trav77
Well-Known Member
- Recipe Type
- All Grain
- Yeast
- Wyeast 1968 London ESB
- Yeast Starter
- 1.75 L
- Batch Size (Gallons)
- 5.5
- Original Gravity
- 1.102
- Final Gravity
- 1.021
- Boiling Time (Minutes)
- 60
- IBU
- 51
- Color
- 36 SRM
- Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
- 9 Days @ 19'C
- Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
- 3 Days @ 19'C
- Tasting Notes
- Pretty much what it sounds like. Boozy dark chocolate and a prominent sour cherry flavour. There is a very nice interplay between the sweetness of the malt and alcohol and the brightness of the sour cherries.
I got a request to post my recipe for Black Forest Cake Imperial Porter so here it is. This is a fantastic holiday sipper.
Medium heavy with lots of dark malt and chocolate flavour but nicely balanced with some acidity from the cherries. Dangerously drinkable despite its high ABV. It calculates to approx 11% without the secondary fermentation which will push it a bit higher (12% ?).
The cherries are from my own trees which are mostly Evans with some Juliet. I have not tried this with sweet cherries nor have I tried it with commercial puree, etc. To me nothing really compares to sour cherries in season, so if you can get your hands on some I highly recommend turning them into this beer. The vanilla doesn't come through much but is more there to bring out both the chocolate and cherry. If you want a more pronounced vanilla flavour, use more.
I use full volume recirculating BIAB with no sparge so mash efficiency with this large of a beer is only in the neighbourhood of 50%. I've included both % and absolute quantities of the specialty malts so it can be scaled for other systems. I'd recommend leaving the specialty malts at their listed weights and adjust the base malt to hit target OG of approx 1.100 on your system. Also, plenty of opportunity to sparge it and make a smaller beer with the second runnings.
4.7 g CaCl
3.9 g NaHCO3 (baking soda)
2.7 g CaSO4 (gypsum)
39 L RO water (full volume BIAB with no sparge)
Target room temp mash pH 5.6-5.7
91% Canada Malting Two-Row Pale
3% (450 g) Crystal 60
3% (450 g) Pale Chocolate
2% (340 g) Carafa II
1% (180 g) Crystal 120
Single infusion mash at 68 C / 154 F for 60 min.
51 IBU - Magnum - Boil 60 min
250 g - Cocoa - Boil 5 min
1/2 - Whirlfloc tablet - Boil 5 min
Wyeast 1968 London ESB in a large 1.75 L starter.
Ferment at 19 C.
3 kg Sour Cherries
2 Vanilla Beans
Puree the cherries in a blender or food processor. Bring to a boil to sterilize and skim foam from the top. Split the vanilla beans lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and add both the pods and the seeds to the cherry puree. Cover, cool and add directly to the primary once the initial fermentation is complete. For me this was around day 8 or 9. Leave the cherry puree in for 3 days secondary fermentation then cold crash for a couple days and rack. There will be a LOT of trub/cocoa/cherry sludge so plan accordingly. It's difficult to rack so start high in the clear beer and lower it gradually. Don't just drop your racking cane in the sludge layer. Also I would not recommend using a sediment excluder as it just clogs with cherry bits. If you have a conical with a dump valve your life will be easier! I left behind about a full 4 L / 1 gallon and only ended up with a 4 gallon batch of final product.
Enjoy! If anyone else brews this let me know how it turns out!
Medium heavy with lots of dark malt and chocolate flavour but nicely balanced with some acidity from the cherries. Dangerously drinkable despite its high ABV. It calculates to approx 11% without the secondary fermentation which will push it a bit higher (12% ?).
The cherries are from my own trees which are mostly Evans with some Juliet. I have not tried this with sweet cherries nor have I tried it with commercial puree, etc. To me nothing really compares to sour cherries in season, so if you can get your hands on some I highly recommend turning them into this beer. The vanilla doesn't come through much but is more there to bring out both the chocolate and cherry. If you want a more pronounced vanilla flavour, use more.
I use full volume recirculating BIAB with no sparge so mash efficiency with this large of a beer is only in the neighbourhood of 50%. I've included both % and absolute quantities of the specialty malts so it can be scaled for other systems. I'd recommend leaving the specialty malts at their listed weights and adjust the base malt to hit target OG of approx 1.100 on your system. Also, plenty of opportunity to sparge it and make a smaller beer with the second runnings.
4.7 g CaCl
3.9 g NaHCO3 (baking soda)
2.7 g CaSO4 (gypsum)
39 L RO water (full volume BIAB with no sparge)
Target room temp mash pH 5.6-5.7
91% Canada Malting Two-Row Pale
3% (450 g) Crystal 60
3% (450 g) Pale Chocolate
2% (340 g) Carafa II
1% (180 g) Crystal 120
Single infusion mash at 68 C / 154 F for 60 min.
51 IBU - Magnum - Boil 60 min
250 g - Cocoa - Boil 5 min
1/2 - Whirlfloc tablet - Boil 5 min
Wyeast 1968 London ESB in a large 1.75 L starter.
Ferment at 19 C.
3 kg Sour Cherries
2 Vanilla Beans
Puree the cherries in a blender or food processor. Bring to a boil to sterilize and skim foam from the top. Split the vanilla beans lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and add both the pods and the seeds to the cherry puree. Cover, cool and add directly to the primary once the initial fermentation is complete. For me this was around day 8 or 9. Leave the cherry puree in for 3 days secondary fermentation then cold crash for a couple days and rack. There will be a LOT of trub/cocoa/cherry sludge so plan accordingly. It's difficult to rack so start high in the clear beer and lower it gradually. Don't just drop your racking cane in the sludge layer. Also I would not recommend using a sediment excluder as it just clogs with cherry bits. If you have a conical with a dump valve your life will be easier! I left behind about a full 4 L / 1 gallon and only ended up with a 4 gallon batch of final product.
Enjoy! If anyone else brews this let me know how it turns out!
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