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themashedone · 01-04-2011, 10:16 PM

I am starting my planning for my next batch which is a cherry brown ale. Ive decided to go with a sterilized cherry puree. my question is how do you determine how much fruit to put in. I do not like extremely fruity beer, i am looking for a nice aroma and light cherry taste. I know that you cant boil fruit so would it be a good choice to steep the puree after the boil then send to the primary or just go straight to the primary with it.

any good opinion would help

Suthrncomfrt1884 · 01-04-2011, 11:50 PM

If you just want a little flavor, then try adding 1 can of it to primary. Fermentation will take care of most of it, so you should be left with just a slight flavor.

avidhomebrewer · 01-05-2011, 01:36 AM

I made a cherry wheat some time ago using 1 can (46 oz, I think) of Oregon cherry puree. A slight noticeable cherry taste. For my tastes, I'd bump it up to 2 cans, but one worked just fine. I would start with that and use that as a guideline to adjust later.

Russonomics · 01-05-2011, 01:55 AM

I am interested in the same so I decided to break up 1 5 gallon batch into mini batches.. and run tests on all of them with different amounts of 2 different fruits.

batch 1- 1 gallon + xfruit1
batch 2- 1 gallon +2xfruit1

and the same for 3 and 4 but with a new fruit.. maybe even zest from citrus

Docjowles · 01-05-2011, 10:19 PM

One trick is to wait til after fermentation is totally done, then pull off like a cup of beer. Dose it with 1 teaspoon of your fruit puree and see how it tastes. Once you find an amount that tastes good, do the math on how many tablespoons to add to 5 gallons and you're good to go.

**schweaty** · 01-05-2011, 10:29 PM

Frozen cherries work well too and they are probably cheaper. I made a Belgian Cherry Blonde in 2009 and it turned out very cherry. I probably went overboard and used 5 pounds. I didn't take into consideration the light flavor that the blonde will have. I racked the beer onto the frozen cherries let them sit for five days. A brown ale will cover up a lot of the fruit flavor with such a dark malt bill, so if it were me I'd use 2 lbs frozen cherries to get a nice subtle flavor. Good luck!