Need help coming up with a rasberry stout recipe.

SWMBO has requested a Raspberry Stout.
I've been searching for some time for an extract/steeped grain recipe but nothing really sticks out.

I found this one:
http://www.stoutbillys.com/stout/recipens/(Flat)/4B93B6F7.htm

Curious about the gypsum to create hard water. Any info on this would be great.

I'm going to remove the chocolate...Don't get me wrong, I like chocolate stouts but I think I'm going to start with the raspberry branch out from there.

Hell, if you all think it would just be easier to do a simple stout with the addition of raspberry extract...I'm all ears.

Let me know what has worked for you in the past.

I would start by leaving the raspberries out of it ... I made a raspberry stout once and their just not that good. The recipe was decent and it turned out well, but a full batch of it is just too much. Plus, I think the raspberries and the burnt/chocolaty tastes just don't compliment each other in a beer.

Also, if you bottle you'll end up with a bunch of bottles of dark pink fuzz as soon as you pop them open.

However, if you're going to make it, I would start off with a fairly decent chocolate stout recipe and add the raspberries to the secondary. Fermentation will kick up again ... make sure it ferments out completely or you'll end up with bottle bombs. Let it sit on the raspberry slurry/puree for a couple of weeks and move on from there.

I made a chocolate raspberry milk stout that I thought came out fantastic. I racked the beer out of primary onto about 1lb of frozen (well, thawed and cooked at 160*F for 20 min) raspberries from the grocery store. If I did it again, I would probably use Oregon Fruits canned raspberries so as to avoid the cooking step (which I used for a Raspberry Wheat that was great). You will see fermentation take off again with the fruit, so after this ends, rack off the fruit into another carboy and let clear for a couple more weeks to get rid of any fruit debris.

srm775 said:

I would start by leaving the raspberries out of it ... I made a raspberry stout once and their just not that good. The recipe was decent and it turned out well, but a full batch of it is just too much. Plus, I think the raspberries and the burnt/chocolaty tastes just don't compliment each other in a beer.

Also, if you bottle you'll end up with a bunch of bottles of dark pink fuzz as soon as you pop them open.

However, if you're going to make it, I would start off with a fairly decent chocolate stout recipe and add the raspberries to the secondary. Fermentation will kick up again ... make sure it ferments out completely or you'll end up with bottle bombs. Let it sit on the raspberry slurry/puree for a couple of weeks and move on from there.

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Actually, it's quite popular to mix guinness and raspberry flavoring in a lot of bars. I personally don'tlike to taint my beer like that, but I have tried it and it's pretty damn good. I think raspberry and stouts work well together.

I would keep the chocolate in the recipe otherwise what is the point. Raspberries + ordinary stout = ? Raspberries + chocolate = yummy. The two flavours compliment each other.

ColoradoXJ13 said:

I made a chocolate raspberry milk stout that I thought came out fantastic.

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Care to share the recipe?

seefresh said:

Actually, it's quite popular to mix guinness and raspberry flavoring in a lot of bars. I personally don'tlike to taint my beer like that, but I have tried it and it's pretty damn good. I think raspberry and stouts work well together.

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Agreed. I'm a purist when it comes to most beers but I don't mind the afore mentioned combo....besides this it primarily for the wife.

I am glad I ran into this thread since I have 10 gallons of red Raspberry and black raspberry oatmeal stout fermenting aging with oak chips as we speak. My wife picked the organic raspberries herself. I juiced the raspberries and ended up with no seeds (this took along time). I cooked the extracted juice and added it to my fermenter. I am using Pacman Yeast I cultivated and saved (i still got some and I love this yeast). Now I got drunk before making this beer and its an extract recipe, I ended up tossing in an extra 6 lbs of light DME into the kettle (dont know what i was thinking but am glad i did it) on top of the regular amount required. Its very strong beer when I tasted it while moving it from the primary to the secondary. Since in the secondary I have added oak and raspberries hoping to make a yummy xmas beverage. I will let you know how this Frankenstein ale comes out.

CatchinZs said:

Care to share the recipe?

Click to expand...

It's all grain, but you can convert it probably...looks like I used way more raspberries than I said...


4/8/07
Raspberry Chocolate Milk Stout

5lb Rahr 2-Row
4lb Marris Otter Floor Malt
2lb Wheat Malt
1lb Cara Malt
1lb Carafoam
1lb Crystal 80L
0.5lb Flaked Oats
0.5lb Flaked Barley
0.25lb Black Patent
0.25lb Belgian Chocolate
0.25lb German Black


1oz Perle Hops (60’)
1lb Lactose (add at 45’)
0.5lb Bakers Cocoa (did 2 additions, half at start, half at 15’)

Re-pitched on WLP004 Irish Ale yeast cake from Irish Ale (69-74% Attenuation)

Protein Rest at 122*F for 0:30 (3 gallons of dough in at 137*F)
Mash at 156*F for 1:30 (2.9 gallons at 200*F)
Sparged with 2 x ~2 gallons, total volume at boil start ~7 gallons

O.G. 1.080

Ended up with more than 5.5 gallons, probably closer to 6.5. Put ~5.5 gallons in fermenter on yeast cake, boiled rest and bottled, after 24 hours, put unfermented wort in another carboy and added same volume from other primary. Everything fermented fine and quickly (24 hours)

4/14/07 Racked all of it into a 6-gallon carboy and added 32oz raspberries (frozen organic and steeped at 160*F for 20’).

4/17/07 SG 1.020 (75% attenuation), pronounced bitter raspberry flavor, background chocolate notes, not much mouthy lactose feel as I would expect.

5/2/07 Bottled in 12oz bottles w/ ¾ cup corn sugar. FG 1.020 8% ABV

The bitterness of the raspberry has mellowed a lot with a few months in bottles...if I do this over (which I will) I will probably add 1.5# lactose and use 2 cans of oregon preserves raspberries