Chocolate Stout Recipe Kit

I didn't order any yeast but an Ice pack was added to my cost. WTF? could not delete this item from my order, so I didn't.
Moral of this incident: don't mess with geezers!

I just brewed this beer up three days ago. So, I haven't tasted it yet. This is my first kit from AIH and I was surprised that the LME came in sealed plastic pouches. I pre-warmed the pouch in hot water, cut the corner off, and let it ooze into my wort. However, I didn't feel like I could get all of the extract out of the pouch. On kits from other suppliers, where they use little jugs, I'd put some hot wort in the jug and swirl/shake it to get all of the LME out. I was uneasy trying to do that with this plastic pouch, so I know I lost some extract to the trash. I turned out, my OG was about 1.041, which is close, but slightly lower than the expectation in the instructions. I have to wonder if the plastic pouch is the reason why. One star deducted for the irritation of the plastic pouch. The wort did smell wonderful and I am confident that it will taste great.

A beer that I will brew over and over. Nice flavor and if a half shot of peanut butter whiskey is added it just gets better.

I brewed this as the directions noted, then added cacao nibs in the secondary that had been soaked in vodka to extract flavor. I fermented 3 gallons with just the cacao, 1 gallon with cacao and tart cherries (thawed from frozen), and 1 gallon with cinnamon sticks (4 sticks/gallon) and Thai peppers (2 de-seeded peppers/gallon). The beer fermented 3 weeks between the two stages (1-1st and 2 weeks-2nd) and has been in bottles for a week. We opened one of the cacao bottles last night and have decided to give it a little more time. I plan to let a bomber (or two) of the cherry and the cinnamon/pepper age longer to see how that works out. Very happy with this kit.

This is my first brew and it came with the kit. I fermented for one week in the pail then racked to the carboy for 2 weeks. I tasted today before bottling and my wife and I found it smooth with a hint of chocolate. Just enough bitter to make it beer and the extra time in the carboy helped drop some of the burnt flavor I taste in Commercial Stouts. VERY NICE! I will leave it in the carboy for another week then bottle.