration and what turned out to be the
final actual kit. With the chilies de arbols, it's got the heat that we're looking for.
CHIP: Yeah. It's also, we were talking about earlier, it's got like this fire-roasted
skin quality to it that's almost like roasted or baked. It just does something else to those oils,
to that heat. As you might remember, in the actual Behind the Brew video for Mexican Hot
Chocolate Stout, Brad cracked those pods, emptied the seeds, and then put just the pods in. So,
you can kind of control the heat by whether or not you put those seeds in.
BRAD: Yup. You can put just the pods in and you're still going to get the little bit,
you're going to notice the heat.
CHIP: Yeah.
BRAD: But if you like it a little bit spicier,
take some of those seeds out from wherever you crack them, and put them in with the cocoa nibs
and the peppers, and then soak in with vodka to be safe. Few days will be fine, but make sure you
swirl them up every here and there. Once they've been soaking for a while, you can actually see
the vodka or the spirits take on the colors of both the pepper and the cocoa nibs. But,
that's a good thing. That means we get all the flavors in the vodka.
CHIP: Then you're just dosing the beer.
BRAD: That goes right in like a dry hop addition. Let that sit for a week,
and move along and package it up. Here's what we got.
CHIP: And these two beers are kind of a world of difference. Like this one
has that heat, especially after you've had a few sips of it and you keep talking,
you start to feel. It also has that kind of has that cayenne or red pepper flake
kind of roasted heat to it, as well as the Scoville kind of heat.
BRAD: You know, there's definitely some heat in there. It's not overpowering;
it's is just enough to kind of bring all the other ingredients together. So, we've got the creaminess
of the lactose. I don't know how else to describe cinnamon as other than cinnamon. And then the hot
peppers and the cocoa nibs, and it all kind of comes together. So, it's not going to be
anything over the top like a pastry stout might be. It's not
going to be amazingly chocolate and amazingly creamy, but those flavor nuances are there.
CHIP: Yeah. It is still a stout. Whereas a lot of pastry stouts, you can argue they're
supporting really fun flavors, but at that point they're almost like not the Imperial Stout even.
BRAD: The really sweet Imperial Stout with whatever flavors you
want to throw at it. Not saying they're bad beers.
CHIP: But this is still a 5.4% stout.
BRAD: Yeah, this is like 5.2%, 5.4%, depending on your attenuation and whatnot. When you do add to
the chilies and the cocoa nibs, and with the vodka in it, that is going to raise
your ABV up a little bit, but it's relatively negligible going into five gallons. Right.
CHIP: So, yeah, we just want to take this opportunity before our coworkers,
who are literally out there trying to kick these kegs on us, before they finish it.
Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout, extract and all-grain versions. We suggest you
brew it as it comes to you with these chilies, but I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't frown upon
experimenting with these anchos in some other beer because they are a really fun flavor.
BRAD: Yeah, I think that could be fun in like a brown ale,
something that's not quite as roasty as a stout. Or like an Ancho Mild.
CHIP: Say what? Yeah!
BRAD: Ancho Saison?
CHIP: Ooh. Well, I don't know.
BRAD: That might be a little weird.
CHIP: The ancho dark mild might be where it's at.
BRAD: That's the way to go.
CHIP: Thanks for watching. We're going to go back to work now.
BRAD: Yep. See ya!
CHIP: When we do stuff like this, do you feel more like Bob and Doug McKenzie, or Bert and Ernie?
BRAD: I feel like drunk Bert and Ernie. Not drunk, half in the bag.
CHIP: Half in the bag.
BRAD: Half in the big Bert and Ernie talking about
beer on a Wednesday afternoon. We're getting paid for this.