I've been home brewing for about a year and a half now. We've typically been staying with more standard recipes, however lately it seems like we're pushing the limits more and more. We've been toying with the idea of a choc fruit stout. My initial feeling is that we wouldn't want a sweet stout base as the fruit and chocolate should add some sweetness. I personally like sweet stouts but would hate to go to far and over-sweeten it. I also like the idea of adding raspberry puree but think too much is also a bad thing. My idea is to buy some already existing stouts that we all know and enjoy while adding raspberry juice in small increments to samples till I find a flavor I think blends well. Does this seem plausible as an idea? Or am I way over thinking this out and should go to bed earlier next time? Would you go more sweet or more dry for the base?
You could purchase raspberry ect. extracts and drop with dropper into different stouts. The typical FG of fruity dark beers tend to be on the high side. Sweeter beers accentuate fruit better. Think of a raspberry chocolate cake baked with no sugar...not so appetizing. I've linked to this before, iTunes: TBN Presents, The Jamil Show - Fruit Beers This podcast has a lot of good info. I do not look further than I have to. I have no doubt that there are other, perhaps even better, resources, but I am an auditory learner. I like the podcast format. As far as chocolate as a flavoring, the forum has tons of info to search for on chocolate flavoring. Edit: Also, your post title is determining ratios of adjuncts, I think of fruit as an addition not an adjunct, but maybe it is a distinction without a difference. I read adjunct and I think sugars other than barley ie. corn, rice, honey.
I agree that a sweet stout would probably work best. But, for another explanation why. Fruit is sweet, but not so much after the sugars are fermented out. I personally prefer to use frozen organic fruit rather than canned or pureed as I try to avoid unknown additional sugars. As far as the chocolate goes, I would suggest using cocao nibs (or cocoa powder) which are the raw cocao beans that are unsweetened. If you do go with a sweetened chocolate be aware of fat content as well, and try to keep fats out of your beer. Also, sweetened chocolate would likely ferment out as well (but I have not used it before).
"as the fruit and chocolate should add some sweetness" Just realize that adding juice right before drinking it, is not the same as adding it during fermentation. The fermented fruit beer will usually be drier and stronger (unless using something like sorbate/or pasteurizing). Cranberries are a notable exception...they contain almost no sugar.
Wow a ton of responses here! Thanks everyone for the great advice! After listening to Jamils podcast I think we should be able to build a solid recipe and go from there. Cheers everyone!
