Cherry stout recipe feedback

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Yoop

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This will only be the third beer that I've ever brewed so I'm looking to get some feedback. I still have yet to even try any of the beer that I have brewed since the first batch has been in the bottles for only a week and the second batch is in the secondary, they were both kits that I purchased from a local brew shop. This third batch will also be a kit but I'm looking to tweak it a bit.

Below is the recipe after my tweaks, any feedback I can get would be very much appreciated! I will be using a 5 gal brew pot.

-1/2 lb. DME for starter with WLP 001 (California Ale) - let this start for 2-3 days
-Steep 1/2 lb U.S. Crystal 20, 1/2 lb Chocolate Malt, 1/2 lb U.K. Roasted Barley @ 150 for 30 minutes in 2 gallons of bottled water
-Add 1.5 gallon bottled water, bring to boil
-Boil 3 lb Dark DME for 60 minutes with 16 HBU Perle Hops
-With 15 minutes left in boil add 4 lbs Dark DME
-With 5 minutes left in boil add 1/2 lb Brown Sugar, 1/4 lb Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa
-Cover and let stand for 10 minutes after flame out
-Cool to 70 then add to primary, top off with bottled water at room temp aerate and pitch yeast
-After 5 days cut in half and pit 5 lbs of cherries, put in ziplock bag with bourbon, put in freezer for 2 days
-After 7 days in primary add cherries to secondary and transfer beer on top, let sit for 2 weeks

The original schedule had me adding all of the DME at the beginning of the boil, and also was just using a 2 gallon boil for the entire process.

What are your thoughts? Should I plan on reducing the bittering hops to compensate for a lower SG and larger volume boil? If so, how much should I reduce it by? How strong will the different flavors of spices and fruit be? Should I adjust how long it's in the primary and/or secondary?

I may not have tried any of my beer yet but I'm completely hooked on home brewing!
 
I have no advice to offer, but the overall concept sounds tasty. I'll add this post so I can keep tabs on this one and hear how the final product turns out.
 
That's a BOLD screen name around these parts...

Hahahah. That's funny right there!

The basic recipe looks good. I don't like chocolate (or fruit in my beer), so I have never tried a chocolate fruited stout. But if I was going to do it, that's about the way I'd go. It looks like a sweet stout, and that should balance the chocolate and go with the fruit nicely.

As far as technique, I'd leave it sit longer than five-seven days before adding the cherries. I'd wait until the beer was pretty clear and then transfer onto the cherries.
 
From what I have read the best OG of starters is around 1.039. I'm not sure how large of a starter you are planning on doing as 8 oz of DME is enough for a little more than a half gallon starter. Which is reasonable for this beer, but I think most people would go with a quart starter or 1 liter, which only needs about 3.68oz DME. Just a thought to save you some $.


Dark DME already has some kind of dark malt in it like Roasted Barley and possibly Chocolate malt. Probably even some cara 40-80 in it. It is hard to tell if what you are steeping will make it too strong. I'm guessing Dark DME is what the kit comes with which means it is harder to estimate the final product. It is more calculated to go with a light DME and add steeping grains, but both will work.

The rest looks pretty good to me.
 
Lol, I was unaware that Yooper was a heavyweight in the world of HB! When I picked my username I was just giving a shout out to where I'm from, and I was guessing it was a good bet that it wouldn't already be taken.

I pitched the starter a couple of days ago so I'm planning on brewing this tonight. The volume of the starter is 2 quarts, but it's good to know what SG target is good for a starter so I appreciate that info.

I will also plan on leaving it for a bit longer in the primary, and just play it by ear to let it clear up a bit.

I definitely appreciate the input that I've gotten so far! I'll continue to give updates and possibly pictures as the cycle progresses!
 
Noooooooooooo!!!!!

Wait...it'll be OK. I'll just reincarnate myself as Revvvie...or maybe EdWurtt..

:ban:
 
Yooper, do you know of any good recipes for any KBC clones? Possibly lift bridge brown?
 
Yooper, do you know of any good recipes for any KBC clones? Possibly lift bridge brown?

No, I'm not a fan of their beers at all. BUT, Tiber_Brew (that's his ID on this forum) worked there and likes the beers. Maybe send him a PM and ask? He'd probably be glad to help!
 
I brewed this stout 2 days ago and fermentation seems to be coming along nicely! The only variance from my posted recipe is steeping in less than 2 gallons, and boiling as much as I could fit in the stock pot while leaving a little room for foam. After brewing I have a couple of questions, is a rolling boil good? Or is a vigorous boil better? Does it really matter which kind of boil it is? Also, how much water is the right amount to steep with? I put enough in to cover the grain bag, but being in a big stock pot that was still 1.5 gallons. Should I steep in a smaller pot that will ensure the grains are all covered with a smaller volume and then transfer it to the big stock pot for brewing?

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You should be steeping around 1-1.5 quarts per pound. This helps prevent the PH from being outside of the steeping range and extracting tannins. You can go higher if needed but need to watch your temp more closely if you do. If you keep it under 150F you should be fine in that regard, but I'm not completely sure how high you can go. You can also cold steep the specialty grains and it should avoid all tannin leeching.
 
UPDATE: This brew has now been in the primary for 11 days, I opened it up and took the first hydrometer reading. 1.022, this is right at the top end of the finishing range of 1.010 - 1.022. I'll give it another day or two and then take another measurement when I put it on top of the cherries in the secondary. I bought 5.5 lbs of frozen organic cherries two days ago, I halved them and put them in a couple of ziploc bags with bourbon and then threw them in the freezer.

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UPDATE: Yesterday I took the cherries out of the freezer to let them get up to room temp. Once they were up to temp I put them in the secondary and transferred the beer on top. Prior to transferring I checked the gravity again, it had dropped a little since the last time to 1.020. Getting the cherries into the carboy wasn't as easy as I had envisioned... I was planning on just dipping one of the bottom corners of the bag in sanitizer and then cutting the corner off and using that to get everything into the carboy, that didn't work, and since I don't have a good funnel yet I ended up having to put the cherries into a sanitized bowl and spooning everything into the carboy. Attached are some pictures of the process, as you can see I'm slowly getting my pipeline going! Any thoughts on how long I should plan on keeping this in the secondary? The laundry/gear storage/brew room at my house is in the basement and has an ambient temp of 62-64, and it doesn't have any windows so I don't have to worry about sunlight, I've still been putting shirts over the glass carboys just to play it safe.

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UPDATE: The cherries and stout have been in the secondary for 5 days. Today I grabbed a sample with a thief and took a hydrometer reading, it's still at 1.020, possibly 1.019. The sample that I took is looking good, when I held it up to the light it had a deep red color to it, and it tasted excellent! It's definitely a stout beer that has subtle hints of chocolate, cherry, and bourbon instead of chocolate cherry juice that has a hint of beer, which is perfect. From what I've read on here the fruit flavors really mellow over time so maybe I should have added a little more cherry to ensure the flavor doesn't mellow away right away? I'll continue to update as I test and try. As of right now I'm planning on leaving it in the secondary for a total of 2 weeks and then bottling, unless someone has another recommendation?

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I took a couple of hydrometer readings about a week apart, it seemed to be riding steady at 1.018 so I bottled yesterday. I did a little bit of sampling with a sample at the end and the bourbon is more pronounced than the last time I sampled it. I'm very excited to see how this conditions, I will be sampling a bottle every so often to see how the different flavors evolve over time.

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Wow awesome! This is almost the same as one of the brews that I am planning at the moment. I was actually thinking of doing a porter rather than a stout, and using a bit of vanilla as well. I hadn't thought about the bourbon, I might have to look into that! I actually havent had any beers that had bourbon notes, so i'll have to do a "field trip" to see if I can pick one up... for research purposes of course ;)

Keen to hear what you think of this one, once you crack open a bottle. :)
 
Today (3/6/12) was the first day that I opened a bottle. The first aromas that I could smell were the chocolate and then the bourbon. Upon tasting it was a little different than the smell. The first thing that I tasted was the chocolate, then a hint of cherry, and then a hint of the bourbon, and the aftertaste almost leaves you with a hint of coffee. With the taste safari and how smooth it's turning out I'm very happy with this brew so far!

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I made a half gallon starter with 1/2 lb of DME and WLP001(California Ale) yeast. You'll have to let me know how yours turns out! I would love to get some feedback!
 
I will start this one April 3 when I get back from vacation. Lots of attention will be needed and definitely don't want to short change this beer!
 
The target og was 1.072 to 1.079, once I had it in the fermenter but before I added the starter I put a sanitized hydrometer in to see if it was in that range. It was on the high end of that range, possibly just over, but I don't know what it was exactly since I was just testing it in the bucket. When I bottled I used 5 oz of priming sugar.
 
Yoop said:
Today (3/6/12) was the first day that I opened a bottle. The first aromas that I could smell were the chocolate and then the bourbon. Upon tasting it was a little different than the smell. The first thing that I tasted was the chocolate, then a hint of cherry, and then a hint of the bourbon, and the aftertaste almost leaves you with a hint of coffee. With the taste safari and how smooth it's turning out I'm very happy with this brew so far!

This looks really tasty! I was seriously debating about the same recipe except with blueberries. However, my wife who is 7 months pregnant is requesting a raspberry wheat that will be ready after our son is born. So the one after that I am going to give this one a go!!! Nice job!
 
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