Cherries in Beer = Nightmare

I just finished racking my porter off of the cherries into tertiary, and oh my god it was the most aggravating beer event I've had to date. Everything was smooth sailing until I got about 2/3 of the way down.

Then things started to slow significantly, and finally stop. I pulled the racking out and, sure enough, it was clogged with cherry bits. I shook them free and started again. It wasn't long until it locked up again. Pulled it out, shook it loose, tried again, but I couldn't make anymore progress.

I tried tilting the carboy over, and got a LITTLE more, but not much. I was sucking a lot of air in, which was freaking me out on the oxidation tip, so I just gave up on the last gallon and called it done.

I carried the secondary carboy into the bathroom for clean up, and I can see tons of cherries floating all over the place. I had some minor difficulties when I used raspberries, but they all either floated or sunk. It appeared as though the cherries did the same thing, but apparently, they like to wander the countryside.

So I tried to siphon a bit for a gravity reading, and I couldn't even get any beer for that, no matter how hard I pumped. I just got a load of foam. Finally I tried just pouring some beer into a glass to get a reading, and it was a bit chunky mess of cherry-infested glop.

I do NOT plan on using cherries any time soon. Raspberries were tough, but manageable. These were a ***** to get into the carboy, and the beer was a ***** to get out, so no more cherries for me. Let this be a warning for others.

Now I'm paranoid about using anything besides the proven raspberries. I was planning on using blueberries in my next beer; does anyone have good or bad experience with them?

I propose a new man law: Don't fruit the beer!

myersn024 said:

I propose a new man law: Don't fruit the beer!

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That's an old law.

It might be worth some consideration, if you're set up to keg, to put the fruit in a mesh bag in the keg. I tried that this last batch and the flavor came through much stronger, without the hassle. Just make sure and secure the bag above the bottom of the dip tube.

That sucks, I was wanting to try and do a cherry beer in the future, but not if its going to be a pain in the butt.

What about pureeing the fresh fruit. That's what I've been doing and haven't had any problems. Everything I've seen just says to freeze/thaw and maybe pastuerize, why not add a puree step in there. People often like the puree better than fresh fruit, well why not make your own?
Sorry to hear you're having problems, I appreciate you helping me with my cherry porter recipe, when my cherries go in a couple months from now I'll be sure to be careful.

Yeah, I wish I had put them in the blender when I pasteurized them. It would've been easier to get them into the carboy, although I don't know if that would've prevented the situation I ended up in. Maybe using a mesh bag in a plastic bucket secondary would be a viable alternative. It tasted good, at least, but it'll be a long time before I ever do cherries again, if ever.

I just brewed with a friend who dropped frozen cherries in the secondary and when he bottled last weekend, no problems at all. They floated on top till the end. Cherry Bock, delicious indeed. Maybe it's the cherries selected that caused the trouble?

I make a batch of blackberry cider every year and was lucky enough to run across a wine bag three years ago that is big enough that I can just line the fermenter and pour the berries in. When it's done fermenting, I pull the bag up and let it drain back into the fermenter as I run the cider into the keg.

I also use it for min-mashes.

I used cherries in a cherry stout, and while I did lose some beer (just like with dryhopping), it wasn't nearly as bad as torchy's debacle. Do you have an autosiphon? I've found that it can help clear the obstruction if you pump the siphon a few times. Don't be soured on cherries (no pun intended) completely! Try it with an autosiphon!

I had same issues, but I was using whole coconuts.. GAH!!! getting them into the fermentor was hard and even harder to get out.

Evan! said:

I used cherries in a cherry stout, and while I did lose some beer (just like with dryhopping), it wasn't nearly as bad as torchy's debacle. Do you have an autosiphon? I've found that it can help clear the obstruction if you pump the siphon a few times. Don't be soured on cherries (no pun intended) completely! Try it with an autosiphon!

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Oh yeah, I have an auto-siphon. I have a love/hate relationship with that thing. Love it cuz it makes life easy, hate it because it always seems to end up spraying me with the liquid of the day. But I couldn't get any draw with it after a certain point, because there were cherries floating throughout all the remaining beer. I suppose I could've stopped and let it settle out for a while, then started up again, but I was getting very frustrated and just wanted to be done with it.

david_42 said:

I make a batch of blackberry cider every year and was lucky enough to run across a wine bag three years ago that is big enough that I can just line the fermenter and pour the berries in. When it's done fermenting, I pull the bag up and let it drain back into the fermenter as I run the cider into the keg.

I also use it for min-mashes.

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That blackberry cider sounds delicious! I would love get your recipe for that!

Torchiest said:

Oh yeah, I have an auto-siphon. I have a love/hate relationship with that thing. Love it cuz it makes life easy, hate it because it always seems to end up spraying me with the liquid of the day. But I couldn't get any draw with it after a certain point, because there were cherries floating throughout all the remaining beer. I suppose I could've stopped and let it settle out for a while, then started up again, but I was getting very frustrated and just wanted to be done with it.

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Do you think tying a grain bag or something like that to the end of the siphon might've helped?

Yeah, I considered that beforehand, like three months ago before I did it the first time, but it went so well with the raspberries I shelved that idea, thinking it was unnecessary. And by the time I was in siphon hell, LHBS was long closed and I didn't have any grain bags or anything similar on hand.

Torchiest,

How long did you let it sit in your secondary, if any?

I made a honey cherry wheat beer earlier this year and used frozen cherries in my primary. Like you, I had lot's of cherry's floating everywhere. I was able to rack into the secondary (after 14 days) with no real problems. I waited for another 2 weeks and it cleared very well.

Yeah, I kept it in secondary on the cherries for fourteen days as well, after three weeks in primary. Last time I did a fruit beer, I put it in a tertiary for a week afterward and it came out great. I plan on leaving this for a week, then bottling.

I just bottled this beer up, and the cherry flavor didn't seem very noticeable, although it was pretty tasty. The last fruit beer I made included 4oz of fruit extract, which I skipped this time around. I'm maybe a little disappointed, but maybe it'll be more noticeable later. We'll see.

I make a chocolate cherry porter when the fresh cherries come into season, I start by bringing the cherries up to ~180 degrees, and mash them (physically) in a gallon of water in my brewpot until I have a thick fresh cherry juice. I add the strained fresh cherry juice to the fermenter to cool while I brew the porter. So I use a few more pounds of cherries than if I added the flesh of the fruit to the fermenter, but I don't have any issues with clogging, and it is very tasty.

In fact it's so tasty I'm willing to risk the Manlaw violation of adding fruit to beer.

brewitall said:

In fact it's so tasty I'm willing to risk the Manlaw violation of adding fruit to beer.

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I don't obey rules created by men who drink Bud Light.

Hah, that's Miller Lite, not Bud Light, not that there's any difference. As for the cherry issue, I think next time I might try adding cherry juice, or something like a cran-cherry juice. I used a gallon of apple juice in a belgian wheat beer I did a few months ago, and it came out pretty good, somewhat similar to Unibroue Ephemere. Straining the juice does sound like a clever way to avoid all the trouble though, and I'll definitely consider that next time as well.