Strawberry Chocolate Stout

This awesome idea came to me today. Why not combine strawberries (possibly my favorite kind of berry) with a double chocolate stout (definitely a style I enjoy)?

I've been reading threads about cocoa powder and fruit for the last hour probably. I think I've chosen to add some cocoa powder 15 minutes from the end of the boil and to add the strawberries to the fermenter after about a week. Here's the first draft of the recipe from Beersmith:

Strawberry Chocolate Stout
Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
Type: Extract Date: 4.5.2009
Batch Size: 5,00 L Brewer: jeansberg
Boil Size: 5,00 L Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment

Ingredients
0,60 kg Light Dry Extract 8 ebc (4,0 SRM) Dry Extract 75,0 %
0,10 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60,0 SRM) Grain 12,5 %
0,07 kg Roasted Barley (300,0 SRM) Grain 8,8 %
0,03 kg Carafa I (337,0 SRM) Grain 3,8 %
10,00 gm Goldings, East Kent [4,80%] (60 min) Hops 23,0 IBU
xxx kg Cocoa Powder (Boil 15,0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale
xxx kg thawed strawberries added after one week of fermentation

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1,045 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1,012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4,4 %
Bitterness: 23,0 IBU Calories: 90 cal/l
Est Color: 26,4 SRM
Total Grain Weight: xxx kg

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I'm guessing the berries will raise the ABV by one point maybe? This is a very small batch as you may have noticed. What amount of cocoa powder and strawberries should I add? Are there any guidelines for percentage of mass, etc?

Converting the standard 5 gallon recipes I've found seems to land me at about 75 grams of cocoa powder and 600 grams of strawberries. Does this sound reasonable?

I put 3lbs of cherries in 3 gallons of chocolate stout and you can't really taste the cherries. With strawberries being even more subtle than cherries I would think about 1kg of berries per liter of beer would get you a pretty noticable fruit character.

Sounds like a lot. Wouldn't that amount add a ****load of fermentable sugars to the wort? Could it even be called a beer at that point?

It is a lot. You are choosing a base style with VERY assertive flavors, then complimenting it with a very subtly flavored fruit. If you want it to come through you are gonna have to add a lot of fruit.

I brewed this yesterday. A part from an unfortunate boil-over that left caramelized wort all over my stove top, everything went well. I added some Van Houten (dutch-processed) cocoa powder at 15 minutes, which added a lovely smell of hot chocolate and a bunch of cocoa fat floating on top of the wort.

I pitched the entire S-04 packet into the wort and 8-9 hours later there was a thick layer of krausen that looked a bit like a chocolate dessert on top of the wort. I am now going to wait one week and probably add the strawberries in a grain bag.

I am going for a Strawberry Covered Chocolate Milk Stout because I think the strawberries will be more up front/aroma and the Chocolate more of an undertone/afternote. BYO had an article about aphrodisiac recipes for Valentines Day. Using a recipe from there, as well as other HBT contributors for inspiration - I came up this:

10 Gallon All Grain

15 lbs Pale Ale Malt
2 lbs Midnight Wheat
2 lbs Crystal 80
2 lbs Munich II
2 lbs Chocolate Malt
2 lbs Golden Naked Oats
2 lbs Carapils
1 lbs Flaked Barley

3 oz East Kent Goldings 60 Min
1 oz Fuggle 30 Min
1 oz Fuggle 15 Min

Super Moss 15 Min

1 lbs Lactose 10 Min

Allow to ferment in Primary until steady bubbling slows (~5 days)

Then in secondary: Add ingredients below and syphon on top, allow 2 weeks in secondary:

1 lbs Lactose
4 Tahitian Vanilla Beans (Chopped & Soaked in Vodka for 24 hours)
8 oz Organic Cacao Powder (I got this from Vitamin Cottage but have also used Hersheys Special Dark Cacao Powder in other recipes)
96 oz can Vinter's Harvest Strawberries
2 drops Strawberry Extract

I will be splitting these ingredients between to seperate secondary vessels:

Since I will be fermenting in 5 gallon carboys(Primary) and 5 gallon buckets(Secondary) I will be using two different yeasts: Wyeast 1318 London Ale III will be for one carboy and S-04 for the other. I will make a yeast starter with the smack pack, and the fellow from my LHBS says I can just sprinkle the dry yeast on top of wort (I never used dry yeast before)

I will mash at a higher temp (~157) to get the extra mouthfeel.

I will be brewing this tomorrow in the snow and hope to give this a try for Valentines Day 2012!

Curious of any feedback about this recipe....

How did this come out? Brewing for a wedding and this looks tempting...

Hate to revive this but I'm also very interested in the final product, anyone try this and care to share results?

I'm definitely interested in something similar to the strawberry chocolate milk stout mentioned above. I've been putting together a recipe to use for my wife who has tasked me with creating a "strawberry forward beer" though her ideas were more a white ale for summer I thought of doing one for her birthday which just happens to be February 14th... This seems to be perfect and exactly what I was thinking of doing. Though might modify slightly based on what I have on hand.

Will let everyone know what I come up with and how it turns out.

Trevor Mack said:

I'm definitely interested in something similar to the strawberry chocolate milk stout mentioned above. I've been putting together a recipe to use for my wife who has tasked me with creating a "strawberry forward beer" though her ideas were more a white ale for summer I thought of doing one for her birthday which just happens to be February 14th... This seems to be perfect and exactly what I was thinking of doing. Though might modify slightly based on what I have on hand.

Will let everyone know what I come up with and how it turns out.

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So....how did it turn out and what did you make?

fatnhappy said:

So....how did it turn out and what did you make?

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I actually didn't go forward with a chocolate strawberry as talking about it more it wasn't quite what my wife was looking for. Instead I did a basic golden ale and did a secondary with strawberry and hibiscus. I'll try and grab some photos to share, but did shift direction more towards a summer beach BBQ paired beer and golden was what I tried. Not completely satisfied with it so definitely need to nail down grist a bit more to get a better biscuit flavor going.