Sour Cherries for Cherries in the Snow

I'd like to brew Papazian's recipe Cherries in the Snow, but it calls for 10lbs of sour cherries... I looked at a couple places online, but they want somewhere around $35 for 5 pounds. Does anyone know if they get cheaper closer to the season? Does anyone that has done this recipe know of a good substitute?

$35 is pretty typical for online sources. Then again, fruit beers tend to cost more due to the cost of the fruit. Fresh/frozen fruit would be your best bet, though you could always consider purchasing some sour cherry juice concentrate as long as it's 100% juice.

I was looking for cherries last fall for a Troeg's Mad Elf clone. After looking around for a couple of weeks I read that there was a shortage of cherries last year and that sours were virtually impossible to find. I lucked out and found a couple of bags of frozen sour cherries for about $6 a bag.

A couple of weeks later someone pointed me to a generic (Favorite brand) cherry pie filling which used sour cherries in a gel of high fructose corn syrup. The cans were only $2.99 a can. It may be a more economical choice, but I'm not sure I like the idea of all that high fructose corn syrup.

Sweet cherries will be much easier to find and considerably cheaper if your willing to make the substitution.

I'll have to see what they have canned or frozen at my grocery store. I'd end up spending $70 on just the cherries and I can't justify that... Maybe ill be able to find them locally when they are in season... I'll keep this thread updated since a quick search didn't show much for this recipe and the results from using substitutes for the sour cherries.

Don't use pie filling- it's going to have a thickener and tons of other junk you don't want in your beer.

Long time reader, first time poster here...

A friend of mine has graciously offered to pick up 10+ lbs of sour cherries for me from a local farm for the purpose of brewing something with them. I'm looking for someone to chime in on brewing Cherries in the Snow or any alternative ideas that you think I should look in to. I remember wanting to brew this recipe over a year ago when all I had was the Papazian book, but now that I'm all grain brewing and using BCS, as well as many other sources for all grain recipes, reading this recipe makes me think I'd rather use the cherries differently. Thoughts?

If someone out there has brewed Papazian's recipe and it's turned out as good as it sounds, please let me know. Maybe someone made an all grain recipe out of it. I'd like to get the details on that.