cherry imperial stout

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rhinoceroceros

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I made an imperial stout last year that came out really well and I was thinking of trying it again but with some cherries. I don't want much cherry flavor, just enough to add some complexity to the beer.

My issues are as follows:

I've never added fruit to a beer and don't know when to do it. I was thinking of sanitizing and adding to primary, but there are obvious risks associated with it

I also don't know what kind to use, I'd like a sweeter flavor as I think it will go better with the beer.

Has anyone done this before? How did it turn out?

Halp!
 
fruit adds sugar, so don't add it initially, wait until primary fermentation has settled. otherwise, you may need to pitch more yeast. if it's funky fruit, it may sour, otherwise, you won't have issues (although sour may not be an issue :)) "sweet" usually comes from how "dry" the beer gets. If you want a sweeter beer, use a yeast that doesn't dry the beer out (finishes high). If you use a yeast that finishes dry, it will may just burn through the sugars in the fruit and make strong beer, but leave little fruit taste. adding the fruit to the secondary will retain more flavor, but add too much and it will start to taste like wine.

If you want to experiment, use two secondaries, one with the fruit and one without, or with different amounts.

In my limited experience, there's a fine line between "I can't taste the fruit" and "this doesn't taste like beer" :)
 
Well I'm basing the whole cherry stout off of left hand's wake up dead stout. I didn't even notice the cherry flavor until I was half way through the glass. I also would like to add some wood chips but I think I'll try one thing at a time
 
try using cherry juice concentrate after primary has settled down (3-4 days). I just did this to make a Chocolate-Cherry Imperial stout. It's in secondary now, but the taste I had was good. I used about 50 ounces of concentrate and it's definitely a strong cherry taste, but that's what I was after. You also need to know if you want sweet cherry or tart cherry. I'm from the "Cherry Capital" of Michigan (Traverse City area) so tart concentrate is easy to find but expensive. RW Knudsen (Amazon if you can't find it at your local grocery) makes a sweet cherry concentrate. I didn't want to use the "fake" cherry concentrate and have it end up tasting like cough syrup.
 
Planecrazy29, I'm planning a road trip next month up your way for sour cherry season. How much do you think 30 lbs of fresh sour cherries will cost? Trying to see if it's worth it...
 
If you have Trader Joes near you, my favorite way to add cherry is boiling down a 32 oz bottle of Trader Joes Cherry juice to about 12 oz and add it after fermentation.
 
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