Chocolate Vanilla Stout

[infielders3]

Hi everyone,

The Scenario:

I currently am in the works of making a Stout with Coffee, Vanilla, Chocolate. I cold brewed the coffee and added it to the primary.

I am not sure how I would like to proceed with the chocolate and vanilla. I have 12 ozs of crushed Cacao Nibs and 45 grams of diced vanilla beans (roughly 4.5 whole beans).

I am planning on "dry hopping" both to the secondary- although I have read that some people use vodka to create an extract.

The Questions:

Will it be too many competing flavors to add both the cacao and vanilla to a coffee stout?

Put another way- will i derive more satisfaction out of my ingredients if I save either the Cacao nibs or vanilla beans for a future brew?

Should I make an extract of either the vanilla or cacao- or will the dry hopping method be satisfactory?

Thanks for your thoughts and help!

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Personally, I would save the stuff for another beer. I totally understand wanting to brew something like that, though. I brewed a coffee stout a few years ago that had vanilla and chocolate in it. After a 6-12 months of aging and tasting it along the way, I determined that coffee shouldn't be mixed with anything else. It's too strong of a flavor and the rest of the ingredients go to waste. The beer was good, but it tasted like a cold coffee.

It can be done where all the ingredients are noticeable, but you need to use a subtle coffee, and it needs to be very small amounts.