cherries & chocolate

[ruppe]

After some discussion with family, I'm looking to make a chocolate/cherry brew. I'm going to use my red ale recipe (which is quite malty) for the backbone. For economic and laziness reasons, I purchased a 16 oz bottle of "cherry concentrate." The bottle says ~12 1/2# cherries are used to produce. Is this too much to chuck into a 5 gallon batch? I'm assuming it would go into the secondary, as if I were using whole berries. Any idea how much cocoa powder I should use to balance with the cherries? How about adding lactose, and how much to this menagerie? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Martini]

Found this one online the other day.

Brewing Method: Partial Mash
Yeast: Coopers Ale Yeast
Yeast Starter:
Batch Size: 5 Gallons
Original Gravity: 1.081
Final Gravity: 1.019
Alcohol Content: 8.1 %
Total Grains: 9.6 lbs
Color: 52
Extract Efficiency: %
Hop IBU's: 18.6
Boiling Time: 60
Primary Fermentation: 7 days
Secondary Fermentation:
Additional Fermentation:

Grain Bill:

6.60 lbs. Dark Liquid Malt Extract
1.00 lbs. Caramel/Crystal Malt 120L
1.00 lbs. Chocolate Malt
1.00 lbs. Roasted Barley
3.00 lbs. Clover Honey
1.00 ozs. Cherry Extract
7.00 Tbs. Baker's Cocoa Powder

Hop Bill:

1.00 oz. Czech Saaz
1.00 oz. German Hallertauer

Mash Schedule:

Brewers Notes:

Steep grains in hot water until boil. Remove grains and add malt extract, honey and both hops. Boild for 60 minutes, remove from heat and add cocoa and cherry extract. Move to fermenter, cool and pitch yeast, let ferment until finished.

If you try any recipe let us know how it turns out.
Those are 2 of my favorite flavors.

 

[BrewProject]

i'm gonna try to get those two flavors by mixing my Double chocolate stout with a cherry wheat beer :cross:

but please report back with you recipe and results. sounds delicious... :rockin:

 

[the_bird]

From a slightly disappointing brew that I'm drinking right now, what I found adding fruit to a red ale was that there really needed to be a little bit bittering hops. Not sure how the chocolate will influence this (especially if you use a bitter baking cocoa), but my raspberry-maple red ale hardly tastes like beer- it's not bad, just needs a stronger core beer character. The maple, incidentally, was worthless - no maple flavor at all, I wonder if it's strong fermentation helped cause the lighter flavor as well.

Adding that much in cherries, you may want to slightly jack up the bittering hops to retain the beer flavor.

 

[Beer Snob]

I've done some chocolates and some cherries... never the same time though for no reason other then I just have not done it yet. One thing Ive noticed though is that if you want to taste of either to be pronounced it's better to go lighter rather then darker. The cherries will basicly ferment out. I've also used Lactose and MD.... I think I liked how the MD tasted better then the lactose. Perhaps it was personal preference or perhaps I did not use enough lactose ...

Edit.... also something else I've noticed is that either taste diminishes over time..... significiantly after about 3 months.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

I think there is a recipe for a choco-cherry porter in Papazin's HB companion. Mine is 15000 miles away from me right now though, so if anyone else can post it...

 

[BrewVA]

I brewed a chocolate cherry stout last week.
I like the lactose, i use about 16 oz in the bottling bucket. Just for fun, I threw 2 oz into the boil this time. Don't know if that will matter.
The baker's chocolate doesn't mix well if you try it in the boil, but 6 oz of cocoa is about right in the bottling bucket, assuming you used lots of chocolate grains.
12 lbs of cherries seems ridiculous. I would think 4-5, but I use about 2.5 oz of the cherry extract.
I've had success with this before, but let me know if you learn anything good.

 

[ruppe]

Thanks for all the input. You've given some good ideas, while also creating some new questions (which wasn't unexpected).

For some reason, I forgot about malto-dextrine. I think I'll use that in addition to the lactose. Also, there was mention of adding lactose & cocoa to the bottling bucket. I'm a little concerned about it completely going into solution. Any problems or concerns just adding to the boil? Effects on fermentation?

Also, I'm not sure if the cherry "concentrate" I have and the cherry "extract" sold in homebrew shops is the same thing. This stuff is sold as a dietary supplement, and has sugar in it. I wonder if the sugar is removed from the extract. I agree with the thought that 12 pounds sounds ridiculous. I beleive I will cut back on that.

 

[BrewVA]

you can add them (cocoa, lactose) to the boil but their effects will be less noticable, which may be exactly what you want. You would definitely need to stir the bottling bucket very well after adding. but it does work.

beware the "concentrate" with sugars. Extract is sugar free. I don't know what the risk is, but at least check to see if it's pasteurized. If it has sugar, it may be safer to use in the bottling bucket since the fermentation will be all but done and the alcohol present to kill stuff.

 

[ruppe]

Thanks brewva. my plan is to add cocoa, lactose , and maltodextrine to boil, and add cherry concentrate(about 8 oz, due to pior posts) to secondary (and it is pasteurized, if you were wondering).And fly from there.