Cherries

[DavyMark]

Does anyone use cherries in their recipes? And if so what is the range for weight? Are their any cost effective ways besides having a cherry tree?

 

[scinerd3000]

beer is an expensive hobby...plain and simple. Fruit unless you know someone tends to be a pricey addition and increases cost per bottle significantly....I used canned dark cherries for a dubbel i did....still waiting to see how it turned out- its carbonating and is going to have to sit for a while being like 9%

 

[fastricky]

I made a Cherry Ale recently. For a 5g batch I used 3.75lbs frozen organic cherries. I felt that was a good ratio based on how it turned out...

 

[DavyMark]

I made a Cherry Ale recently. For a 5g batch I used 3.75lbs frozen organic cherries. I felt that was a good ratio based on how it turned out...

That's good to hear. I saw one recipe that called for 10lbs of cherries for a 5g batch which even with frozen cherries would be 40 bucks, that's more than the rest of the ingredients. How did you get to the 3.75 number was it a stab in the dark or from a recommendation?

 

[Ice9]

I made a Dubbel last august that used 3lbs of sweet, and 3lbs of tart cherries.
I'm going to go with 4 each this year. Randy Mosher recommends 1-2 lbs per gallon in his book Radical Brewing. I'm going to drive up to Michigan this year to get fresh cherries during the harvest.

 

[fastricky]

That's good to hear. I saw one recipe that called for 10lbs of cherries for a 5g batch which even with frozen cherries would be 40 bucks, that's more than the rest of the ingredients. How did you get to the 3.75 number was it a stab in the dark or from a recommendation?

It was calculated from some research I'd done... you could step it up a bit depending on your palate. I didn't want the beer to scream CHERRY, just a nice cherry note (not to mention color) and that's what I got.

 

[Stormrider51]

I found dried sour cherries at a local grocery (Whole Foods Market). The price was a little more than $11.00/lb. Being dried, I had to make a scientific wild guess as to how much to use. I bought 1.25 lbs. My basic recipe is for a Belgian Wit done as a mini mash. I figured that I needed to be careful with hops or I would mask the cherry flavor. After the grain steeping and addition of the LME, I brought the wort to a boil and added 1 oz. Strissel Spalt hops. I set my timer for a 30 minute boil. At 15 minutes I added 0.5 oz crushed coriander and 0.5 oz bitter orange peel. I added 0.5 oz of Strissel Spalt for the last 5 minutes. After cool down I dumped the cherries into the bottom of the primary and poured the wort over them. Then I added enough cold water to bring the level up to 5.5 gal before pitching White Labs liquid yeast (Belgian Wit Ale 400) and putting the lid and airlock in place. Eight days later I racked the beer over into the secondary. After another eight days I kegged and force-carbonated. The result was a beer with a light cherry flavor that everyone around here seems to like. I'm going to be brewing a second batch this weekend. This time I'm going to leave out the 0.5 oz of hops in the last 5 minutes as I think doing so will bring out more cherry aroma. I may also bump the cherries up to 1.5 lb and see how it turns out.

By the way, if you use the same basic recipe above but substitute 2 lb (before peeling and coring) of Granny Smith apples in place of the cherries you will have a very near clone of Ephemere ale. Dice the apples fairly small. DO NOT make them into a puree! I tried that once and never got all the apple pulp out of the beer.

Happy brewing!
John

 

[chelero]

where I live, I can get fresh wild cherries. very cheap, about .80cents/kilo. anyone used these? they are small, about the size of a garbanzo, with large pits. they are sweet, with a touch of sourness. very tasty, but the pits make them very labor-intensive to snack on. but I was thinking they might be perfect for brewing-maybe the pits will add some of that woody complexity that mosher talks about. how was that cherry ale? I want to do the black forest stout, but i've already got a stout coming up, maybe I'll do a taste run on a simple ale, and buy a bunch more, and throw em in the freezer til later on. they're only available in may and june, so come july, they'll be gone.
c

 

[Evan!]

I've used frozen sour cherries before on a stout, and it was nice, no huge cherry flavor, but you got the tartness.

I have a lambic that's been on bugs since last August, and when the pellicle starts to fall, I'll add cherries to make a kriek. From what I've heard, the best and easiest medium is to get cans of the Oregon Puree cherries. They're already pasteurized, so you don't have to worry about infection (not that I'm concerned about that in a lambic anyway ). Some LHBS's carry the OP stuff, but you can get it from Northern Brewer if you can't find them there.

 

[DavyMark]

I just put the cherries in with the secondary 2 days ago. So the jury is still out. The technique I wound up with was: auto-siphon from primary to bottling bucket, cleaned and sterilized carboy (reused from primary), racked 1 gallon of porter on top of 1lb frozen (not thawed) pitted cherries in a 4l glass wine bottle, then the other 4 gallons back into carboy. I put a blow off tube with the cherries, and while the fermentation is giving about 1 bubble/sec, there was no huge krausen, so maybe that was unnecessary. Will update in 2 weeks.

 

[the_bird]

I've used frozen sour cherries before on a stout, and it was nice, no huge cherry flavor, but you got the tartness.

I thought your cherry stout was very good. If I were to brew with cherries, that's the kind of base beer that I think works quite well; it's a nice complement to the roasty, chocolately goodness of a beer that uses a lot of dark malts. I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did, it's one of the few fruit beers that I've had that I thought really worked well, where the flavors weren't fighting the *beer* at all.

 

[DavyMark]

Racked the porter off of the cherries last night. Getting closer....

 

[RockfordWhite]

I make a belgian christmas beer with cherries in it, i use organic canned cherries, just dump them and syrup right into the secondary...

 

[DubbelDach]

I did a Mad Elf clone two X-masses ago. Added 5 lbs of Bing cherries to 2ndary. I had them frozen since the summer. When it was time, I thawed them, de-stemmed and pitted them (much easier to pit after the freeze breaks down the cell walls), and put them in a nylon bag. I dumped the nylon bag and the resulting juice into an Ale Pail and then racked the beer (tripel with a bit of chocolate malt) on top.

The cherries kicked up a vigorous secondary ferm. I ended up using a tertiary off the cherries to clear it a bit.

I got those cherries on sale at the grocery store for like $1.99/lb.

I am actually headed to a Farmer's Market over lunch today to scout out cherries for a Cherry Saison I want to do in a few weeks. I bet I'll find nice pricing there. I want to use 2 lbs of sweet and 2 lbs of sour in this batch. If the market doesn't have them, I know the local orchard has both, and I'll hit that on Saturday.

EDIT: Picked up a quart (1.5 lbs) each of sweet and sour cherries... $9 total.

 

[mkling]

where I live, I can get fresh wild cherries. very cheap, about .80cents/kilo. anyone used these? they are small, about the size of a garbanzo, with large pits. they are sweet, with a touch of sourness. very tasty, but the pits make them very labor-intensive to snack on. but I was thinking they might be perfect for brewing-maybe the pits will add some of that woody complexity that mosher talks about. how was that cherry ale? I want to do the black forest stout, but i've already got a stout coming up, maybe I'll do a taste run on a simple ale, and buy a bunch more, and throw em in the freezer til later on. they're only available in may and june, so come july, they'll be gone.
c

Be careful with the pits. They are mildly poisonous. Here's a chemist's assessment from about.com:

"Yes, Apple Seeds and Cherry Pits are Poisonous. In fact, if you eat enough apple seeds or cherry pits, you could die. Apple seeds contain cyanogenic acids. Cherry pits, and seeds from related fruits, including peaches, plums, almonds, pears, and apricots, contain cyanogenic glycosides. Your body can detoxify small quantities of cyanide compounds. If you accidentally eat a cherry pit in a pie or swallow an apple seed or two, you'll be fine. Actually, if you swallow several seeds whole, you would absorb a minimal amount of the toxic compounds. Chewing the seeds makes them much more hazardous to your health. Children and pets are much more likely to suffer poisoning from eating the seeds than adults.

Symptoms of mild poisoning include headache, dizziness, confusion, anxiety, and vomiting. Larger doses can lead to difficulty breathing, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and kidney failure. Reactions can include coma, convulsions, and death from respiratory arrest. There are several treatment options, but the main thing is to limit the absorption of the chemicals from the seeds. Basically, this means it's important to seek immediate medical attention if a child or pet is known to have eaten several seeds. Usually, the plan of action is to pump the stomach or induce vomiting. Antidotes are available, but they are somewhat controversial. If you or someone you know eats a seed or two, don't worry... as I said, your body is well-equipped to detoxify small quantities of cyanide compounds. They naturally occur in several foods. However, if you were wondering whether or not it's true that the seeds and pits are toxic and potentially lethal... yes, apple seeds and cherry pits are poisonous."

So if it were me, I'd pit those cherries before tossing them in my beer. I love my beer too much to risk it.

 

[DubbelDach]

I hear pits give a beer a bad wood flavor. Not good, like oaking it would, but bad like a toxic tree.

So yeah.... Pit that ****!

 

[DavyMark]

I used pre-frozen pitted cherries. Bottled two days ago. The un-carbonated warm version going into the bottle was very promising though.

 

[Jack]

Be careful with the pits. They are mildly poisonous. Here's a chemist's assessment from about.com:

"Yes, Apple Seeds and Cherry Pits are Poisonous. In fact, if you eat enough apple seeds or cherry pits, you could die. Apple seeds contain cyanogenic acids. Cherry pits, and seeds from related fruits, including peaches, plums, almonds, pears, and apricots, contain cyanogenic glycosides. Your body can detoxify small quantities of cyanide compounds. If you accidentally eat a cherry pit in a pie or swallow an apple seed or two, you'll be fine. Actually, if you swallow several seeds whole, you would absorb a minimal amount of the toxic compounds. Chewing the seeds makes them much more hazardous to your health. Children and pets are much more likely to suffer poisoning from eating the seeds than adults.

Symptoms of mild poisoning include headache, dizziness, confusion, anxiety, and vomiting. Larger doses can lead to difficulty breathing, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and kidney failure. Reactions can include coma, convulsions, and death from respiratory arrest. There are several treatment options, but the main thing is to limit the absorption of the chemicals from the seeds. Basically, this means it's important to seek immediate medical attention if a child or pet is known to have eaten several seeds. Usually, the plan of action is to pump the stomach or induce vomiting. Antidotes are available, but they are somewhat controversial. If you or someone you know eats a seed or two, don't worry... as I said, your body is well-equipped to detoxify small quantities of cyanide compounds. They naturally occur in several foods. However, if you were wondering whether or not it's true that the seeds and pits are toxic and potentially lethal... yes, apple seeds and cherry pits are poisonous."

So if it were me, I'd pit those cherries before tossing them in my beer. I love my beer too much to risk it.

While that's good to know, I think the risk is very likely overblown. I make my own maraschino cherries via the traditional method (100% tart cherries, 2/3 brandy + 1/3 simple syrup, pit the cherries and add the pits to the bottom of a jar... refrigerate and wait six months -- VERY VERY good). The pits add a very pleasant nutty flavor that can't be achieved any other way (cheater recipes call for almond extract, but it's not even close). No one or anyone I've served my cherries to has suffered any noticeable adverse effects.

I also know a friend who eats apples in their entirety except for the stem. And she seems healthy.

Finally, the dried pits of sour cherries are a traditional staple in Turkish cooking (called mahlab).

In other words if you want to play it safe, that may be prudent... but I'm risking it.

(much easier to pit after the freeze breaks down the cell walls)

Or you can spend the $5 and get a cherry pitter. It is the perfect tool for removing pits from cherries.

 

[Emyrs]

where I live, I can get fresh wild cherries. very cheap, about .80cents/kilo. anyone used these? they are small, about the size of a garbanzo, with large pits. they are sweet, with a touch of sourness. very tasty, but the pits make them very labor-intensive to snack on.

Or you can spend the $5 and get a cherry pitter. It is the perfect tool for removing pits from cherries.

Ive use cherries a few times in different cooking recipes.. if i didnt need the cherry to be whole for presentation purpose, i found the easiest way to deal with the pits was to freeze and thaw them a few times over... after that the pits should just push right out...
good way to get a nice red stain on your hands though

oh.. and you might have a bit of a cherry 'mush' when its done.. guess you could deal with that in a second or third rack though no? sorry.. bit new to brewing.. just a bit of experience with food.

 

[DavyMark]

Ok, so this beer is really good. It has a pinkish-brown head! The porter it is based on is also my favorite beer I make. I spun of 1G from a batch and added 1lb of pitted frozen cherries (bought that way from A&P) in secondary. Anyway no infection and good taste, my only change next time might be to try 1.5lbs/G.

 

[brrman]

I tried Bells Cherry Stout last night and WOW was it ever tart! It was good, but a bit on the tart side for me.