Fruit flavor in beer

I am making a small batch (2 gallons) of Cherry Chocolate Porter. I used chocolate malt for the chocolate flavor but am still undecided on the cherry flavoring. What I'm wondering now is what the recommended route is for the cherry flavor. Should I rack onto a pound or two of fresh cherries, use frozen fruit or use an extract? I've done some searching on the site, but was unable to find any comparisons or really any conclusive advice.

What say ye?

Regards,
Jacob

Use a cherry puree in your secondary. Start with about a pound (0.5 lb per gallon) and see how it tastes. Good luck.

Hoosier said:

Use a cherry puree in your secondary. Start with about a pound (0.5 lb per gallon) and see how it tastes. Good luck.

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By puree, do you mean just putting a 1/2 lb of cherries in the blender, or buying a premade product?

Also, would it be advisable to add something like lactose, just to bring out the cherry flavor a bit?

Give this a listen as well (See link below). The Jamil Show has quite a bit of great brewing information. They have done a show on nearly every BJCP style too!

The Brewing Network.com - :

There are many good puree products you can get right off the shelf. I would go to a whole foods if you have one around. Or you can get it at any mega mart. The fruit we buy at the grocery is picked way before it is ready so the flavor is lacking a bit. You get better flavor from a puree than standard store bought fruit. I think the flavor from a puree will do ya just fine. No lactic acid or lactose needed in my opinion.

I always add the flavor right before i bottle

Using a blender is not recommended. There will be too much tearing of the fruit skin, which can lead to excessive tannins.

I used a potato masher to bust the cherries up, and had very good results.

I used a combination of tart canned cherries and frozen black cherries. Had a nice pint of the cherry wheat last night.

Hoosier said:

There are many good puree products you can get right off the shelf. I would go to a whole foods if you have one around. Or you can get it at any mega mart. The fruit we buy at the grocery is picked way before it is ready so the flavor is lacking a bit. You get better flavor from a puree than standard store bought fruit. I think the flavor from a puree will do ya just fine. No lactic acid or lactose needed in my opinion.

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Ok, we have a whole foods a few miles from here. How long should the beer be racked onto the puree or does that become a permanent addition?

mr_clean said:

I always add the flavor right before i bottle

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Are you referring to extract?

Cpt_Kirks said:

Using a blender is not recommended. There will be too much tearing of the fruit skin, which can lead to excessive tannins.

I used a potato masher to bust the cherries up, and had very good results.

I used a combination of tart canned cherries and frozen black cherries. Had a nice pint of the cherry wheat last night.

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Ok, good point on the tannins.

How does this compare to the puree?

I have never used the puree. However, the canned and thawed frozen fruit was pretty soft, so I got a good pulp from use of the potato masher. I used a pound per gallon. If anything, I got too much fruit flavor. I also got some secondary fermentation, which resulted in a slight "wine" flavor.

Next time, I plan to back the fruit off to about 3/4 lb per gallon. Also, I will chill the beer down before I rack on top of the fruit, and let it rest on the fruit for a week chilled, instead of at room temperature. Hopefully, the lower temp (38* of so) will prevent the wine flavor.