Steeping cranberries in first runnings

I am adapting a recipe I saw where they used dried cherries and steeped them in first runnings and added at the end of the boil. To use in a more Christmas theme, I thought about trying the same thing with dried cranberries. The biggest thing I'm concerned with is that the cherries went into a scottish ale and I'm going to try to incorporate into a porter? Will the darker malts cause kill the cranberry flavor in the boil? Any other suggestions on how to approach this?

 

Sounds like a pretty serious balancing act that, if you get it just right, could be awesome.

Also, doesn't cranberry have antiseptic properties? Will that affect the yeast to add them so early? Maybe its wiser to use cranberry flavoring?

 

That's a good question I'm not really sure. I have found a few more examples of people using the Craisins that came out well, but usually in secondary, not typically in the boil. I figure I'd try the first runnings way and be prepared to use some flavoring in secondary.

 

I've never tried it but it sounds interesting. One concern I would have would be extracting tannins from the skins if you had them in the boil too long. However, I did use some puréed raisins the last 10 minutes of the boil on a dark saison and I didn't notice any tannin issues.

 

I'm hoping I can avoid that by "steeping" the cranberries in the first runnings, that way, the cranberries themselves will not actually go into the boil

 

For the record, cranberries did end up going in the last ten minutes of the boil. With the equipment setup I had, I couldn't figure out a way to efficiently get the first runnings and set them aside to steep the cranberries. So end game, I didn't get much flavor out of the cranberries that I can tell. So I'll either be adding some flavoring at secondary, or may just shoot for a vanilla bourbon porter instead.

 

That sucks, but half the fun is experimenting and trying to figure out what works best. Sounds like you still have the makings of a pretty awesome base beer.

 

Yeah, the base still tasted great. First time trying FWH with Willamette too and seemed to come out pretty good.