Christmas Beer- Racking over fruit.

So I'm planning to do a big christmas beer, something with an OG around 1.070 or so. I know these beers require a few months of conditioning so here is my question. At some point I plan on racking to a secondary over sour cherries, but when would be best to do that and how long should the beer sit on the cherries, the whole time it conditions? a few weeks then rack again for the remainder of the time? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

It all depends on how many cherries you're using. If it's just a few pounds, I'd say leave it on 'em. If it's 5 +, then you might want to rack to secondary, then shortly before you bottle (a few weeks) put it on the cherries.

Christmas beer?? That sounds great.

With fruit, I always let the beer ferment out in primary. Then, I rack to 2ndary on top of a big grain bag containing the fruit. I let it there for 2 weeks or so, when the color of the fruit starts blanching out, and airlock activity ceases. Then I rack again to a tertiary so that the beer can clear and age if need be.

Thanks for the help guys.