Sour cherries in a wheat beer

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King of Cascade

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My neighbor has a sour cherry tree that is fully ripe right now. I was able to get about 4.5 lbs today when he was at work…j/k about at work. The cherries are awesome, sour with a hint of sweetness. After picking I froze the cherries in one pound bags. The question is how much to use? I have read anywhere from 2 pound all the way up to fifteen pounds. I plan on making a wheat beer and adding them to the secondary. Here is the recipe for the wheat beer. Any thoughts????
 
Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
37.5 9.00 lbs. Marris Otter UK 1.038 4
50.0 12.00 lbs. Wheat Malt America 1.038 2
4.2 1.00 lbs. Carastan Malt Great Britian 1.035 34
8.3 2.00 lbs. Munich Malt Germany 1.037 8


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.50 oz. Magnum Whole 14.00 13.8 60 min.
2.00 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker Whole 2.20 4.4 30 min.
1.00 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker Whole 4.75 2.5 15 min.
1.00 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker Whole 4.75 1.6 5 min.
 
I'm no expert, but I would suggest you need a surprising amount.

I made a cherry porter with 3 lb of cherries, and, while very tasty, the cherry flavor was subtle to the point of being almost unnoticeable.

A lighter style will probably do less to hide the fruit flavor, but at least from that one experience I'd say 4.5 lb is probably about right.
 
Because cherries have a nice scent, I recomend leaving out the aromatic hops at the end (the ones you have at 5 minutes. I once did this by accident with a strawberry blonde (had been drinking) and noticed that I got a much better scent of the strawberries that way, so I do it with any fruit beer now.
 
I'm no expert on recipes, but wouldn't that amount of hops not be desired in a fruit beer, on compete with the flavors?

Yeah good point, I just used a recipe a friend of mine gave me but added the cherries. I'll repost the updated recipe. I was going to make a ten gallon batch and split it one using cherries and the other just as is. Any suggestions on how to do this.
 
I added .25 oz Magnum to the 60 minute addition to keep the IBU's and took out the Aroma Hops.






Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
37.5 9.00 lbs. Marris Otter UK 1.038 4
50.0 12.00 lbs. Wheat Malt America 1.038 2
4.2 1.00 lbs. Carastan Malt Great Britian 1.035 34
8.3 2.00 lbs. Munich Malt Germany 1.037 8


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.75 oz. Magnum Whole 14.00 20.7 60 min.
2.00 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker Whole 2.20 4.4 30 min.
1.00 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker Whole 4.75 2.5 15 min.
 
swmbo and i picked 13lb sour cherries tonight from a friend. half are pitted and in the freezer and we'll prep the rest tomorrow. i'm hoping she'll let me use 8-9lb for brewing and thinking of doing a 10g wheat and using all them on half of the batch or maybe do like 6lb in half and 3lb in the other half. i've never used fruit b4, do I just thaw put into the secondary and rack on top?

i'd love to do a lambic but i've heard they need a lot of aging and not sure if i'll be able to wait it out. i'd love to get info about your cherry brews to help me decide what to do.
 
Yeah good point, I just used a recipe a friend of mine gave me but added the cherries. I'll repost the updated recipe. I was going to make a ten gallon batch and split it one using cherries and the other just as is. Any suggestions on how to do this.

throw it into 2 primary fermentors and then rack one to fruit and rack the other to the clearing tank.
 
i'd love to do a lambic but i've heard they need a lot of aging and not sure if i'll be able to wait it out. i'd love to get info about your cherry brews to help me decide what to do.

sorry for the double post.

Lambic's need a ton of time (like a year). I searched the internet for fruit beer recipes (we are going to start growing some fruit trees next year, so I wanted to make sure that I would be able to use the fruit in beer), and ran across a ton of cherry recipes. My favorite is still to this day is the O'Fallen's Cherry Chocolate Beer.
 
we are going to start growing some fruit trees next year, so I wanted to make sure that I would be able to use the fruit in beer

I think it's cool that your going to use the fruit in your beer it adds to the whole homebrew/homegrown thing.
 
There is nothing better than picking an apricot at it's peak freshness. And on a hot summer day when it's 105 degrees out, to me there isn't a beer more refreshing (besides maybe sterling gold) than a light beer with a hint of fruit.

Your recipe is for 10 gallons right? Looks tasty. Do you have an idea on how many pounds of cherries you are going to put in the 5 gallon split?
 
I'll put 4.5 lbs in 5 gallons. I've read anywhere from 2 - 15 pounds so I split the two and came up with 4.5lb. I don't want a cherry beer I want a wheat beer with some cherry.
I agree with you on the "nothing more refreshing" comment
 
OK…. So I made the base of this beer on Sunday. The brew went well but I changed the recipe again. I tried a new technique (new for me) on this brew because I was scared of a stuck mash. I added about one pound of rice hulls before the barley followed by the wheat and adjuncts to give it a multi layer effect. I stared the recirculation for 90 minutes at 152 and didn’t put the paddle in the mash at all.

The results…..Had good flow for the entire mash with a crystal clear wort and an amber hue (from the dark crystal). My efficiency was higher than normal also in the 72 % range. I pitched 125ml of thick slurry of American Ale Yeast 1056 at 8:00pm last night and by 10:00pm had positive pressure. At 8:00am this morning I had a good fermentation going at 66 degrees. After the fermentation starts to slow I’ll rack the beer onto the 4.5lbs of cherries and raise the temp up to 70 degrees to finish out.

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
40.0 9.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
40.0 9.00 lbs. Wheat Malt America 1.038 2
5.6 1.25 lbs. Unmalted Wheat 1.032 3
4.4 1.00 lbs. Caramel Pils Malt Belgium 1.034 2
4.4 1.00 lbs. Flaked Oats America 1.033 2
4.4 1.00 lbs. Munich Malt Germany 1.037 8
1.1 0.25 lbs. Crystal 150L Great Britain 1.033 150

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.50 oz. Magnum Whole 14.00 13.9 60 min.
2.00 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker Whole 4.75 9.6 30 min.
 
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