Brew Day: Terry's CO Milk Stout

Terry's Chocolate Orange

Each year nearing the winter holidays, a wonderful creation surfaces on shelves around the country. The chocolately, orangey masterpiece known as Terry's Chocolate Orange and better still, Terry's Dark Chocolate Orange. This recipe is an attempt to capture the essence of the Terry's CO and wrestle it into a smooth, medium bodied milk stout. Although this recipe contains no chocolate, we achieve a chocolate flavor using grains that had been transformed by the Magic of Maillard. (5 gallon extract)

Fermentables
5.5 lb DME
1.0 lb Lactose
.75 lb Chocolate
.50 lb Caramel 120L
.25 lb Dehusked Carafa III Special

Hops 

Terry's CO Milk Stout 12 hours after Pitch

0.75 oz Galena 13%  45 min
0.25 oz Fuggle 3.6% 15 min
0.25 oz Fuggle 3.6% 05 min

Yeast
Wyeast 1318 London Ale III

Other
Organic Orange Zest 4-medium navel

Estimated

OG: 1.060

FG: 1.016

ABV: 5.8%

IBU: 33

Brew Day Notes: Grains were steeped in 5.5 gal of water at 155 °F for 30 minutes. We had to take about an hour break before starting the boil due to a car accident (luckily no one was seriously injured). The rest of the day went as planned. Tried whirlfloc for the first time. We ended up with about 4.5 gal a bit above the predicted OG and decided to leave it alone. Wyeast 1318 London Ale III was streaked on a slant to bank later.

The Orange zest extract was prepared by zesting the organic oranges, and then adding the zest into a mason jar along with enough grain alcohol to cover the zest. The mixture was placed in the fridge with a lid and swirled occasionally.

There was a good bit of blow-off during fermentation. Wyeast definitely seems to be the best commercially available yeast we have tried so far. It always seems to start quickly and with great vigor. Beer was racked to secondary after 1 week in primary. Specific gravity had fallen and remained steady at 1.022. The beer remained in secondary for approximately 2 weeks. 

After beer was racked into the bottling bucket boiled water was added to bring volume up to 5 gallons reducing the final gravity to 1.017. 6 teaspoons of the orange zest extract was added and stirred into the beer along with the priming sugar. The original diluted gravity was calculated based on the volume added to the beer at bottling.

Measured (before dilution/ after dilution to 5 gal)

Vol: 4.5 gal/ 5 gal
OG: 1.065/1.053

FG: 1.022/1.017

ABV:5.6%/4.7%

Tasting Notes:
2 weeks:
Appearance: Dark brown with a thin tan head
Aroma: orange, coffee, dark chocolate
Taste: orange, coffee, chocolate, slightly sweet
Palate: Medium light body, dry finish
Overall: This beer turned out quite well. The aroma came out spot on with the chocolate orange. The body could have been thicker. Maybe adding in some flaked barley next time will take it to the next level. Compared to a Westbrook Orange Bliss chocolate orange stout, the only thing we felt the Westbrook bested it in was the body.