Should I be worried?

[Pope66682]

So I just brewed an oatmeal stout. In secondary I added vanilla beans, 4oz cocoa nibs and 3lbs of fresh raspberries. I let that sit for about 10 days and moved back to the carboy to let it settle and strain out the rasberries. Then moved it into my oak barrel that previously had whiskey and honey whiskey aging for about a month. Gonna leave in the barrel for 3 months or so.

During this I have tasted it a couple times, and it's very raspberry. I'm kind of nervous the vanilla and chocolate are gonna get lost and it turn into raspberry juice. Basically my question is should I be nervous? Will the raspberry fade? Should I add more cocoa or vanilla, or coffee maybe? Spent a lot of time on this and don't want it to be a drain pour. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Not my first brew, but my first stout with fruit added and barrel aged.

 

[sooksbrew]

3lbs of fresh raspberry? What size batch? I would imagine 3lbs for a 5 gallon batch maybe too much? I honestly haven't brewed with fresh fruit so I'm not certain.

What was your vision for the brew? What kind of flavor profile were you shooting for? 3lbs of raspberry sounds like a lot for a 5 gallon batch if you're shooting for a 'subtle' raspberry profile I would think.

I think at this time, rather than making another adjustment, just allow aging to do its thing. Sample frequently, take good tasting notes. You have a lot of flavors going in that stout it sounds (vanilla, cocoa, raspberry). I think any additions at this point might be overkill.

Sounds like an interesting brew overall. Always happy to be a beta tester Definitely interested in learning how this turns out. :rockin:

 

[bbrim]

The only thing I would worry about is that having so many intense flavors will prevent you from isolating and understanding the contribution of each. The flavors will all mellow and meld with time but the cocoa and vanilla are not likely to be the stars on that beer.

 

[Pope66682]

Its a 5 gallon batch. I was hoping for nice creamy sweet oatmeal stout with a good vanilla chocolate flavor with a hint of raspberry. Now it's more like taet rasperry stout with a hint of raspberry. Hopefully the oak will add a little sweetness to mellow out the tartness. I guess we'll see in a few months.

 

[treacheroustexan]

I'm sure if you let it age a bit the raspberry will mellow out.