Brewer’s Notes Series: Dan Gambino, A&H Lead Brewer our longest serving employee gives his thoughts on the conception, brewing and evolution of The Chocolate Brown.

A beer originally conceived and brewed for my birthday many years ago, The Chocolate Brown is back and better than ever, complimentary of a few tweaks!

After reading about how a lot of breweries used Cocoa husks in a beer to really drive the chocolatey flavour, I really wanted to try this out for myself. I did a bit of digging and was put in touch with a small and independent London based chocolate producer, Land Chocolate. I enquired if they had any husks available and they did, about the right amount for what I needed. Perfect.

The day that I went to collect the husks I took the bus to the Land Chocolate site near Broadway Market, and managed to find the place in a little retail/industrial unit. The smell was incredible. It was everything I would have imagined Roald Dahl dreamed up when he first thought of writing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Think a cross between making a cup of hot chocolate and baking a chocolate brownie. Lovely stuff!

There were multiple processes happening simultaneously from the grinding of the roasted nibs to the conching, where the cocoa butter is mixed in with the cocoa solids in a form of a continuous grinding machine. A mini tour of the factory later, and I left with two big bags full of husks.

When it came to the brew, the best way to squeeze the most out of the husks was to add them to the mash, the stage where the grains are mixed with the liquor (hot water). Here the husks absorb water and release the wonderful chocolate flavour and aroma. They also create gaps between the grains which helps the water and wort (now hot sugary liquid extract) flow through the grain bed and help with lautering (transferring of the wort to the wort boiler/kettle).

From what I'd read, a lot of the chocolate flavour developed at this stage would make its way into the finished beer. We also used less dark and roasted malts to minimise astringency and lighten the colour as some colour would come from the husks.

Once the beer had been fermented out, there was an extra addition of lightly roasted cocoa nibs which would intensify the chocolate character and add natural fats, giving a slickness and more body to the mouthfeel. 

The Chocolate Brown has come out wonderfully. The beer has an upfront sweet, chocolate nose and taste with a lingering mid palate touch of a rich, dark and high cocoa content chocolate bar. The finish is dry with a touch of sweetness. It is no way a cloying desert beer!

Treat yourself and grab some on our webshop.