GOing to brew a chocolate raspberry bourbon stout

I've brewed with raspberries once, using a total of 12 oz, and the taste came through pretty clearly. Granted, mine was in a lighter style beer, but I think 5 pounds is probably a lot more than you need. I'd guess 2 pounds would give you a lot of raspberry flavor

 

I really like 100% raspberry preserves/jam for dark beers. The cooked flavor seems to go better with chocolate/coffee roasted flavors than fresh berries do in my experience.

 

I like the use of nibs in the secondary but I am not a fan of cacao powder. Also be careful with the bourbon addition, if you overpower the other added flavors in the beer it may all become muddled and boozy.

 

5lbs may be a bit heavy on the raspberry. I use a 49oz can of puree for a raspberry wheat beer I brew, and it's an absolute raspberry bomb when fresh.

 

The trick I've found to using cocoa powder is making a paste with hot water to add to secondary. Easy, good flavor, no head retention issues.

 

I actually made a Chocolate Raspberry Milk Stout a few weeks back. Here were my experiences:

Raspberries:
I added 12-14 oz. of frozen raspberries to the beer at flame out, let them steep in the beer while it cooled, then strained the solids out with the hops as it went to the fermentor. I think it was a perfect amount of fruit. It's noticeably fruity without overpowering the base beer. 5 pounds sounds like WAY too much. Also keep in mind that raspberries contain A LOT of water and will dilute your beer far more than you expect, so make sure it's a fairly robust stout or you'll lose that roastiness.

Cocoa:
I added 4-6 oz. of raw cacao nibs right into the primary fermenter (I didn't do a secondary for this beer) and let them stay there for 2-3 weeks or so until I bottled it. It definitely added flavor to the beer, but not a pleasant, chocolatey flavor like I wanted, more of a bitter astringency, like eating a spoonful of unsweetened cocoa power. It's subtle enough that it doesn't detract from the beer, but I'd try something different next time. Maybe I'd increase the amount of Chocolate Malt, cut back the amount of nibs, and maybe add some cocoa powder add flame out. I'm not sure, I still need to experiment.

Anyone else try using these ingredients together?

 

Hmmm... how does the flavor compare to some time spent on nibs? I had great results with the nibs and while not overly expensive I could probably save 3 to 5 bucks using the powder...

 

Nibs give aromatics more comparable to a good bar of dark chocolate. Cocoa powder is probably closer to brownies or hot chocolate. Nibs can be great as a featured flavor, but I think cocoa powder works with other ingredients better. Adding a bit of vanilla really helps as well, since its flavor is strongly associated with chocolate desserts.

You could always split a batch and taste the difference for yourself.

 

I'd do a combined primary in a 6 gallon bucket/carboy, then get some 1 gallon jugs for secondary with the chocoalte. You can get them for $4 each. You could do 4 gallons on the nibs, and just one of the cocoa to try it out.

 

Very informative, thank you for the comparisons. I will definitely keep this in mind with my future uses/experiments.

 

Cocoa at the end of the boil and nibs in the secondary. Cocoa gives the chocolate flavor and nibs gives more aroma. Also put a vanilla bean in the secondary to enhance the chocolate flavor. 5 lbs of raspberries is definitely over the top. I did an imperial milk stout and one pound of raspberries and one TBSpn of raspberry extract was perfect. So, without the extract, I wouldn't do more than 2 lbs. They really come through.

 

I think you are going to waste a hell of a lot of perfectly drinkable Whiskey by soaking 5 lbs of raspberries in it. personally I would think of a way to get the bourbon flavor in, without using a handle if the stuff.