Cherry Chocolate Cream Stout/How much cherry juice should I use in secondary.

[broffi_1027]

Hey everyone, it's been a while since I've been on here.

Tomorrow, January 29th I will be brewing up a Cherry Chocolate Cream Stout. This will be my first time making a fruit beer. Now, I know fruit whether it be whole, pureed or a juice is best to go into the secondary stage. I wanted to originally use whole cherries but cherries run $6.99 a pound, which would end up being quite expensive to buy enough cherries for a 5 gallon batch.

I was picking up a few things at my local grocery store yesterday and saw 100% Natural Black Cherry Juice, no sugars or any other junk are added and it's already pasteurized so I won't have to worry about that. So I grabbed the two remaining bottles on the shelf. The bottles are 33.8 fl oz. (1 liter.) 1.05 qt each.

I am wondering, those of you who have used fruit juice in beer before, how much should I add?

Also, I know adding this to the beer will cause fermentation to kick back in again a little. Should I back off the priming sugar a little when it comes time to bottle? I usually use 2/3 cup of priming sugar. Should I back down to 1/3 cup or less? Or is it possible that I could use more of the black cherry juice to prime my beer instead of priming sugar? I just want to make sure these don't turn into cherry chocolate stout bottle bombs. Haha.


Thanks in advance.

 

[timcadieux]

Is there a location where we can see the recipe?

 

[broffi_1027]

I am using cherry juice concentrate. The recipe is a recipe kit from my local homebrew store. It's called Iron John's Oatmeal Cream stout. It can be found at www.brewyourownbrew.com.

I am tweaking the recipe by adding cacao nibs and the cherry juice.

Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Hey everyone, it's been a while since I've been on here.

Tomorrow, January 29th I will be brewing up a Cherry Chocolate Cream Stout. This will be my first time making a fruit beer. Now, I know fruit whether it be whole, pureed or a juice is best to go into the secondary stage. I wanted to originally use whole cherries but cherries run $6.99 a pound, which would end up being quite expensive to buy enough cherries for a 5 gallon batch.

I was picking up a few things at my local grocery store yesterday and saw 100% Natural Black Cherry Juice, no sugars or any other junk are added and it's already pasteurized so I won't have to worry about that. So I grabbed the two remaining bottles on the shelf. The bottles are 33.8 fl oz. (1 liter.) 1.05 qt each.

I am wondering, those of you who have used fruit juice in beer before, how much should I add?

Also, I know adding this to the beer will cause fermentation to kick back in again a little. Should I back off the priming sugar a little when it comes time to bottle? I usually use 2/3 cup of priming sugar. Should I back down to 1/3 cup or less? Or is it possible that I could use more of the black cherry juice to prime my beer instead of priming sugar? I just want to make sure these don't turn into cherry chocolate stout bottle bombs. Haha.


Thanks in advance.

Well according to this website:
http://www.howmuchisin.com/produce_converters/cherries
you will get 1.5 cups of juice from a pound of cherries. using the average usage of 1 pound of fruit per gallon of beer. you would want 7.5 cups of juice to equal the average amount of fruit per gallon. adjust accordingly,
As for priming sugar you should let the beer finish fermenting in secondary before bottling then once FG is stable confirmed with hydrometer samples a few days apart, then bottle with your normal amount of priming sugar.

 

[broffi_1027]

Awesome! Thanks for the help. I'll let you guys know how it turns out. Cheers!

Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[stlbrew]

How did this end out?

Anything else you would tweak?

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I'm curious too, How'd it turn out?

 

[broffi_1027]

Hey guys, sorry about the delayed response. Been working way too much overtime the last few months and haven't had much free time to get on here.

Anyway, This brew came out pretty damn good! The organic black cherry juice really added a nice touch to the beer. It's not overly fruity but adds a slight dark fruit tartness in the finish and balances well with the roasted barley and bittersweet chocolate from the cacao nibs. Final Gravity came out at around 5.8% alc. Very smooth and creamy with a long lasting head that keeps the fruity, roasty and chocolaty aromas strong from first to last sip. The hop bitterness is mild and smooth with some slight earthy hop flavor.

At first try, after two weeks bottle conditioning I was a little underwhelmed by the flavor but still thought it was decent. Around the 4 week mark though, the flavor really developed into something incredible. I always serve it right at 50 degrees straight out of my makeshift beer cellar/fermentation chamber. Sent some to my buddy in Ohio and he went nuts for it and so did his friends.

The only think I would tweak with it would be a slight more chocolate presence. So next time, I may add a couple extra ounces of cacao nibs in the secondary. Other than that it is really good and will definitely be brewing much more of it.

Thanks again everyone for your helpful advice with this. It is much appreciated.

Cheers!

 

[twisted_metal]

any hints on how much of the cherry juice and cacao nibs you added. this sounds like a recipe i'd like to try out.

 

[broffi_1027]

After primary was done, I added 7.5 cups of organic black cherry juice to secondary. A small fermentation kicked back up but only for a few days. I let it sit for two weeks then I racked into a clean carboy and added 4 ounces of cacao nibs and let sit for another two weeks. Next time I brew this I think I will add 6 ounces of cacao nibs because the black cherry flavor is definitely more noticeable than the chocolate flavor.

I know I probably didn't have to let it sit all that long and break up the additions of cherry juice and cacao nibs but it was my first time making a fruit beer so I was being cautious. Still came out awesome though.