Cherries to Secondary - How? and Gravity?

[jalgayer]

Hey All

I have put together from several other recipes and the website of troeges a recipe for the mad elf.

I plan to add 5 lbs (half sour half sweet) to the secondary.

[1] Should I boil after I open the can? Or anything special to do before I add?
[2] How can I predict (or know) how much gravity this will add?

 

[BrewNinja1]

When you say can, are you talking about the oregon puree stuff? If so, then its all ready to go. I used frozen cherries, worked pretty good.

Shouldnt add too much gravity as it adds water also. Maybe a point or two.

 

[kjung]

If you're using a canned fruit, it's already been processed to the point of killing off any germs. Just open the can, add it to the secondary, and then add the brew. Don't be surprised if fermentation kicks back up for a day or so. There will be fermentable sugars for the yeast to munch on in the fruit, but it probably won't be enough for the gravity to change much.

 

[92greenyj]

id do it the way the others have said.

And just to throw it in, I have had great success using dehydrated fruits and berries in my secondaries as well as in my kegs to give it that little extra flavor kick. As they rehydrate it really draws the flavors out into the beer nicely.

And good luck with the cherries. your a braver man than me. Any time I have tried to make cherry flavored anything it always ends up tasting like cough syrup to me

 

[jalgayer]

Thanks all. I was thinking that with that much cherries and the sugar therein I would gain gravity.

 

[jalgayer]

So just to clarify - even with 5# of cherries we are not looking at any more gravity?

 

[devilishprune]

Check this out, and be enlightened.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/10/adding-fruit-to-beer-increases-alcohol.html

 

[defenestrate]

when i added cherries to my batch i heated them up to kill the bacteria, mashed them up with a potato masher and dumped them in. got a nice rosey color and very slight flavor, i dug it.

 

[dcp27]

cherries are about 14% sugar, so with 5lbs, you're looking at adding about 6pts to a 5gallon batch
http://www.franklinbrew.org/brewinfo/fruitsugar.html

 

[BrewNinja1]

However your also adding water, as fruit contains water. Its usually a wash, or maybe a point addition. Really not much.

I added 4.5lbs of frozen cherries to my cherry wheat. No cherry flavor. However there was a little cherry tartness at the end. Nice color though. Will be adding a smidge of cherry flavoring.

 

[jalgayer]

Ok so then what is the best best to allow the cherry flavor to remain?