Chocolate Flavor From Malt

I just tried a Baltic Porter that has been lagering for a while, and was amazed at the chocolate taste, given that:
- It contains no chocolate
- It doesn’t even any chocolate malt.

The base was Gambrinus ESB, with a pound each of Special B, Brown, C-40, and half a pound of Carafa II for a seven gallon batch.

How do you get chocolatey goodness?

Chocolate malt is only named as such due to it’s color, not the taste. A combination of malts with varying degrees of caramellisation and roasting along with residual sugars can taste and/or smell similar to chocolate. Special B tend to give dried fruit, brown+c40+carafa should be able to render a chocolaty end result.

Agreed that chocolate malt doesn’t taste much like chocolate at all.

Originally posted by t0rin0
Agreed that chocolate malt doesn’t taste much like chocolate at all.

Originally posted by bitbucket
By the way, chewing a few kernels of malt is interesting. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t tried it yet. Of course you need to remember that the character malts you’re adding will only contribute a part of the taste of the final beer.

UK chocolate is pretty chocolatey.

I used a pound of chocolate malt in a porter, no roasted malt, and it was smooth and chocolatey. Not sweet, but definately a nice flavor akin to chocolate. Used a 1/2 pound of 120 L crystal, too.

Originally posted by Danko
Chocolate malt is only named as such due to it’s color, not the taste.

Originally posted by t0rin0
Agreed that chocolate malt doesn’t taste much like chocolate at all.

Regarding the recipe in the original post, I’m fairly sure it’s the brown malt. In copious amounts it yields a sort of dusty cocoa powder kind of character. Kind of like a chocolate shortbread cookie. I typically use about a pound in my standard gravity porter recipe.

I know I’m a little late to this thread, but chocolate malt never produced a chocolate flavor to me. It produced an unsweetened baker’s cocoa flavor, but not a chocolate flavor. That may seem like splitting hairs, but in my mind chocolate flavor insinuates a certain level of sweetness, which chocolate malt does not impart. With that being said, the combination of chocolate malt and some medium-dark crystal coupled with a yeast that produces some dark fruit esters and a higher finishing gravity should produce the desired result.