Chocolate Coffee Stout Chili

So I made my first attempt at a chili today. I wanted to make a chili that incorporated beer into the recipe and thanks to my friend Eric I was able to find a recipe which uses beer, chocolate and coffee to make a chili. Can't beat that, probably three of my favorite foods/beverages. I used the recipe he passed on as a backbone for the recipe I have included here.

Ingredients

2 tsp of olive oil

2 chopped onions

3 gloves of garlic minced

1 lb of lean ground beef

3/4 lb of beef sirloin cubed

1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes

1 12 oz can of tomatoe paste

1 can of beef broth

2 15 oz cans of kidney beans

1 bottle of Terrapin Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout

1 cup of strong coffee (home roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe)

1/4 cup of dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons of chili powder

1 tablespoon of cumin

1 tsp of oregano

1 tsp of cayenne pepper

1 tsp of coriander

1 tsp of salt

1 jalapeno pepper finely diced (seeds removed)

1 habanero pepper finely diced (seeds removed)

1 serranos pepper finely diced (seeds removed)

1 Green & Blacks 70% dark chocolate bar

Directions

Prepare onions and garlic and brown in a pan with the oil. Once browned pour into a crock pot.

Cube sirloin, brown and pour into the crock pot.

Brown ground beef and add to crock pot.

Open all cans and pour into crock pot. Hold onto one can of the beans for later. Also add the beer and 1 cup of coffee.

Break chocolate bar into small piece, eat a few of them and throw most of them into the crock pot.

Add all spices and brown sugar to crock pot.

Stir

Set crock pot on high and let simmer for an hour and a half.

After an hour and a half add last can of beans and let simmer for another half hour.

Enjoy

Brown ground beef and pour into the crock pot.

Double IPA on Tap

The Double IPA (Pliny the Elder type clone) that I brewed a few weeks back is on tap and tasting great. If you live in the area you will have to stop by for a pint or two.

I also bottled the Belgian Cherry Chocolate Stout this weekend and had a successful brew day with the Jolly Pumpkin yeast experiment batch. I hit all my target numbers and this yeast took off fast. It literally started bubbling within two hours of pitching the yeast and fermentation temperature is currently sitting nicely at 70 degrees so while it's a strong fermentation it's not going out of control too early.

Jolly Pumpkin Experimental Batch

For my next batch I decided to venture into the world of culturing up yeast from the bottle of a non-filtered commerical beer. I figured what better yeast to culture then the house strain from Jolly Pumpkin (if they really even have one specific house strain). I have always loved the aroma and flavor their yeast provides the Noel de Calabaza so I decided to use the dregs from two bottles of that beer to get this one going. I started the processing of growing up the yeast about a month ago and I'm at the point where I have a really healthy batch of yeast. I'm sure the character of the yeast and ratio of regular "Belgian yeast" to wild yeast has change over the course of building this starter up but it's still smelling and tasting great. If you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about take a look at this article. I can't wait to get this beer brewed and in bottles. Here is the recipe.

5 Gallon Batch

Brew Day = 09 Jan 2010

Grains
6 lbs of German Pilsner Malt
4 lbs of American two row
1.5 lb of raw wheat
.5 lb Barley (Flaked)
.25 Crystal 80

Hops
60 Minute – 0.5 oz of Nelson Sauvin (11.5 AA)
30 Minute – 0.5 oz of Simcoe
KO – 1 oz of Centennial and 1 oz of Amarillo
Dry – 1 oz of Centennial and 1 oz of Amarillo

Yeast
Used the dregs from a 2007 Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza bottle. Did an initial starter on the 2007 bottle and then a second step up and added the dregs from the 2009 bottle. Grew it up 4 times and then will do a starter before using.

Targets
Pre-Boil Gravity = 1.041
OG = 1.057
FG = 1.012
ABV = 5.8%
IBU = 32

Mash
Mash at 149 degrees F with 3.8 gallons of water

Sparge
6.7 gallons

Boil
90 Minute Boil

I'm still tossing around the idea of adding some fruit to the secondary or maybe even some honey and letting it sit in the secondary fermentor for a month or two. Does anyone have any thoughts on that? I know the Jolly Pumpkin culture has some brett and other wild yeast in it and want to make sure some of that character comes through. Although I'm also dosing this with a nice aroma addition of some American hops. Basically this recipe is roughly based on Jolly Pumpkins Bam Bier. Open to suggestions. Let it take it's course of a regular 3 week fermentation. Or let it sit through a longer secondary process and introduce some fruit and/or honey into the secondary?