Specialty Fruit Beer Chocolate Cherry Stout

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I bottled this last thursday and seriously could not wait... So i chilled one and popped it a bit early. It was hardly carbonated at all but, oohhhhh baby!!! Im gonna have to brew 20+ gallons of this stuff to make it thru winter!!
 
I bottled this last thursday and seriously could not wait... So i chilled one and popped it a bit early. It was hardly carbonated at all but, oohhhhh baby!!! Im gonna have to brew 20+ gallons of this stuff to make it thru winter!!

How was your cherry flavor? My sample didn't have any cherry flavor. Since I have it in secondary, just aging a little, I am considering adding another can of cherry to it. Can't hurt anything.
 
WildGingerBrewing said:
How was your cherry flavor? My sample didn't have any cherry flavor. Since I have it in secondary, just aging a little, I am considering adding another can of cherry to it. Can't hurt anything.

I actually just used a 4oz bottle of raspberry extact from my LHBS in secondary. The vanilla beans and rasp together coming thru that chocolatey coffee is amazing!
 
For calculating the gravity from adding sugar I did a search and came up with this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/how-do-i-calculate-g-effect-sugar-additions-249672/

Basically, you take the sugar you add from the Nutrition Facts on the label of the juice concentrate and convert it to lbs.

1 lb of sugar disolved in 1 Gal. of water gives you a gravity of 1.046. But you have to convert it to the amount of liquid you are adding it to. In my case I came up with a gravity addition of about .014. So i just added that to my OG.
 
9 days after bottling this beer tastes absolutely amazing!! Although i changed the recipe a little bit from the original on this thread, its still a very tastey brew thats gonna be awesome for cold winter nights!
 
I think im going to rack mine into my mini-kegs this weekend. Then, if it does come out bad, at least i didnt waste hours bottling it. And if it is good, it will be the first beer in my new mini-kegs and that will be cool.
 
Brewing this today. Really looking forward to trying it. I couldn't find cherry juice concentrate though. Do you think cherry puree is an okay substitute?
 
Just a quick update:

I have been drinking this for a couple weeks now. The taste is growing on me but my initial reaction was "too much sweet cherry." I have only been brewing for a year so my experience is quite low. There are some things I have learned lately that would influence how I would do this beer differently the next time.

I should probably start by saying that I did not follow Magno recipe exactly and I am sure his batch turned out different/better than mine. I am very glad he took the time to post this because it is a great beer.

Next time I would use around 40 oz. of cherry concentrate. It was a little too pronounced in mine. I would also concentrate more on getting a good fermentation going in the first place. Make a good yeast starter and oxygenate better before pitching the yeast. Mine ran out of steam too early on. The gravities were ok, but I think I could have done better. I also think I would have used more of the cocoa powder during the mash. I ended up not putting it in secondary and instead kegged it straight from primary. I did not want to do a secondary just for the cocoa so I left it out.

On the other hand, my neighbor came over for some free beer last night. After 3 pints Chocolate Cherry Stout, I was feeling like Superman.:drunk: So it is good and drinkable as is.
 
kaisetti said:
Brewing this today. Really looking forward to trying it. I couldn't find cherry juice concentrate though. Do you think cherry puree is an okay substitute?

Puree is what i used. Bought from the wine making section of my lhbs.

Racked mine into the mini-kegs today. It tastes so much better than i thought it would after the first sample. The cherry is still pretty much non-existent and the chocolate is not as overpowering. Aging definitely does this beer good. I have already played with the recipe and procedure for the next batch, which is probably not far off. I will give it 2-3 weeks before tapping one if the kegs and report back. Magno, thanks again for the great idea!
 
Two weeks after racking into the mini kegs i couldnt wait any longer. Tapped the first one today. Found a leak. Its not carbed :( but it tastes awesome! Im drinking it now. Hopefully the other 2 kegs will carb. I am still going to make a few tweeks, but damn good recipe Magno. Cant wait to brew it again!
 
infamouz-X said:
do you have a pic the Chocolate Cherry Stout.. love 2 see how it lookz :drunk:

I can take one but its just black. Not much to see. Looks like a stout.

Mine had no cherry flavor but the chocolate was very pronounced. Its really good. If the next keg has a leak and didnt carb i will probably transfer it to bottles. I really want to taste it carbed.
 
So i racked the remaining beer from the first keg into bottles and added some carb drops. We'll see what happens. I only got 8 bottles. Tells me i drank at least 6 bittles worth of this beer flat! Ha i put another keg into the fridge this afternoon. I'll tap it friday and see if it carbed.
 
I am giving this a go this weekend. I had all the ingredients for an Irish stout but after reading this I am adding the coco cherry and vanilla beans!!! I can't wait to see how this turns out!!
 
A couple questions I may have missed.

1) Did you boil the juice to sanitize it before putting it into the fermenter?
2) The juice is just being added directly to the primary with the existing yeast, correct?
3) What temperature are you bulk aging at?

I have my base stout recipe in the primary now, going to add the cherry this weekend then rack onto vanilla and cacao nibs when primary fermentation is finished. Looking forward to this one.
 
Bottled my version this past weekend. Used black cherry juice and roasted cacao nibs in the secondary. Crashed in the fridge for a couple days to help clear. Tasted fantastic going into the bottles. The oatmeal in the mash really gave it a great mouthfeel...hoping this one ages out well! I stole 1 gallon from bottling and put it into a small carboy with oak cubes and bourbon, stashing it away for a few months before I even think about bottling it.
 
Unlike the porter I did previously, this stout has carbed in the bottles after just one week. It's absolutely exactly what I wanted it to be. The cherry flavor is still a little green, but once this rests for a month it will be fantastic. I used the base stout recipe to brew another batch this weekend, but I'm using black raspberry juice instead, Special B in place of the British crystal malt and a Belgian Trappist yeast...should make a nice Belgian Stout hybrid.
 
Hey guys. I'm excited to give this recipe a try. What's the rationale for adding the cherry juice to the primary a few days into fermentation, instead of right at the beginning?
 
I just lost my father. He wanted me to do a black cherry stout for him. He was just beginning to get into the craft beer world thanks to my brother and I. I am now dedicated to making a black cherry stout until I get it to perfection. I'm going to start with this recipe and change things if needed until it is perfect. Thanks for recipe.. Cheers
 
I will be brewing this with a few friends in a few days. We have both cherry puree, and syrup. Anyone have any thoughts as to which would be better, and how much to use?
 
I'd use the puree personally. How much really depends on how much cherry u want to come through. Maybe start with a lb a gallon? Fruits do fade.
I used what the recipe called for, but next time I'd up it. I also changed the recipe and turned it into a belgian stout. If your going to stick with the recipe one thing I would surely change would be coa coa in the boil.
This beer does age very well so try to keep a 12 er to try once a month.
 
Brewed this up a month ago. It needs to age a little bit more but is quite tasty. I'm hoping it will be ready for my homebrew club's Xmas party in a month.
 
I brewed this last weekend and racked to secondary on top of the vanilla beans and an entire can of cherry puree. My OG was 1.070 and had decreased to 1.016 when I measured right before transferring to secondary. Its been 48 hours since I racked it and I have seen no airlock activity. Will I see any further signs of fermentation after adding the puree?
 
I brewed this last weekend and racked to secondary on top of the vanilla beans and an entire can of cherry puree. My OG was 1.070 and had decreased to 1.016 when I measured right before transferring to secondary. Its been 48 hours since I racked it and I have seen no airlock activity. Will I see any further signs of fermentation after adding the puree?

You're going to have to take gravity readings. Secondary fermentation is often not vigorous enough to observe airlock activity, especially after 24 hours. Remember, you left the vast majority of the yeast in the primary carboy... secondary is mostly for aging.

That's why I chose to roll with cherry extract when I made this recipe and added it to primary a couple days into fermentation. I wanted to have plenty of lively yeast to chomp on the sugar added from the cherry extract.

Let me know how your batch turns out. I will let you know how mine works too.

What yeast did you use?

Cheers,
Drew
 
I brewed a cherry stout without the chocolate and it turned out great. At first it didn't seem to have enough cherry flavor but after about a month on keg it was awesome and it got better with age. I also used 4oz of liquid cherry concentrate from my lhbs and added it to the secondary for about 10 days and it turned out great.


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I brewed a variation of this and it turned out great. I upped the base grain by a pound, dropped the roasted barley by 25%, doubled the chocolate malt, and used columbus hops for the bittering. I also used cacao nibs after primary fermentation for 10 days, and then used black cherry extract when I kegged, at a rate of about about 1/8 a cup per five gallons. The chocolate flavor is a very dark chocolate flavor, huge black cherry aroma and flavor. Smooth and easy drinking, and it's only been carbonated for 24 hours. Amazing!!
 
Another to check out is jamils Black Forest stout in brewing classic styles. I brewed it for a valentines day competition and it took first place.


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I made this recipe, replacing the bulk of the grains with 7.5lb pale LME, skipped the rice hulls, used Hershey's cocoa powder in the primary, and used an extra high gravity yeast (thinking yeah, big beer!)

64oz of tart cherry extract into the secondary, but I skipped the cocoa because The fermentation seems to have been very healthy, but the beer is still super thick and gritty from the cocoa powder.

I racked again into tertiary (it fermented quite a bit after adding the extract), over 1 Tbsp vanilla extract. I tasted what was left in my racking tube, and found it to be (a) thick, (b) gritty like cocoa powder, and (c) TART!!!

I was somewhat disappointed that it tastes that way because 64oz of that cherry extract costs like $35 -- I don't want this beer to be a wash.

I'm thinking of either:
1) Throwing in a bunch of lactose to sweeten it up and hopefully that will meter things out, or
2) Brew another batch without the cocoa powder or the cherry, and mix them together in hopes that THAT makes it more palatable.

Do you all have any thoughts or advice?
 
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