Cherry Stout Recipe -- Thoughts?

[AgingHopster]

I made a 1 gallon Traverse City Black Cherry wine for my wife last fall which I used 6 lbs of cherrys to make. I racked the wine and left a 1/2 inch of cherry sediment in the 1 gallon carboy, then I racked a gallon of Double Chocolate Stout on top of that. It's settling out now, should be ready to mini-keg in a few days. I tasted it and it's awesome. I didn't want an over powering chocolate or cherry flavor. I'd say it's just a slight bit more than a "hint" of both.

 

[plankbr]

Unless you checked the juice gravity with a refractometer, it's hard to say. But my guess is that they were less than your base beer OG, but it should dry out. So I suspect you'll return to about the same FG after all is said and done.

Not sure what you mean by juice gravity? These were whole cherries.

 

[Quaker]

Simply squeezing the juice out of a few to see their sugar content. Winemakers do it in the field to help determine a harvest time.

 

[Herky21]

that's a lot of headspace for a secondary ferm.

 

[plankbr]

Yeah, I went and purchased a 6.5 gallon carboy because I didn't' think I would have enough space ion a 5 gallon carboy with 10 lbs. of cherries in there.

 

[plankbr]

UPDATE:

Bottled tonight after nearly 2 weeks racked onto cherries in 2ndary.
Results:
Actual OG = 1.063, projected OG = 1.068
Actual FG of Stout, 1.017, projected OG = 1.017
FG after cherries = 1.012
Total ABV = 6.69%

Totally stoked about the results!
I tasted the batch, it's a bit tart still. I am hoping this will mellow out and the stout will take over after being bottled tonight and very drinkable around Christmas.

Anyone with experience on this have any insight?

Thanks!

 

[TyTanium]

Nice! It'll mellow/soften with time

 

[PDX_T]

Totally stoked about the results! I tasted the batch, it's a bit tart still. I am hoping this will mellow out and the stout will take over after being bottled tonight and very drinkable around Christmas. Anyone with experience on this have any insight? Thanks!

I did a blackberry stout that ended up super uber ridiculously tart. After a month in a keg, it was subdued to the point that I could tell it was a stout again, but I still think the berries were not ripe enough and I put the fruit in too early.

I think 2 months in a bottle conditioned environment will be very good.