“But what made you think that’d be drinkable?”

This is what my Dad asked me, when I told him about the chocolate mint beer I was making.

Which is a reasonable question. Chocolate and mint have been longstanding collaborators in the edible world however (though generally as confection) and the results are generally positive. So in this case I’m hoping “Why wouldn’t it be drinkable?” is the better question. The answers will be coming but probably not for a week.

Recipe:
Steeping Malts
1.5 lb choc malt
.5 lb C40
.5 oz Munich

Fermenting
7 lb LME

Hops/Adjuncts
1 oz Nugget @ 60
.75 oz Nugget @30
Mint @10 3 7/8th oz
1. Oz coco powder, 1 oz sugar

Gravities:
OG 1.061
TG: 1.019

Which gives me 5.45% ABV.

So first I want to thank Fuz for the inspiration for this brew. As for the extra details:

I used mint that was growing in my back yard; we have a bunch of it, the stuff never goes anywhere and its uses are seemingly limited in the general eating world. I also used a lot of mint because I am tired of adding things to my beers and not being able to taste them in the finished product. What’s the point? So I figure that nothing succeeds like overkill, damnit  and really went for it this time.

I also kept the majority of the malts chocolate; the Munich and C-40 are there for body. Those malts were part of a stout I made earlier this year which had an excellent mouthfeel, so I’m hopeful that effect happens again. In the meantime, I wanted chocolate to be the flavor you got when drinking; the hops are there mostly as a nod to the idea that beer needs hops.

I just bottled this beer and here’s what I can tell you so far; the mint is very strong. At least in the nose. I am just a little worried that my overkill was…uh, overkillery and has wrecked the beer. On the flip side, the flavors of the beer don’t carry the mint much at all. So this may be a rare case when the beer is better out of the bottle than in the glass. Anyway, I’ll know more soon.