Chocolate cherry forever stout

[tclary2]

I am brewing this tomorrow what form of cherry would you use? Cherries or cherry juice. ..and when would you put it in?

 

[jkeys]

I've always heard cherries in secondary, sanitized and then frozen. Added after that to reduce risk of infection. Freezing breaks down membrane and let's flavor break out better.

This is just my understanding though and I'm no pro. So if anyone else chimes in, I'd listen further advice as well

 

[Devilsnight]

Rack on top in a secondary if you can. Or you could add something when bottling maybe. I've had great success with fresh cherries of the tree. I've used cherry extract too but would strongly recommend against it, ruined the whole batch I used it in, tasted like cough syrup.

 

[BombDiggity]

Put 5 lbs frozen cherries in a pot and fill/cover with water. Bring to a boil for 10 min. Purée in blender for 5 seconds. Cool to pitching temp in the freezer. Put straining bag in a small container and pour in cherry purée and juice. Rack beer onto both straining bag and juice in secondary. This method is intended for 5 gal batches.

I have brewed both cherry wheats and raspberry wheats with this method that gives good, not overbearing results. The flavor is there, but doesn't taste artificial like Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. The raspberry tastes awesome but the flavor will start to dissipate after just a month or two. The only problem with doing this is the price of frozen fruits, five or six pounds will run you $25 or more. Hope this helps, cheers!

 

[rocketsan]

If you use organic cherry extract like the stuff sold by Cherry Lane in Vineland you'll be in heaven...

 

[TheBeerGuy]

I have made a few Cherry wheat beers and I agree do NOT EVER use an extract as it makes it taste like cough syrup. I found that I like a combination of canned fruit from Oregon Fruit Products. I find them at my local market. If I am making a chocolate cherry beer I typically use two cans of Pitted Dark Sweet Cherries and Pitted Tart Red Cherries. The two mixed together allow for a little tart and sweet flavor in my Chocolate Milk Stout. I usually open them and puree them in a sterilized blender for 30 seconds on high to make sure that it is mostly liquid. I then strain each into my secondary fermentor as I transfer to keep most of the little bit of cherry out of the secondary. I will let it clarify for 10-14 weeks and let this new flavor meld into my beer. When I keg this beer I pressurize the keg to about 2.3 and let it sit at room temp (66-70*F) for about a month. We always LOVE this beer and when my neighbors know I tapped it they visit with empty mugs when the garage door is open.

 

[rocketsan]

There are two types of extract - the concentrated extracted juice from fruit and the somewhat artificial tasting concentrated solution that is sold as extract.