Adding Cherry (flavoring) to my Wheat

Subdivisions · Apr 14, 2015

I just kegged a batch of wheat beer that is very tasty. It's an extract batch from the LHBS. 6.6 lb wheat extract, .5 lb torrified wheat for steeping, and ounce of tettnanger (1/2 at 60 1/2 at 15) and Safale WB-06 wheat yeast. It's a cherry wheat kit so it came with 4oz of the LD Carlson cherry extract.

My basement has been pretty cold so the first week of fermentation was in the mid to upper 50s. The yeast chugged along though and I brought it upstairs after a week to finish up in the upper 60s. The result is a very nice clean wheat that's more heavy on the clove flavor with just a hint of banana.

I've read about these extracts giving a cough syrup kind of taste so I was on the fence about using it. Of course, SWMBO would like to have a cherry wheat, so I figured I would do some experimenting.

Luckily I overshot the amount in the fermenter and I have an extra half gallon to play with. I have some syringes that I use to make E-liquid for vaping ( I DIY all my vices). I'll use one that hasn't had any flavoring in it already. I figure I will pour a couple 12oz glasses and put a specific amount in mL in each glass. The 4 oz bottle equates to 118 mL. Each 12 oz glass in 5 gallons would be about 2.25 mL of extract if I dumped the whole bottle in.

I'm going to do a glass with 1 ml and one with 2ml and compare. This should give me a good base to figure out if I should go somewhere in between or even maybe lower than 1ml per glass.

Or should I just dump that cherry extract down the drain?? I'm refrigerating the half gallon so I'll test it out maybe tomorrow. I sucked some yeast up getting the last 1/2 gallon so I'd like to have it settle first. Thoughts appreciated. I'll post taste test results.

daksin · Apr 14, 2015

Definitely taste it in some beer before you pour it out. It's unlikely a kit manufacturer would have included it if it was really gross.

TheHappyHopper · Apr 14, 2015

The only downside is that you won't be getting a completely accurate view of the final taste since the sample isn't going to be carbonated (and may still have some "green" off-flavors since it hasn't been bottled for a few weeks).

You could go pick up a 6-pack of a commercial style that is close to what you brewed and then test the different amounts of cherry flavor in that.

I have only used one of those flavored extract bottles once (strawberry) and I thought it was hardly noticeable in a 5-gallon batch.

mucci2k · Apr 14, 2015

My wife loves the Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. When I made a cherry wheat I added 3oz of the extract, added it at the time of bottling to the bottling bucket to her liking. It mellowed out to a very non-noticable cherry flavor, she wanted more cherry kick, I should have added all 4oz and maybe some cherry puree. Just my $.02

midfielder5 · Apr 14, 2015

I applaud your testing idea. If you don't like it, use real fruit in secondary. I have never done cherry but at least 1# per gallon of beer for sour cherries (per Randy Mosher's radical brewing book) is the standard. For cherry pie taste, he says to use Montmorency. No idea where to get them!

I do red raspberries (3# for 5 gal) for 7-10 days in a blonde is the bomb for ladies and many dudes. Raspberries are intense and flavor lasts a long while, unlike strawberries.

Subdivisions · Apr 14, 2015

TheHappyHopper said:
The only downside is that you won't be getting a completely accurate view of the final taste since the sample isn't going to be carbonated (and may still have some "green" off-flavors since it hasn't been bottled for a few weeks).

I was thinking that. I think that if anything the carbonation and aging will mute the cherry flavor. I'm trying to err on the side of being lighter than too much. It will be a fun experiment nonetheless

I applaud your testing idea. If you don't like it, use real fruit in secondary.

It's in a keg already (uncarbed). I was just going to figure out how much to use and dump it in and then purge the headspace with co2 and shake it.

Thanks for the info everyone.

Subdivisions · Apr 15, 2015

Well, I went with using all 4 oz. The test glass using 1ml (which would equate to dumping in half the bottle) was too weak. I could taste something different but you couldn't really tell what it was. The wife liked the 2ml glass and drank the whole thing flat and cold. It had more cherry taste and was pretty smooth. I dumped it in the keg last night and mixed it up. It's carbing up now.