Chocolate Cherry Imperial Stout

8lb Great Western Two-Row Pale
7lb Maris Otter
2lb 10L Munich
1lb "Special B"
1lb Flaked Oats
1/2lb Black Patent Malt
1/4lb Chocolate Malt

70 minute mash @ 152F
Sparge with 170F liquor up to 6.75 gal
120 min boil schedule

2oz Nugget 12.9%AA 4.8%Beta @ 90 min
1oz Wilamette @ 60 min
1oz Citra 15.6%AA 3.5%Beta @30 min
.28oz Northern Brewer @15 min
1tsp Irish Moss @ 10 min

6lb Dark Cherries
1 Campden Tablet
8oz Cacao Nibs

Pitched yeast @ 70F for 10 days. On ninth day, placed 6 lbs Dark Cherries in 6 gal fermentor with 1 chushed Campden Tablet. After 24 hours, racked onto cherries for 21 days. Racked to terciary fermentor with 8 oz cacao nibs, then bottled.
That's where I am today. Will comment in a few weeks on what is tasting like. One of my best beers yet, and that's flat and unconditioned.

I wrote the wrong thing about how long it sat on the cherries in instructions, but I can't figure out how to fix it, will do asap. If trying, use notes from bottom

Can't wait to hear feedback.
My buddy has gooseberries n blueberries. Stouts aren't really my style but all in learning the craft and certainly trying new things. I brewed evil jays and it's fermenting now with pacman yeast. I'm ready to experiment with different additions. Not really sure how to add them yet.

advogold said:

Can't wait to hear feedback.
My buddy has gooseberries n blueberries. Stouts aren't really my style but all in learning the craft and certainly trying new things. I brewed evil jays and it's fermenting now with pacman yeast. I'm ready to experiment with different additions. Not really sure how to add them yet.

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How is the Pacman yeast? I haven't seen it out this way. Stouts all have early hop additions, so they lend themselves to fruits and chocolate. I had a Firestone-Walker Parabola for my birthday and this was my way of trying to re-create that beer without having access to wooden barrels and not wanting to wait a year to try it! I have also done a raspberry belgian stout. From what I've read and tried, if you add the fruit to the boil or primary, it comes out wine-like and unless that's what you're going for, I don't reccommend it. I tried to let this one ferment almost all the way before adding the fruit because I was pushing the alcohol tolerance of the yeast and still got a big second push when the cherries were added. 10% is low for the Wyeast Irish Ale yeast, since I got mine well over 11% I have made blueberry beer, but would love to try goseberry. I jumped in headfirst with my first four beers having some kind of addition to them and almost all have turned out great. Let me know if you need any help.

Hell yeah!
This is my first time using pacman just got another smack pack for next brew. It's supposed to ferment well from 60-72 and high alcohol tolerance fruity finish apparently it's what rogue uses in all their beers. I like rogue chocolate stout that's what's turned me on to brewing stouts. I want to do a Baltic Porter in my next few brews also trying pacman. I'm basically stealing eviljays recipe maybe a tweak here n there but it's the backbone of my stout experiments lol

Hmm, got here from the other Choc cherry stout recipe and this one looks good too.

D_Nyholm said:

Hmm, got here from the other Choc cherry stout recipe and this one looks good too.

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Thanks. It's still conditioning, but every day it gets harder to wait. I have made chocolate beers with cocoa powder and think the flavor isn't as nice as cacao nibs. Gotta love Imperial Stouts as the weather changes. I woke up to an inch of snow on my porch today!
-JT

Gosh this looks so good

JT I was thinking of adding some pureed figs to a Christmas stout and oak chips to secondary. Not sure how to puree the dried figs from bulk section of grocery store. Thanks for any help.

advogold said:

JT I was thinking of adding some pureed figs to a Christmas stout and oak chips to secondary. Not sure how to puree the dried figs from bulk section of grocery store. Thanks for any help.

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As a chef, I would take the figs and put them into some wort and bring it to a boil, then let them sit for an hour or so to re-hydrate. Quarter them and return to a boil. Place figs and wort into a cleaned and sanitized fermenter while still at a safe temperature, put on airlock and let cool before racking primaried beer onto them. I wouldn't puree the figs, unless you have a filter set up. Purees are hard to get out of beer from my experience. Also, I have noticed that dark beers kind of hide the subtle flavors of some fruit because of the roasty/burnt flavors in the malt. Fig isn't the strongest flavor out there. I made a pumpkin pie porter a month ago and it totally hid the pumpkin flavor. The spice comes through fine, but am going to try next time with a lighter brew. Your idea sounds like it would be awesome as a barley wine.
Now that it's conditioned, this beer rocks my world. It has a beautiful ruby/black color and a pinkish head that doesn't quit. The cacao adds a nice bitterness that almost dissappeared after the cherries were done fermenting. It definately has a cherry wine taste to it and finished at 11.7%. I've brewed it again and I've only let the cacao nibs sit for four days before bottling and added a half tsp of organic vanilla with the priming sugar. As of bottling, the vanilla filled a gap in the flavor profile I was shooting for without detracting from the stoutieness(is that a word yet?) I hope you can forgive me for putting a recipe up here without trying the finished product. I have no need to change this recipe from here on out. Enjoy all!

JT,

Thanks for posting this recipe! I am looking for an Imperial Stout that tastes like Chocolate Cherry cake. Would you say this would do it? Also, looking at your original recipe post, and the notes thereafter, I jus want to clarify the modifications.
1) you used Wyeast Irish Ale for your yeast
2) you originally sat the beer in the secondary for 21 days. Do you think that created the cherry wine flavor? Would less time in the secondary on the cherries decrease this?
3) you sat it in the tertieary (sp?) on the nibs for 4 days. Would you recommend longer?
4) rather than adding organic vanilla, what are your thoughts of using vanilla beans in the 2nd or 3rd and how long?

Thanks for all!

to the OP: have you tasted this beer yet?

i'm doing some research for my imperial stout recipe (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/belgian-imperial-stout-thoughts-comments-welcome-405723/) and i'm looking at this grain bill. first thing that strikes me is that i would have inverted the quantities of black patent and chocolate malt. a 1/2 pound of black seems like a lot to me...

johnpcook1 said:

JT,

Thanks for posting this recipe! I am looking for an Imperial Stout that tastes like Chocolate Cherry cake. Would you say this would do it? Also, looking at your original recipe post, and the notes thereafter, I jus want to clarify the modifications.
1) you used Wyeast Irish Ale for your yeast
2) you originally sat the beer in the secondary for 21 days. Do you think that created the cherry wine flavor? Would less time in the secondary on the cherries decrease this?
3) you sat it in the tertieary (sp?) on the nibs for 4 days. Would you recommend longer?
4) rather than adding organic vanilla, what are your thoughts of using vanilla beans in the 2nd or 3rd and how long?

Thanks for all!

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1) I used White Labs Irish Ale yeast
2) I think the winey taste came from using more sweet than tart cherries.
3)If I were to do it differently, I would have just sat the nibs in vodka for three weeks and added it in increments until the desired chocolate flavor was there. My friend who brews for the Kettlehouse in Missoula explained that the longer the nibs are in contact with the beer, the more bitter flavors are extracted.
4) I have had success with boiling vanilla beans for the last fifteen minutes and transferring it into the fermenter. If you try soaking the cacao nibs in vodka, try adding vanilla beans to that. I made a Mexican chocolate infusion using this method and added it to a chipotle porter. The results were perfect because I added it to taste.

sweetcell said:

to the OP: have you tasted this beer yet?

i'm doing some research for my imperial stout recipe (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/belgian-imperial-stout-thoughts-comments-welcome-405723/) and i'm looking at this grain bill. first thing that strikes me is that i would have inverted the quantities of black patent and chocolate malt. a 1/2 pound of black seems like a lot to me...

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This beer just gets better with age. It is a well rounded stout. The winey flavors have mellowed a bit. I used so much black patent because I wanted to balance the cherry sweetness. I think I would invert the two if I weren't going to add fruit. I was using the choc to add layers of roast to the stout. I recently made the recipe, sans cherries and added chocolate rye malt instead of the black patent. It's still just three weeks in, so no tasting notes yet.

cool, thanks for the reply. do write back when you try the chocolate rye version. i'm curious about that malt.

Well, I made this two weeks ago. Started with OG if 1.089. Today, after 7 days at 62 and 7 days at 65, my MG is 1.024. I wud like to see it drop further in the next week at 68. I put 5 tsp of yeeast nutrient in at pitching. It tastes great already! it mashed at 158 for 120 min and IBU's calculated at 92 because of quantity and boil time, but it doesnt taste hoppy?!? Im wondering if I should add some east energized to help it finish off, or if it will hit EFG of 1.015 cause if the high mash temp?!? Thoughts? PS wih 11 oz of bakers chocolate, it only tastes slightly chocolaty. I expected a choco explosion!! I put 9 oz of nibs on vodka 14 days ago, so it will have sat 6 weeks at bottling.

The chocolate taste comes in big after 6 months in the bottle, and boy does it! I agree that even though the recipe calculates to 92 IBU, it's just not that hoppy. I think it's due to the high starting gravity. When I racked the beer off of the cherry skins, I tasted one and it tasted hoppier than the beer itself. The high mash temp will leave it with a slightly higher FG, but I don't know how to figure that out. Mine attenuated pretty well, but has a full thick mouth feel, almost velvety. I am making my second run with the cherries for Christmas, again, next week and I can't wait. I have three more bottles of the first batch for the next three Christmases. I'm glad you tried and like my recipe. Thanks for the feedback, too.

Since bottling I have tasted one at one week and one at two weeks. Even with tart cherries, there is a noticable cherry wine presence. I believe this will settle with time. I delivered a case of this to my good friend today. His birthday is saturday and he likes cherry chocolate cake for his bday, so that was the inspiration for seeking this recipe. With 20 lbs of grain, 1 lb of oats, 1 lb of lactose, washed Dennys FAV 50, 3/4 lb baking chocolate, 1/2 lb cocoa nibs, 1/3 bottle Titos vodka ( which created 6.0 oz of choc infused vodka) , 5 oz hops, dark DME for bottling and $40 worth of cherries, this was a "big" beer in every sense. And truly a special one. At 9.8%, it packs a wallop too!! Thank you for the recipe!!

Delicious!!

johnpcook1 said:

Well, I made this two weeks ago. Started with OG if 1.089. Today, after 7 days at 62 and 7 days at 65, my FG is 1.024. I wud like to see it drop further in the next week at 68. I put 5 tsp of yeast nutrient in at pitching. It tastes great already! It mashed at 158 for 120 min and IBU's calculated at 92 because of quantity and boil time, but it doesnt taste hoppy?!? Im wondering if I should add some yeast energizer to help it finish off, or if it will hit EFG of 1.015 at all cause of the high mash temp?!? Thoughts? P.S. With 11 oz of bakers chocolate, it only tastes slightly chocolatey. I expected a choco explosion!! I put 9 oz of nibs on vodka 14 days ago, so it will have sat 6 weeks at bottling.

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Edited for spelling

Looking at this recipe and I'm coming up with about 130+ IBUs.

Is that right?

That number is correct, but you'd never know it. I ate a used cherry after I racked the beer off of them and it was the most bitter thing I may have ever tasted. I'm not sure if they soaked up hop oils or if they just taste like crap after being used. The hop flavor isn't the predominant one in this beer and with the gravity being so high, your utilization goes down dramatically. Also, with the high FG,I wanted to make sure there was enough bitterness to contrast the residual sweetness. I have been sitting on some of these since last Christmas and they just seem to get better with time. This year, I doubled the recipe so I don't have to run out so quickly this time. I am proud of this one and I think it'll be in my rotation for quite some time. I'm glad some of you out there have tried this. It was one of my first recipes that I formulated solo.
-JT

Question about the cherries:

Were the “dark cherries” that you used sweet (like Bing) or tart (like Montmorency)? I ask because for mead making, I have always heard that you should never use sweet cherries because they will leave a medicinal taste in the finished product.

thanks

I'm not sure if they soaked up hop oils or if they just taste like crap after being used.

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From my mead making experience, they just taste like crap- I think because all, om most, of the sugar has been consumed.

They tasted like they had soaked up some of the IBU's. They were super bitter and gross looking too. The cherries I used were frozen from the Safeway up the street. They weren't bing, but not pie cherries either. I remember there were two kinds, maybe a sweet and a sour blend. They were what I could find. I think if I were to use sour cherries, I would drop the hop bitterness a touch, but maybe not. I am starting to work on the cherries today on this year's batch. Can't wait for this one again!

Im having one this evening. Having brewed this on 7/26/13, its now just under 6 months and the cherry flavor is forward, with no bitterness ot chocolate presence. See my previous posts. At 9.8% it gets your attention, no doubt. Next time I think I would rack this onto a secondary of about 4 lbs of cherries maybe. A significant beer no doubt.

Having one tonight. At 8 months, the cherry presence is still there, smooth mouthfeel, hint of chocolate in the background. Almost feel as if I should be drinking it from a wine glass


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Sounds great!

With this recipes, how many gallons does it makes?

I brewed this on Saturday as a five gallon batch. I did adjust some of the grains just a little. OG is coming in at 1.106! Gonna be a big boy!!
How long are you guys leaving it on the Cherri's for? What kind of cherries are people using?
Cherries don't seem very porus is it worth crushing them (like when you make wine) before they go into the fermenter?