What to do with cherries???

Ok so I have bought a 10 pound bucket of frozen Door County cherries (famous local area known for cherries) for $14.00.These cherries are normally expensive, REALLY expensive.

These are unsweetened tart cherries that look to be frozen in some sort of syrup/water but is probably juice. They do not list any preservitives or additives, and list unsweetend and natural on the bucket. They are also pitted. I have NEVER seen these before and probably never will again.

I want to brew something with some or all of them. I have an issue where I HATE beer/wine/ect with cherries in it that tastes like Robitussin cough syrup. I would venture to say over 50% of the drinks I have had with cherries in them, taste this way.

I am looking for recipes/ideas/something to try to make with these. I can use some or all of the 10 lbs. I have looked at the recipe database but there is not much there past cherry lambic and that sounds way out of my league. I also can not lager at the moment but may be able to soon. I am not opposed to meads/wines either.

ATM I am thinking about splitting the bucket and making up a cran-cherry wine but am not sold on this idea.

So, what are your thoughts/ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Wow! Nice find. I just spend $16 on a 6lb container of Door county cherries.

I always use their cherries for lambics, but that's my personal preference. The beers you're tasting that taste like cough syrup are most likely made with cherry flavoring because it's cheaper. There's a reason why it's cheaper though, and I'm glad you've noticed that.

Real cherries won't give you that effect.

You could try a basic pale ale, or a wheat. Really though, lambics aren't that hard to make, I think people just overthink it and make it seem like they're super complicated.

Make a basic wheat beer, use some aged hops, add wyeast lambic blend and add cherries after 3-6 months. Age for a year total and your done.

Now, this is an ultra simplistic way of describing it. As you get more into sour beers, there's better ways to do things. But, this will turn out a basic lambic that will be more than drinkable if you allow enough time. Decoction mashes and longer boils are nice, along with the use of multiple yeasts and blending, but it's not absolutely neccissary.