Adding Cherries; post boil wort to primary, or secondary?

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Medo

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Greetings All,
Well up here in interior Alaska, I finally got ahold of 8lbs of real cherries. So i have about a week tops to use them in a beer before they are worthless. Ive never used cherries before. So, i searched the web and all the major forums. And, of course, some folks like to add them post boil to the wort for 15 minutes to bug kill, then dump into primary and ride out fermenatation. Others opt for putting them in the racking carbouy, and letting them soak in the secondary. Others, whether the first or second method, insist the fruit be frozen and thawed first.
I wanted your opinions, pro and con on either or and or all. Ill probably be throwing them into one of my favorite porter recipes, unless someone here has a beer w/ cherry recipe they might like to share.
Anyways, thanks for any and all help in advance.
I bid you all a great day.
 
I would think that the sugars would blow out a lot of the taste in fermentation. I would definitely rack onto them in secondary.
 
fruit is pretty much always added in secondary. more flavor develops this way that would be lost during primary fermentation and any contaminents or residual bacteria on the skins are killed by the alcohol created in the first half of fermentation. you need to wash them very well and i would look into campden tablets which are used in wine to kill wild yeast etc. Or you could mash the fruit and pasturize them before adding....i have only done fruit wine so i dont know about beer. There are a few cherry cider recipes you could try. Also you could freeze them and use them later
 
I like the secondary and I like top freeze the fruit to rupture the cells and making them nice and juicy. I think it whacks out the yeast too.
 
yeah freeze first. let thaw a bit then add to secondary. i have added frozen blueberries to a honey ale with great results. pink foam for the ladies, a panty dropper for sure!
 
yeah freeze first. let thaw a bit then add to secondary. i have added frozen blueberries to a honey ale with great results. pink foam for the ladies, a panty dropper for sure!

and the recipe for this supposed panty dropper? honey blueberry ale sounds pretty damn good actually.
 
hey sully, you got a recipe for that ale? I have a gf who would flip if i brewed her a beer with a pink head haha
 
I have also read to soak the cherries in some San Star but that just doesn't seem right to me. I plan to do a cherry wheat in the up-coming weeks but I want to do it right. I might soak in SS, freeze, thaw and rack on top in the secondary. Does this seem like and appropriate method?
 
I was thinking of adding cherries to a robust porter. My plan is to use frozen cherries and thaw them in a bath of Irish whiskey-then strain them and add to secondary. Thoughts??
 
Freeze 'em and thaw them after primary fermentation is done and you can rack to your secondary. Freezing/thawing will macerate the fruit (as others have said) and will give you more fruit flavor for your buck. That's how I added strawberries to a wheat beer last year and it was a grand success. I soaked the berries in sanitizer for 2 minutes, drained them, and froze them in a sanitized tupperware tub. I thawed them in the same tub on the counter overnight and added them to the secondary. No infections in my low gravity beer -- whatever that's worth to you. At the very least, wash them really really well and freeze them first to get the most out of your 8 lbs.
 

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