Okay, yeah, pretty sure this is the worst beer I've made.
Guessing at what's wrong...
I didn't make a yeast starter, because it said I could pitch right away and I'm lazy.
I added too much cocoa powder, which just makes everything bitter and gritty.
I didn't make/add enough chocolate flavor, and the cacao nibs didn't give the flavor I wanted. I should have just used creme de cacao and called it a day.
It's definitely had time to settle down, but it's still not good. All the cocoa and yeast have formed bitter death at the bottom of the bottle. Without it, it just tastes like an incomplete brown ale. I'll try it again in a couple weeks, but I might just end up dumping this batch if it doesn't improve.
It was a little bit early, but I was eager to try it. The beer was really cloudy. It tasted fresh in kind of a bad way. After the first sip, I started getting some chocolate notes. There was a lot of sediment left in the bottle, mostly cocoa powder, I assume. Maybe I should try to find a way to incorporate that back into the beer. The body was light and kinda refreshing. I'm considering adding a shot of chocolate liqueur to the pour in order to get the chocolate flavor up. It might also help to let the beer warm up a bit to bring out the flavors.
Recipe Facts
Chocolate Stout for people who like chocolate beer...