Oatmeal? Cherry? Chocolate...Stout?

I am itching to brew a stout for the winter. Somehow until this point stouts have not found their way into the list of beers I have brewed. So now that I have decided the time if right I have alot of built up stout enthusiasm. I am finding myself wanting to brew three different kinds of stouts, choc, oat or cherry, and I cant choose! So now im thinking...what about a combination..? Cherry chocolate, or oatmeal chocolate, or cherry oatmeal...? OR all Three in one!
Since I havent made a stout yet and im sure lots of you have made nearly all these individual styles and maybe even combined some, I was wondering if anyone had suggestions. Does anyone think one combo would be better then another? Or if one combo would cancel out one anothers flavors? Any insight you all have would be great!

oatmeal chocolate would probably be pretty good, I'd avoid the cherry

cherry stout is disgusting

I think the three-in-one option would suck. Not that it wouldn't work exactly...

Brew Your Own ran an article this month on porters (I know... But it's close) that hit on a great point I think is relevant to stouts as well...

Your beer should emphasize a certain characteristic without being "busy". It then mentioned that chocolate flavour does well, or strawberry (or cherry, you get the idea) but you have to be VERY careful making chocolate-covered cherry because you could distract from the fact that it is a porter (or stout).

Perhaps, and this is only the opinion of a rather new brewer, you could do a cherry chocolate stout (they ran an article on chocolate malt this issue too, maybe it's worth picking up!) and use a HINT of oatmeal to add mouthfeel and head, but keep it toned down enough to not impact flavour too much.

bump,
Anyone else have opinion. I feel like there must be alot of you who have brewed or tried these kind of stouts.

Before you try to make a complicated stout, try brewing a good plain stout, then add other ingredients to that recipe.

I'd go with a chocolate stout. And not necessarily one where you add chocolate. A nice combination of chocolate malt and roasted barley will give a suprising amount of chocolate flavor.

The May 07 2007 Jamil Show broadcast has a recipe for Chocolate Cherry Stout. He bases it on a Foreign Extra Stout recipe but I would think an Oatmeal Stout base recipe would work.
However one thing mentioned in the show is if you want a good fruit and/or spiced beer, you need to start with a good base beer recipe. Since you havn't brewed a stout yet you may want to consider brewing a couple base stouts, like an Oatmeal or Foreign Extra, before adding chocolate and cherries to it.

Craig

CBBaron said:

…Since you havn't brewed a stout yet you may want to consider brewing a couple base stouts, like an Oatmeal or Foreign Extra, before adding chocolate and cherries to it.

Craig

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I’d agree. I’ve talked with the brewmaster of the local micro brewery and he emphasizes that stouts are about simplicity.

You can hardly go wrong with an oatmeal stout. If you’re inclined, bottle half as is and then add some chocolate flavor for the other half at bottling time.