adding vanilla, coffee, and cocoa to brew?

[derhul]

I'm working on creating my second all grain brew (5 gallon)...a milk stout.

I wanna add vanilla extract, cocoa and coffee to the same brew.

So my questions are:

1) what is the minimum amount of vanilla/ cocoa nibs i should add to get to a mild cocoa/vanilla flavor?

2. Same for the coffee, what amount. Adding...what type of coffee should i use? French roast?


**Also**

I'm thinking I'll add the above during the secondary fermentation process. Is this a good Idea? Is there better timing?

[Rugger1978]

I think 4 oz cocoa nibs is pretty standard starting point for a 5 gallon batch. When I made my Russian Imperial Stout, I purchased fresh whole vanilla beans, split them open, scooped the gunk out of them and threw it all (the beans plus their gunk) in the secondary. I let it set fro 2 weeks. I believe it was 2 or 3 whole beans I used, maybe 4. The vanilla aroma/taste goes away with age so it's really hard to over do it IMO.

[usdtc00]

When I added vanilla beans to a stout I bought 2 from the merc and put them in some makers mark while waiting for fermentation to end then dumped it all in secondary. I've done that with and without oak and both times it turned out great.

I previously added coffee by brewing a batch and dumping the pot in secondary. It tasted fine, but after the meeting last November I tried cold steep. I think I ended up with 3.6 oz of coffee in the mason jar and topped it off with makers mark. Soaked overnight, added to secondary for 24 hrs. It's way too much coffee flavor. I'm going to have to cut it with another stout.

+1 on the 4 oz of chocolate.

[derhul]

Thanks guys...I'll give the above a shot