Otis Spunkmeyer Stout

If you're not from USA, and the northeast at that, Otis Spunkmeyer used to be a brand of cookies found in various locations. The idea was your store would get the dough, and a little oven, and with little effort you could pump out the most amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies, all warm and gooey. This beer is a love letter to those days. Shooting for warm, biscuity, bready malt body, with notes of sweet chocolate, vanilla, and a bit of coffee/toffee/other "dessert" notes from the secret weapon, Black Treacle. Speaking of which, for the wort, DON'T actually use American or Black Strap molasses, but instead Lyle's Black Treacle, from Amazon. Crazy good stuff. Loads of flavors.

Let the primary fermentation run it's course (shoot for 14 days on the trub), and then let it sit for seven days on a slit open vanilla bean in a secondary vessel. At packaging (I'm using a corny keg), add 16 oz. of Ghirardelli chocolate syrup. Dark beers being mysterious, you'll get a bang for your buck aging and conditioning this, the longer the better. That said, that treacle works wonders, and after only one week (21 days in primary and secondary, and 7 to condition) you'll still have a surprisingly complex dark treat. Between that, the chocolate malt grain, and the lactose sugar to leave residual sweetness, you should get a nice chocolate effect to go with the malt. Hops should balance this malty, chocolatey treat for these last chilly days before summer and its sours, wheats, and IPAs...