cherry beer recipe - what do you think?

[sharkuttack]

I put together this recipe in hopes of a simple refreshing cherry beer recipe. please let me know if i should change anything:

all grain:

5# 2 row
5# wheat

.5 oz Columbus 60 min
1 oz Columbus 5 min
.5 cascade flame out

mash about 154

add 3 lbs frozen dark sweet cherries (thawed and boiled 15 min) add to primary 5 days after beginning of fermentation
beer smith estimates 5.6% before i add cherries to fermentor


im relying on the cherries to bring color to the beer.
im also not sure how much the cherries will boost alcohol .

i plan on using white labs English ale yeast or maybe California ale yeast. i like the English ales flocculation though.

i was also thinking of dry hopping with 1 oz centennial and 1 oz amarillo

let me know what you guys think. thanks:rockin:

 

[WVbrewer]

I always have a wheat with fruit in the kegerator, and your recipe looks pretty tasty. However, I would tweak just a couple things.

-Don't bother thawing and boiling the fruit. Let your base wort ferment to final gravity (I go 7-10 days with s-o4 @ 67 f), put the frozen fruit into secondary and rack on top. Allow to continue another week or so. Bottle or keg...

-If your going a clean cherry flavor, don't dry-hop. let the cherries alone be the dominant aroma...plus your aroma hops will come through somewhat to provide some complexity without dominating the fruit.

-I prefer an english yeast over an american ale yeast. The esters blend well with the fruit.

Hope this helps!

 

[sharkuttack]

thanks for the reply. do you think racking onto a can of Oregon cherry puree as well as a pound of frozen dark sweet cherries will leave enough sweetness and cherry flavor in the beer? mashing at 154-155 i was thinking that would leave some sweetness. also i will get rid of the dry hops.

 

[WVbrewer]

That will work just fine, the can of puree will definitley give you a clean cherry flavor. It will also boost your abv a good bit too. 155 mash sounds good, since the fruit has a good bit of fermentable simple sugar. Update when it's complete!