Cherry Ale. Pectic Enzyme?

[ren324]

Hello all,

I'm fairly new to brewing and I'm working on a sour cherry ale. I added 3 pounds of Oregon Cherry Puree to the wort and I plan on adding 2.5 pounds of sour cherries to the secondary (the recipe called for 10 pounds total, but I found that a bit excessive). I plan on freezing, thawing, then adding the cherries whole. I added pectic enzyme to the wort, will I need to do that if I don't mash/puree the cherries?

Thanks!

 

[Agent]

I found with my last cherry wheat I made, that I had quite a bit of haze from that - I used home canned whole cherries in that batch. I didn't use pectic enzyme in that batch, and I have yet to try again this year while using the enzyme.
I'm not sure when you added your enzyme, but I believe that high yeast activity inhibits the enzyme from working, so you may need to add it directly to the cherries themselves prior to adding to the beer.

 

[rabegetragen]

You should add it at the beginning of the fermentation, after the boil, maybe at the same time you pitch the yeast. You can wait until fermentation has halted, say in a secondary, but at that point you will need as much as double to get rid of the haze.

 

[ren324]

Thank you for the input!