Sub-Orbital Headspace Cherry Stout

This is a modified recipie of "Cherry Fever Stout" by Charlie Papazian gauged more towards my tastes and the available ingredients in my area.


6.6 Lbs plain Dark LME
1 lb. plain dark DME
1 lb crystal malt 60L
1/2 lb roasted barley
1/2 lb black patent malt
1.5 oz. Nugget Hops
1/2 oz Willamette Hops
4 tsp Gypsum
5 lbs sweet cherries (purchased from Trader Joe's - Frozen, crushed them in bag)
American Ale Type Yeast (Used Wyeast Ale Yeast Activator pack)

OG: 1.064 - 1.068 (Actual: 1.071)
FG: 1.018 - 1.026 (Actual: 1.021)
ABV: 6.43%

My Process:

- Boiled & sterilized 3 gal tap water
- Heated 1.5 gal water to 165 degrees, steeped grains for 30 minutes @ 158 degrees
- Removed specialty grains and sparged with 1 gal of sterile water, transferred to brewpot.
- Added LME, DME, Gypsum, and Nugget hops @ boil
- Boiled for 60 minutes
- Removed boiling hops and sparged with 2 quarts sterile water.
- Removed from heat, added willamette hops and crushed cherries, steeped for 15 minutes to sterilize the cherries.
- brought temp down to 76 degrees, pitched yeast.

Any Feedback or comments on this recipie will be greatly appreciated.

considering your boiling you dont need to use sterile water to sparge or steep grains. You steep, then sparge, then add both to the boil and do your 60 mins, then hops etc. Cherries most likely should have been added in secondary because you recieve more flavor after fermentation is done. Next time i would try that if you didint get enough cherry flavors. Otherwise looks good

Thanks for the input. I guess I failed to mention that the 3 gallons of sterilized water was for my primary as the top-off water. I didn't actually use it to brew, just to top off the primary after the wort was transferred to it. I do plan on trying the batch again, but this second batch, I will add the cherries to the secondary and see which I like better. I followed the directions from the original recipie and it stated to put the cherries into the primary for 5 days, then rack to a secondary. When I tasted the wort after my OG reading, there was a strong cherry/hop flavor. I attribute this to the amount of juice that came out of the cherries when I crushed them, as I retained everything from that process, minus the pits and stems. Hopefully the juice from the cherries was enough to carry a slight cherry flavor to the beer. What I am aiming for is a good stout with a hint of cherry.