A week ago, I racked 3 gallons of beer (5.4% ABV, 25 IBU, pale beer with S-04 yeast) onto 2.5 lbs of frozen pitted sour cherries that I pureed in my blender. Fermentation started up pretty quickly with slow bubbling and a reasonable kreusen. I intend on leaving everything as is for another few weeks, but am a little surprised by how much sediment is in the bottom of the 15 liter plastic fermenter. It takes up a quarter to a third of the beer volume. Obviously there are a lot of solids in 2.5 lbs of cherries, but 2.5 lbs of cherries have a volume of 3 pints or so. Should I expect it to compact down much or am I just going to lose a lot of the beer? Any thoughts on how long I should leave the beer on the cherries after the bubbling stops? Is there any additional advice people have for deciding when to bottle a beer like this?
Thanks,
Anthony
Thanks,
Anthony