Cherry Wheat Question

[zliaf]

I am new to these forums and have been brewing for 2 years. I am looking at using up some ingredients I have laying around. I am looking to make a cherry wheat and want it to be a light session beer.

This is the recipe I am looking at making.

The Mash

8 lbs Briess red wheat 6-row
8 lbs wyermann 2 row pilsner
1 lb munich malt

Mash at 153 for 90 mins
fly sparge at 170

Hops

2 Oz tettnanger hops 4.5 AA (60 Mins)

Adjuncts

2 24 Oz cans of Pie Cherries (Heavy Syrup, Pureed) (last 5 mins of boil)
2 Lbs Honey (Flame Off)

The Yeast

Wyeast 1056


Target OG 1.056
Target FG 1.014
Target ABV 5.5%
IBU 16.98
SRM 4.4

The only things I will actually need to buy are the cherry pie filling and the hops.

• How will the cherry pie filling change my OG? I was not sure how to calculate this, I am thinking I will need to reduce the amount of honey I add or remove it all together.
• I have 1056 from a previous batch that is washed, should I suck it up and buy Wyeast American Wheat 1010?
• Anything else you would add/remove?

I used brewersfriend.com to calculate my numbers.

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

 

[joyceman]

Couple of things...

1 This is a 10 gal batch right?

2 I think putting the cherries in the boil is a bad idea. You'll get the sugars and coloring, but you'll boil off the aroma and flavor. Also boiling the fruit is going to lead to problems with pectins and haze. Most fruit recipes call for racking after ferm into a secondary with the the fruit added. Im racking a wheat onto fresh frozen blueberries next weekend.

3 Why use cherry pie filling. A good amount of that is going to be syrup composed of high fructose corn syrup, colorings and artificial flavor. Cherries are cheap this year, pick up some fresh ones. If you prefer canned, Walmart supposedly carries both sweet and tart canned.

4 Id be interested to see if anyone has a good breakdown of gravity contributions for fruit by the pound.

 

[zliaf]

Sorry this is a 10 gallon batch.

How many cherries should I add and how should I prepare them?

I was only using pie filling because I had seen it in several recipes. I was not sure how I felt about using it versus real fruit.

Thanks

 

[boortzie]

I've done a couple of Cherry Wheats (both extract and all grain), and have found that with flavorings and even sometimes whole cherries (depending on how you process them) can lead to a medicinal aftertaste (kind of like cold medicine). After several trials, I hit upon a Black Cherry extract flavoring that gives a nice cherry flavor without the medicinal residue.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00014HEMW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

You can get this at Vitamin Shoppes and similar nutritional stores.

I add approx. 8 oz of this to the fermenter during primary ferm (for a 5 g batch). After primary ferm is done, I taste and adjust if desired for the secondary. Sometimes I add a bit more, sometimes not depending on the yeast strain, weather conditions, etc.

If you're going to do whole cherries, make sure that you figure out some way to sterilize them - no wild yeasts wanted. I think a lot of people make a "tea" using vodka or some other high-proof alcohol. Me, I just use the extract - it's the no fuss solution.

 

[joyceman]

Generally people freeze them (or use prefrozen). From what I've read that plus the ph and alcohol in a fermented beer will prevent any infection worries.

Re amounts, if you're going fresh or frozen 1lb/gal is the rule if thumb.

 

[ardonthorn5]

i wouldn't put the cherries in the boil, and i wouldn't use canned cherries. i did a cherry dunkleweizen, it was pretty awesome. used 5# frozen cherries.