Adding to extract kits

I have been drinking some Sam Adams Cheery Wheat and really am wanting to know if anyone out there has added cherries to an extract kit and if so, could you share some details and how you think the beer turned out?

I'm sure people have, but, even if they havn't, you should give it a go and see what happens! You might have stumbled on to something great =D

"An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail." - Edwin Land

I personally haven't (not a huge cherry beer fan) but it is definitely possible. A lot of people add fruit to their beer at all different times during the process (boiling, fermentation and bottling).

There is a ton of info out there about adding fruit to beer. I have Sam Calagione's brewing book and he talks about fruit in it. I found it helpful.

How do you get the cherry flavor from the kit you are using? Extract? The reason I ask is you don't want to put too much fruit in and make it over powering...unless that is what you want

No, I was looking at maybe adding real cherries to the carboy during the fermentation process. The extract kit is a nut brown ale kit. I was just wondering if others could offer some advice on this approach.

sww35 said:

I was just wondering if others could offer some advice on this approach.

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An easy way to do it would be to wait until fermentation is complete, and transfer to secondary on top of cherries or cherry puree. Either should be pretty easy to find at your LHBS. A second fermentation will kick off in secondary, when that finishes and gravity is stable, you can package or rack to tertiary for some aging.