Specialty Fruit Beer Chocolate Cherry Stout

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magno

Sound Level Technician
Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
1,021
Reaction score
90
Location
Austin, TX
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
US-05
Yeast Starter
cake from prev. batch
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.087 (corrected)
Final Gravity
1.023
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90
IBU
~40
Color
Black
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
4 days @ 74*F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
10 days @ 74*F
Additional Fermentation
buld aged ~2 months
Tasting Notes
The chocolate and cherry flavors blend well together and with the roasted malt.
10 lbs Pale Malt
0.75 lbs Crystal 90L
1 lb Roasted Barley
0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
1.125 lbs Oatmeal (1 small tin, use the 1 min. oats)
0.5 lb Rice hulls
0.5 lb Cocoa powder (in mash)

72 fl.oz. organic cherry juice concentrate (SG = 1.240, added to secondary)

0.25 lb Cocoa powder (added to secondary)
2 Vanilla Beans sliced down the center and suspended in the fermenter with fishing line. In the past I have used vanilla extract added at bottling instead.

.75 oz Bravo Hops (pellet, 11.3%AA) 45 min
.5 oz East Kent Golding Hops (whole, 6.3%AA) 30 min
.5 oz East Kent Golding Hops 10 min

Mashed first group of ingredients (Pale Malt --> 0.5 lb cocoa powder) 45 min. in 4 gal water at 157*F. 1/2 gal mash out and 4 gal sparge. Boiled and added hops per recipe. Produced 4.5 gal at 1.069.

Fermented 4 days, then added cherry juice concentrate. Fermented 10 more days, then racked and added vanilla beans. Bulk aged 55 days before bottling.

_______________________________________________________________

I have made versions of this recipe four times, learning from mistakes made in the first two batches before hitting on using the cherry juice concentrate. The third and fourth versions were pretty similar.

The concentrate contributes a bunch of fermentable sugar, and the cherry flavor is much more prominent than when I have used whole fruit in the past.

Adding the cocoa to the mash seems to infuse the beer with a "deeper" chocolate flavor than I have gotten when I added it to the secondary. The addition at the secondary gives a different quality.

This beer ages very well; the last bottle of the previous batch was opened alongside one of the first bottle of this years.
 
This sounds interesting and tasty. Where do you get the cherry juice concentrate and have you tried it with something like raspberry as well?
 
thinking about brewing something similar this weekend.

Did you use a 'tart' cherry concentrate? Or the other one I see on the web is black cherry concentrate.
 
I used Black Cherry Juice Concentrate. I got it from the grocery store juice aisle.

images


I have not tried this recipe with any other fruit. In fact the only other fruit that I can think of having fermented off-hand is prickly pear fruit that I put in a mead.
 
This looks amazing - I've been wanting to brew the Stone version since I heard about it and this seems like the way to go!

How prominent is the cherry flavor with that concentrate? I feel like I want to just be able to tell that its there, but not be overpowering.
 
Looks great, can't wait to try!

If you had to pick a yeast because you didn't have some already, any advice?

Also, instead of vanilla beans, how much vanilla extract would you put in? Or, why not use extract?

Cheers
 
magno said:
10 lbs Pale Malt
0.75 lbs Crystal 90L
1 lb Roasted Barley
0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
1.125 lbs Oatmeal (1 small tin, use the 1 min. oats)
0.5 lb Rice hulls
0.5 lb Cocoa powder (in mash)

72 fl.oz. organic cherry juice concentrate (SG = 1.240, added to secondary)

0.25 lb Cocoa powder (added to secondary)
2 Vanilla Beans sliced down the center and suspended in the fermenter with fishing line. In the past I have used vanilla extract added at bottling instead.

.75 oz Bravo Hops (pellet, 11.3%AA) 45 min
.5 oz East Kent Golding Hops (whole, 6.3%AA) 30 min
.5 oz East Kent Golding Hops 10 min

Mashed first group of ingredients (Pale Malt --> 0.5 lb cocoa powder) 45 min. in 4 gal water at 157*F. 1/2 gal mash out and 4 gal sparge. Boiled and added hops per recipe. Produced 4.5 gal at 1.069.

Fermented 4 days, then added cherry juice concentrate. Fermented 10 more days, then racked and added vanilla beans. Bulk aged 55 days before bottling.

_______________________________________________________________

I have made versions of this recipe four times, learning from mistakes made in the first two batches before hitting on using the cherry juice concentrate. The third and fourth versions were pretty similar.

The concentrate contributes a bunch of fermentable sugar, and the cherry flavor is much more prominent than when I have used whole fruit in the past.

Adding the cocoa to the mash seems to infuse the beer with a "deeper" chocolate flavor than I have gotten when I added it to the secondary. The addition at the secondary gives a different quality.

This beer ages very well; the last bottle of the previous batch was opened alongside one of the first bottle of this years.

Are your gravity numbers right? An OG of1.240 with a final gravity of
 
I am making this tomorrow. I have most of my ingredients. I am a little worried about the cherry juice though. That sounds like a sh*t-load of concentrated juice. The website says one 8 oz bottle makes 32 oz of 100% cherry juice. That means that 72 oz of this stuff is enough to make 2.25 GALLONS of 100% cherry juice! Is this correct? Other than that is sounds delicious.
 
The cherry flavor is evident, but not overwhelming. I think I used about 56oz. of concentrate the previous time I made the recipe, but wanted to bump it up a bit this time. IIRC I just bought all the cherry concentrate they had on the shelf. I will probably go with 64 or 72oz. when I make it again.

As far as yeast goes: I fermented it with a neutral ale yeast. Chico Strain, US-05, WLP-001 or similar would work.

I have used vanilla extract in place of the whole beans before. I think I used around 1/2 - 1 TBS, but I will have to check my notes.

hopyard - let me know how your batch turns out!
 
This looks like the perfect brew for the winter months! Im gonna put this one down this weekend and let it sit til Christmas at least!
 
I brewed this over the weekend and had great results! Ended up with 1.075 OG. I changed it a little bit and used different hops, i went more american stout. My preboil wort tasted like a dark chocolate triple espresso!! I cant wait to try this in a few months!
 
Dago, Hopyard, how did your turn out. I think I am going to brew this but wanted to hear more feedback on the recipe and levels of cherry flavor. I want some but not overkill
 
I actually changed the grain bill a bit and used american hops and yeast. Its still similar, real rich, creamy, coffee and chocolate flavors. Im using raspberry extract instead of the cherry. Gonna rack it today or tomorow into secondary with the vanilla beans and rasp extract, let it sit about 4-6 weeks, then bottle it up for Christmas!
 
I ended up making this about a week later than my post. I just took a sample reading today and tasted it without the vanilla or .25 lb of secondary cocoa. I am really happy with it! Thank you for sharing this recipe Magno.

I added an extra 2 lbs of 2-row for a total of 12lbs. I had to substitute 80L crystal, and used 1.5 lbs of flaked oats so I did not use the rice hulls. I also used 60oz. of cherry concentrate. I cleaned the store out of their 3 bottles of the RW knudsen concentrate so used a different brand of organic cherry concentrate in 12oz bottles x 3. That stuff ain't cheep. It was around $30 for just the cherry. I used Safeale S-04 English dry yeast.

The chocolate was subtle and not overpowering. The cherry was a little more bold but much dryer than I had expected which is good. Not sweet and very drinkable.

I did a little research and figured the cherry added approximately .014 to the gravity. My O.G. was 1.069 and my reading today was 1.022...So 1.083 to 1.022 is 8.1 ABV. The fermentation was not rigorous from the bubbler so i added an extra package of Safeale S-04 dry yeast on day 4 when i added the juice. It still never got rigorous but the juice definitely started fermenting shortly after adding it.

Its been in primary for 10 days. The juice has been in 6 days. I am going to wait another week and then rack it to a keg with the vanilla beans and just leave it for a month. Then I plan on chilling it, while force carbing and serving. I swear I want to just drink it now! It's going to be a long month. It should last a while so I expect it to get better with age so I don't mind drinking it early.

Good Luck!
 
Nice recipe magno. Thinking of brewing this on saturday. Quick question. I am not a fan of vanilla. Thinking about brewing it but leaving out the vanilla beans. Thoughts from someone that has brewed this?
 
I'm tickled that others are trying and liking the recipe!

Wild Ginger- I've made it with out the vanilla. The vanilla is only there to compliment the chocolate. You will be fine leaving it out all together.
 
I'm tickled that others are trying and liking the recipe!

Wild Ginger- I've made it with out the vanilla. The vanilla is only there to compliment the chocolate. You will be fine leaving it out all together.

It's pretty cool when others dig what you created. My Strawberry Blonde has gotten a lot of action on here too!

Thanks for the recipe and the info. I will keep you posted on how it turns out.
 
Can anyone who has brewed this comment on the overall cherry flavor? I just want it as a hint. I brewed this a week and a half ago, and am getting ready to rack to secondary and add the cherry but I don't want to blow it out with to much cherry. 72oz seems like a lot of cherry...
 
I asked a similar question. I am still aging mine but I have tasted it. I used around 60oz of cherry concentrate and found it to be pleasant just like Magno said. I would say that mine is slightly more than a hint of cherry. I would say if you want a hint, then add 40-50 oz. For me however, if I was going to the trouble of making a chocolate cherry stout, I wanted to know the flavors were there.
 
promontory said:
Can anyone who has brewed this comment on the overall cherry flavor? I just want it as a hint. I brewed this a week and a half ago, and am getting ready to rack to secondary and add the cherry but I don't want to blow it out with to much cherry. 72oz seems like a lot of cherry...

So you didnt add the cherry to primary like the recipe says? I am about to rack mine to secondary. I'll let you know how the cherry flavor is.

Without tasting this beer at all yet, i can make the following observation: unless this is the best beer i have ever tasted, i will not use cocoa powder again. I will convert to cocoa nibs. The powder is messy is hell and adding it to the primary after 4 days took forever. The opening in the carboy does not lend itself to powder very well. And even with a funnel, it got compacted and stuck a lot. Also due to the powder, it looks like chocolate milk. I'll know more when i rack, but i have a bad feeling that this is not going to turn out how i envisioned it. Live and learn. I'll update in a few hours.
 
Well i think i can honestly say i fvcked this beer up. I racked it and took a hydro reading. Tasted the sample. Blech! It did have a slight chocolatey aftertaste but no cherry at all. The color was darker once i got it off of all the chocolate powder. The biggest issue is that my reading was 1.029. So that sucks! Now that i have racked it off all of the ****e, im going to pitch another packet of s-05 and shake the hell out of it and see what happens! I dont have any s-05 though so i gotta stop by the lhbs tomorrow. Anyway, if it ends ul working out, i'll never be able to reproduce it i know that will be changing my recipe anyway so i guess it doesnt matter too much. All of the experimentation is one of the things i love most about brewing beer!

Edit: just pitched a packet of S-05. Now to see if i can kick start this fermentation. Update to come tomorrow.
 
I brewed this 2 weeks ago. I skipped the cocoa powder and mashed with 3 Lindt 76% chocolate bars. I am only cherry 4oz at a time to find the right taste. I don't like to pull samples ever few days, but i want to t only be a hint of cherry. I also added 1 vanilla bean. I think the vanilla will actually mellow the chocolate. Its pretty chocolaty. WildGinger, I wouldn't shake it with the airlock off. you don;t want to oxygenate fermented beer. One thing I have read is that if you have a stuck fermentation, make a well oxygenated starter and pitch at high kruesen. Anyway, I'll let you know how it turns out in a couple weeks.
 
I just bottled this the other day. Although i changed the recipe a bit, its still similar. I used american hops and wlp051 and decided to put raspberry extract in secondary instead of at bottling like alot of people do. It smelled and tasted sooooooo good! I cant wait for this one!
 
I just racked mine into a keg. its 3 weeks in the fermenter primary/secondary with 8oz cherry concentrate, 3 lindt chocolate bars and a vanilla bean. Its tasting good but I am not sure the additional gravity added by the cherry concentrate. any ideas?
 
I have an update for you! As insaid last week gravity reading after 2 weeks was 1.029. And the taste was not good. Went ahead and racked to secondary and pitched another packet of S-05. I am not one to say "did i screw it up" ive been brewing for years and no better. But when i posted the update last week, i really thought i had done something wrong. Fast forward to today. I took a reading just to see. Gravity is still at 1.029. Then it hit me. When i mashed in, i was way hot. Took a few minutes to cool it down. It is possible that the higher temp mash for a short time broke down enough enzymes to create unfermentable sugars. I then tasted it. Wow. Not bad. Actually pretty good. With a heavy chocolate aftertaste. Very interesting. No cherry flavor though. So i am cold crashing it for a few days then i am going to bottle half of it and rack the other half into some mini kegs i have. It may turn out better than i thought. I have already tweaked the recipe and made some changes and i think i am going to brew this again on Nov 3, the next brew day. I'll keep you posted.
 
What temp did you mash at? I'm having a similar problem with an oatmeal stout that is stuck at 1.030. I mashed at 158-160. 160 was for at least 10 minutes.
 
D_Nyholm said:
What temp did you mash at? I'm having a similar problem with an oatmeal stout that is stuck at 1.030. I mashed at 158-160. 160 was for at least 10 minutes.

158-160 seems really high to me, I'm not surprised that.you can't get below 1.030 with the amount of unfermentables you produced in that high mash.

I forgot what the OP mashed at, but I rarely exceed 155 if ever. I think I mashed at 154 for my last porter and it was awesome.

Question to you all - where are you finding this concentrate? I've looked at my three closest stores (Vons, Albertsons .and Ralphs) with no luck. Do you think they just don't stalk this product in SoCal? Any tips?
 
Yeah, I was actually asking wildgingerbrewing since he seems to be stuck where I am. I should have mashed at 155 but my new thermometer was off and I didn't check it before using it. I have 2 batches that were mashed at this temperature and I hope I am not screwed.
 
Yeah, I know you were asking wildginerbrewing, but oh well:tank:...

I've had the same thing happen to me when a thermometer when crazy... took me about three batches to notice, but mine was the other way around and I kept getting beers that finished at like 1.005 or so.... not bad, but just not what I was looking for - now I use like 3-4 different thermometers for the mash and always compare them to one that I really trust and know is calibrated.
 
OCBrewin said:
Yeah, I know you were asking wildginerbrewing, but oh well:tank:...

I've had the same thing happen to me when a thermometer when crazy... took me about three batches to notice, but mine was the other way around and I kept getting beers that finished at like 1.005 or so.... not bad, but just not what I was looking for - now I use like 3-4 different thermometers for the mash and always compare them to one that I really trust and know is calibrated.

Lol, I may have to start doing that. You would think these things would be more accurate! My old one read almost a full 10 degrees too high!
 
What temp did you mash at? I'm having a similar problem with an oatmeal stout that is stuck at 1.030. I mashed at 158-160. 160 was for at least 10 minutes.

I honestly don't remember. Mostly I remember that my strike water was waaaaay high, so I know that my mash was. I heated the strike water, checked the temp and it was about 195*. So i was letting it cool down. I got busy doing something for about 4 minutes and then remembered that I needed to add my strike water, not thinking that I was supposed to be letting it cool. It was a rough brew day. So I dumped it in and just as I was emptying the pot, I remembered it was too hot. I dumped some ice in but it took close to 10 min to get down to 158*. So I'm pretty sure this was my issue. I usually mash at 152-154. So I would bet that is your problem as well.
 
What temp did you mash at? I'm having a similar problem with an oatmeal stout that is stuck at 1.030. I mashed at 158-160. 160 was for at least 10 minutes.

158-160 seems really high to me, I'm not surprised that.you can't get below 1.030 with the amount of unfermentables you produced in that high mash.

I forgot what the OP mashed at, but I rarely exceed 155 if ever. I think I mashed at 154 for my last porter and it was awesome.

Question to you all - where are you finding this concentrate? I've looked at my three closest stores (Vons, Albertsons .and Ralphs) with no luck. Do you think they just don't stalk this product in SoCal? Any tips?

I got mine at my LHBS. It's not the same as what the OP used but it works. It's for wine making. It was a cherry puree basically. It came in a 3 lbs, 1 oz can. I have no idea how many fluid ounces it was.
 
I got my concentrate at Sprouts grocery. They only had 3 of the 8 oz bottles so then I got the Lakewood organic black cherry 12 oz bottles.
 
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