Raspberry Porter Recipe?

[kinkothecarp]

What do you think?

5lbs Light DME
5oz Roasted Barley steeped
5oz Chocolate Malt steeped
1.5oz Cluster @ 6.9AA at 60 minutes
.5oz Cluster @ 6.9AA at 15 minutes

Yeast
Safale S04

Secondary
Raspberry Oregon Flavor 3lbs
8oz Cocoa Powder

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

You might want to lower the amount of raspberries your using. I did a double chocolate raspberry stout a few years ago, and I had never used raspberry. It is extremely overpowering. The beer turned out nicely, but it just tasted like raspberry and nothing else.

 

[Walker]

No comment on the raspberry, but I'm trying to remember the specifics about using cocoa in a beer. Doesn't it produce oils that can end up going rancid and ruin the beer if not done properly?

 

[david_42]

Chocolate can do that, but cocoa powder is generally less than 10% fat.

I also recommend being careful with the raspberry.

 

[kinkothecarp]

how much raspberry would you guys use? i want it to taste like a rich chocolate-raspberry cheesecake (like at the cheesecake factory - the really bitter one) so I was going to use 8oz of coca powder in the secondary and all 3lbs. Bad idea?

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I would recommend dropping the raspberry down to 1 lb. As I said, it's a very potent fruit. You're going to taste it no matter what. 8oz. of cocoa sounds about right to give you a nice chocolatey flavor. Chocolate is a very hard ingredient to brew with right, in my opinion. Maybe add the cocoa powder at bottling time.

 

[kinkothecarp]

the recipe I used was based off this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/dc-raspberry-stout-89887/

however, now i'm a little confused why the raspberry was not overwhelming in their recipes, but will be in mine? is it because i left out the vanilla and the syrup?

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

When I did a Raspberry Porter I put in 1/2 pint of frozen raspberries for 1 gallon of beer during secondary. (Freezing causes the water in the cells to rupture the cell walls releasing the flavor of the berry)

The smell of the beer is dominated by Raspberry (and damn does it smell good!), with a hint of dark maltyness, it smells simply awesome. The taste is very little "beer" but more raspberry. I wouldn't however call it a fruity beer. Very tart, but still pretty well balanced.

Just a little hands on experience of mine for you.

 

[humann_brewing]

I did a london porter clone that I added raspberries too last winter. There was a definate raspberry taste too it but not too much IMO, I think I used 2 15oz cans of the oregon stuff.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Don't get me wrong...I don't think you can have TOO MUCH raspberry flavor, but it gets to the point where you can't taste much of anything else.

I'm calling BS on the above recipe review of DC raspberry stout. I've done enough chocolate stouts and used raspberry enough to know that the amounts he used would not allow the chocolate to be even slightly noticeable. I don't care how good your palate is...the only reason he's "tasting" them, is because he's the brewer, he knows what's in it, and he's bias. I can understand maybe tasting the vanilla as it's also a strong flavor, but the chocolate and malts....no way.

You can take my advice however you'd like, but if you're looking for just a hint of raspberry and you want the chocolate to come through, lower your amounts. If you're looking for a raspberry beer and don't want to taste much else...use his recipe.

 

[kinkothecarp]

Suthrn,
I agree, when I saw that there wasn't a whole lot of chocolate in their I was a tad confused. I usually use 8 ounces and get a pretty chocolatey beer, but not overly so. I think I'm going to go with what you said and make cheesecake with the rest. Thanks for the advice - I'd HATE a raspberry-only beer!

 

[KMOX]

I have a cocoa raspberry robust porter in secondary right now. I added 8 oz. of cocoa powder in the boil (about 5 min). The sample that I drank when racking from the primary was amazing - rich and malty with a detectable but not overpowering chocolate aftertaste.

It did leave a remarkable pile of gunk in the primary, though, I have to admit. I left it in primary for about two weeks to settle out.

I've racked half of it onto 36 oz. (2 12-oz bags) of frozen red raspberries. Based on this conversation, I'm not a little worried. The beer is so strongly flavored, however, I think it should work out!

(I racked the other 2.5 gallons onto three reconstituted ancho chiles)

km