Cherry chocolate stout help

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Hello all,

I'm fairly new to homebrewing and had a couple questions I wasn't able to find an answer to online or from a couple other homebrewer friends. I am planning on brewing a 5 gallon imperial stout extract kit from Northern Brewer (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/recipe-kits/extract-kits/imperial-stout-extract-kit) but I want to add both chocolate and cherry flavors to it.

I've read that a common way to impart chocolate flavor is to add vodka soaked cacao nibs to the secondary fermentation, but the reviewers of the stout recommended leaving it in secondary for about six months. It seems like six months is way too long to leave the nibs in the secondary for. Is there a better way to go about getting that flavor into the beer, like maybe adding them to secondary a few weeks before kegging?

For the cherry flavor I have read that using cherry juice concentrate is a good way to get that taste into the beer, but I couldn't find any recommendations on how much or when to add it. I would be nervous about adding actual cherries to the secondary for fear of an infection or some unexpected off flavors, but again, I'm new to this and don't really know what to expect.

Has anyone ever done a beer like this that might have any recommendations? I would definitely appreciate any help. Thanks!

 

[Colorowdy]

A half cup of Hershey's unsweetened cocoa with five minutes left has always done the trick for me.
As far as cherries go with Oregon fruit about a pond to a pound in a half per gallon should get you where you want.

 

[backsideslash]

Thanks for the tip. With the cherries, when would you recommend adding them and for how long?

 

[Colorowdy]

Secondary three weeks should do. Or you could add them to primary after fermentation is complete.

 

[BrooklynTom]

Sounds really good. Good luck with it.

 

[backsideslash]

Awesome, I'll give it a shot. Thanks again

 

[backsideslash]

Update: I brewed this beer tonight and added the Hershey's natural unsweetened chocolate at 5 mins. You can definitely taste it, but it is in the background and not overpowering, which is exactly what I was looking for. I will be getting 6 to 8 pounds of cherries in two weeks from Traverse City and will secondary for two to three weeks to taste and update again. Thanks again for the help!

 

[dhutchings]

Subscribed. I'm interested to hear how this works out.

 

[Homer]

Me too, a friend of mine wanted me to brew something like this for him.

 

[Colorowdy]

Just a thought freeze the cherries first to let the cell walls burst and release more flavor.

 

[KENfromMI]

Let me know how the crop is this year. The last few years they had to bring in cherries from Poland since the MI crops have been so poor. Who knew that style of cherry is only grown two places in the world. Poland and Traverse City.

I learned this a few years back I noticed many businesses flying the Polish flag in their stores and in Polish signs that said "Long Live Poland" I acquired why the flags and was advised on those facts. Bringing in cherries from Poland, slightly raised the prices but kept 5000 people from being laid off.

 

[backsideslash]

Ken - that's pretty interesting about the Polish cherries, I definitely didn't know that. I'll keep my eye out for some Polish flags in the future!

My trip up to TC fell through so I am going to use a combo of the racking onto cherries method and another method I found in this thread (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=326884)

I Added two 16 oz bottles of the concentrate to the primary after 5 days. This increased my OG by about .007 if my math is right. I checked the gravity today and it is at 1.030 (from a recalculated OG of 1.093). I think this is about where it is supposed to end up but I will check in a few days again to make sure. Once I'm sure the fermentation has stopped, I'll rack into secondary on top of about 5 pounds of cherries (from the local grocery store) that will have previously been frozen, as suggested earlier.

I'll update in a few more weeks after I rack off of the cherries. Thanks again for the help everyone.

 

[KENfromMI]

I just picked 20 pounds of blueberries from an organic you pick farm. Set aside a big bag in the freezer. Going to make a Blueberry Oatmeal Stout.

 

[backsideslash]

I ended up racking it to secondary over the weekend. The cherry flavor is pretty prominent from the cherry juice concentrate I used so I have not put the cherries into the secondary at this point.

My FG came in at 1.030 and I think it is a little too high because it still tastes a little sweet. At this point I am going to wait 4-6 weeks and taste it again to see if the cherry or sweetness mellow out at all with time. If not, the LHBS guy said I could add some amalyse (sp.?) and a little yeast to it to bring the gravity down, but I would have to keep an eye on it since it doesn't really know when to stop.

I've read on here that big beers tend to take longer to mellow out so I'm not at the freak out stage yet haha. I wasn't planning on kegging this beer until around Christmas anyways, so it has some time

 

[backsideslash]

I just picked 20 pounds of blueberries from an organic you pick farm. Set aside a big bag in the freezer. Going to make a Blueberry Oatmeal Stout.

That sounds awesome, let me know how it turns out!

 

[KENfromMI]

4 to 6 weeks. That's funny. The only way a Stout will last that long at my house is if someone hides them from me. LOL
I got side tracked with an Octoberfest. Racking my Red Rye PA to the bottling bucket today and the Octoberfest to a secondary.
Probably start my Stout next week and I'll keep you posted.

 

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Just a quick update on this one. It's still sitting in the carboy and has really started to mellow out and have the flavors blend into something tolerable. I ended up adding some amalyse to it but the gravity is still at 1.030 so I don't think it really did anything. I've got two beers to go ahead of this one (only a single tap kegerator) but I'm hoping by the time I'm ready to keg it that it will be drinkable.

 

[backsideslash]

Final update. I kegged this one up last week and started drinking it over the weekend. The final beer was still just too tart for me. I think next time I would opt for black cherry juice concentrate or juice instead of the tart cherry concentrate. The chocolate is pretty much non existent because the cherry is so dominating.

Overall it is a drinkable beer but could be better. I've since switched to all grain so I'm still trying to get a consistent routine and (unsuccessfully) trying to figure out my efficiency issues before attempting anything too ambitious again. Thanks again for all the help and interest everyone!