Cherry Ale issues

[EVILEMRE]

I poured my primary of medium dark ale into a secondary with 5 lbs of fresh cherries, all mashed, and have left it for a week. It was a millet and buckwheat base with some millet crystal malt. I tasted some today and it was tart and the tanins from the cherries are too much. It's also quite thin in mouth feel even though I did add 8 oz of maltodextrine at the end of boil. Any thoughts on how to save this batch? Should it just be left to mellow for a while longer? Should I get it off the cherries ASAP, if that would make a difference at this point? Or should I just sell it to the indiscriminating teenagers down the street who will drink anything for a buzz?

 

[Legume]

I bet you will be much happier with it after 3 months in the bottle.
I am constantly re-amazed by how a few months of bottle aging reduces off flavors.

 

[Wolfbrau]

Whoa. Surprised it's not super sour. Cherries are hard to work with. In the future, I'd recommend an high quality cherry extract. For this batch, sit on it in bottles for a while. Get it off those cherries.

 

[Stocktonbrew]

This reminds me of a cherry stout I did years ago. A few pounds frozen cherries added at flameout and extract at bottling. It turned out to be undrinkable. I waited a year and the cherry was still so strong it was more of a room freshener than a beer. I hope yours turns out better than mine.

 

[Osedax]

You can leave it on the cherries or rack off. Probably won't make much difference. Many sour brewers will leave the beer on the fruit for months. The cherries have already imparted just about everything they will.

I say let it age in bottles like everyone else is saying. You could also try blending with another beer if you have one ready. No real easy fix for it.

What kind of yeast did you use? English yeast tends to clean up its off-flavors slower than other yeasts. S-04 takes a minimum of 2 weeks in primary to clean up everything.

Out of curiosity; What is the recipe on this? Might help.

 

[Wolfbrau]

Marking this thread. I just remembered that back in like 2008 I made a cherry stout and found a Michigan farm that makes a puree/concentrate. Not, like, that canned stuff you find on Northern Brewer; this stuff came in 1/2 gallon jugs with hand-stickered labels. I'll look it up and repost. It worked like a charm in the boil, believe it or not, and imparted only mild tartness with a good cherry flavor.

Edit: Found the farm. I have a note on proper concentration around here somewhere, it was like a 1/2 barrel batch so I can't remember off the top of my head.

http://www.obstbaum.com/CherryConcentrate.htm