Specialty Fruit Beer Chocolate Cherry Stout

[DerekV]

Bottled my version this past weekend. Used black cherry juice and roasted cacao nibs in the secondary. Crashed in the fridge for a couple days to help clear. Tasted fantastic going into the bottles. The oatmeal in the mash really gave it a great mouthfeel...hoping this one ages out well! I stole 1 gallon from bottling and put it into a small carboy with oak cubes and bourbon, stashing it away for a few months before I even think about bottling it.

 

[DerekV]

Unlike the porter I did previously, this stout has carbed in the bottles after just one week. It's absolutely exactly what I wanted it to be. The cherry flavor is still a little green, but once this rests for a month it will be fantastic. I used the base stout recipe to brew another batch this weekend, but I'm using black raspberry juice instead, Special B in place of the British crystal malt and a Belgian Trappist yeast...should make a nice Belgian Stout hybrid.

 

[abifolck]

Hey guys. I'm excited to give this recipe a try. What's the rationale for adding the cherry juice to the primary a few days into fermentation, instead of right at the beginning?

 

[kevokie]

This looks great, I'm going to have to give it a try.

 

[blitzcreeg]

I just lost my father. He wanted me to do a black cherry stout for him. He was just beginning to get into the craft beer world thanks to my brother and I. I am now dedicated to making a black cherry stout until I get it to perfection. I'm going to start with this recipe and change things if needed until it is perfect. Thanks for recipe.. Cheers

 

[esullrich]

I will be brewing this with a few friends in a few days. We have both cherry puree, and syrup. Anyone have any thoughts as to which would be better, and how much to use?

 

[blitzcreeg]

I'd use the puree personally. How much really depends on how much cherry u want to come through. Maybe start with a lb a gallon? Fruits do fade.
I used what the recipe called for, but next time I'd up it. I also changed the recipe and turned it into a belgian stout. If your going to stick with the recipe one thing I would surely change would be coa coa in the boil.
This beer does age very well so try to keep a 12 er to try once a month.

 

[motorhead69]

Brewed this up a month ago. It needs to age a little bit more but is quite tasty. I'm hoping it will be ready for my homebrew club's Xmas party in a month.

 

[KeepCalmBrewOn]

I brewed this last weekend and racked to secondary on top of the vanilla beans and an entire can of cherry puree. My OG was 1.070 and had decreased to 1.016 when I measured right before transferring to secondary. Its been 48 hours since I racked it and I have seen no airlock activity. Will I see any further signs of fermentation after adding the puree?

 

[turkeygecko]

I brewed this last weekend and racked to secondary on top of the vanilla beans and an entire can of cherry puree. My OG was 1.070 and had decreased to 1.016 when I measured right before transferring to secondary. Its been 48 hours since I racked it and I have seen no airlock activity. Will I see any further signs of fermentation after adding the puree?

You're going to have to take gravity readings. Secondary fermentation is often not vigorous enough to observe airlock activity, especially after 24 hours. Remember, you left the vast majority of the yeast in the primary carboy... secondary is mostly for aging.

That's why I chose to roll with cherry extract when I made this recipe and added it to primary a couple days into fermentation. I wanted to have plenty of lively yeast to chomp on the sugar added from the cherry extract.

Let me know how your batch turns out. I will let you know how mine works too.

What yeast did you use?

Cheers,
Drew

 

[JohnMDO]

Has anyone brewed this without the chocolate? I am trying to go for a stout with just the vanilla and cherry.

 

[bren2426]

I brewed a cherry stout without the chocolate and it turned out great. At first it didn't seem to have enough cherry flavor but after about a month on keg it was awesome and it got better with age. I also used 4oz of liquid cherry concentrate from my lhbs and added it to the secondary for about 10 days and it turned out great.


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[Brewsit]

I brewed a variation of this and it turned out great. I upped the base grain by a pound, dropped the roasted barley by 25%, doubled the chocolate malt, and used columbus hops for the bittering. I also used cacao nibs after primary fermentation for 10 days, and then used black cherry extract when I kegged, at a rate of about about 1/8 a cup per five gallons. The chocolate flavor is a very dark chocolate flavor, huge black cherry aroma and flavor. Smooth and easy drinking, and it's only been carbonated for 24 hours. Amazing!!

 

[dunnright00]

Looking for a Chocolate Stout recipe, I think I'll make this w/out the cherry...

 

[FLBrew]

Another to check out is jamils Black Forest stout in brewing classic styles. I brewed it for a valentines day competition and it took first place.


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[dunnright00]

What kind of cocoa powder do you use? Sweetened?

 

[Johnman1971]

Newb question. What is Additional Fermentation: buld aged ~2 months?

 

[justineaton]

It just means to let it age in bulk (large carboy rather than small bottles) for two months

 

[jimbrewbeer]

I made this recipe, replacing the bulk of the grains with 7.5lb pale LME, skipped the rice hulls, used Hershey's cocoa powder in the primary, and used an extra high gravity yeast (thinking yeah, big beer!)

64oz of tart cherry extract into the secondary, but I skipped the cocoa because The fermentation seems to have been very healthy, but the beer is still super thick and gritty from the cocoa powder.

I racked again into tertiary (it fermented quite a bit after adding the extract), over 1 Tbsp vanilla extract. I tasted what was left in my racking tube, and found it to be (a) thick, (b) gritty like cocoa powder, and (c) TART!!!

I was somewhat disappointed that it tastes that way because 64oz of that cherry extract costs like $35 -- I don't want this beer to be a wash.

I'm thinking of either:
1) Throwing in a bunch of lactose to sweeten it up and hopefully that will meter things out, or
2) Brew another batch without the cocoa powder or the cherry, and mix them together in hopes that THAT makes it more palatable.

Do you all have any thoughts or advice?

 

[robbo007]

What would be a substitute for the Crystal 90L? I've only got access to UK and Germany grains. No US stuff..

Here's the conversions:
http://www.brewstock.com/brewstockbrewing.html

 

[budaboff]

Try this next time.

Soak 2 lbs of dark sweet cherries in Woodford Reserve bourbon (16 oz) for 1 month. Add all cherries and about 8 oz of the bourbon-cherry extract you just created to your secondary. With the chocolate and vanilla already in the beer, it is amazing.

Its like a meal in a bottle. You get the bourbon up front like a before dinner cocktail. A nice roasted sweet beer and the chocolate cherry hits you at the end like a nice dessert.

I also made mine a sweet stout. I still have about 4 oz of the cherry bourbon left over and I'm going to add it at bottling to a foreign extra sweet stout.

 

[_the_CaverDave]

#magno... Just brewed a 10 gallon batch yesterday (plit into 2 - 5 gallon fermenters) and can hardly wait to taste it around the New Year! This was my 4th AG batch and 1st 10 gallon batch. Hoping you (or others) might comment on my questions below?

Fermented 4 days, then added cherry juice concentrate. Fermented 10 more days, then racked and added vanilla beans. Bulk aged 55 days before bottling.

The concentrate contributes a bunch of fermentable sugar, and the cherry flavor is much more prominent than when I have used whole fruit in the past.

Wondering if you noted a higher ABV or drier finish adding the juice concentrate so early in the fermentation? Seems the yeast might jump on the juices ferment-able sugars and might end up closer to Imperial levels?

What about holding the juice until later in fermentation process?

Adding the cocoa to the mash seems to infuse the beer with a "deeper" chocolate flavor than I have gotten when I added it to the secondary

I added 1# of cocoa powder in the mash, but read others saying it stays suspended in the beer well after cold crashing and causing cloudiness. Did this suspended cocoa powder cause any issues for you? I'm not concerned with clarity, but wondering if it adds any "grittiness"?

The addition at the secondary gives a different quality.

Can you comment on what that "quality" diffidence is?

 

[nrm10101]

I brewed this beer back in the beginning of October and just bottled this past weekend. Warm and uncarbonated, this beer tastes awesome! I can't wait for it to bottle condition.

I had some issues when brewing. Stupid me used the 5 gallon measuring stick for water during mash-in instead of the 10 gallon stick, so my strike water was WAY off. I made up for it by adding more water about 45 minutes in (when I realized my mistake) and let it go for another 30 minutes... then did my normal sparge. I ended up with a horrible efficiency (55%) and a very low OG of 1.048. I added DME at boil until I got to 1.058 (ran out of DME at that point). So, I was about 10 points low.

After 4 days of fermenting, the beer settled down, I added 72oz of Knudsen condensed cherry juice. Within an hour, the bubbler was going at full speed again!

10 more days, added the vanilla beans and extra chocolate. The extra chocolate got VERY messy inside the carboy, and was sticking to the sides, so after 2 more weeks I racked it again. I kept the vanilla beans in until bottling.

8 weeks after brewing, I ended up at 1.016, and I bottled it into 48 12-oz bottles. I'm going to take the suggestion of putting 6 or so of these aside until next year to compare, since I have a feeling I'll be making this my normal seasonal brew. I can't wait to drink it! Thanks for the recipe!

 

[_the_CaverDave]

Just racked mine to keg yesterday and is carbonating. Interesting taste warm/un-carbonated... bitter, but not in the hops sense. Will sample a pint later tonight, then to the back of the fridge it goes until Christmas!

 

[nrm10101]

Did anybody have any carbonation issues with this beer? I added 3/4 cup of corn sugar at bottling the ~4.75 gallons, and after 7 days cracked one open to see where I stood, and there was almost no carbonation. My basement temps did drop a little in the last week, so maybe it was too cool. I brought it upstairs to see if that helps. Was just curious if anyone else had this problem with this beer.

 

[sfrisby]

I'd suggest you would need more than a week to carb up. I'd simply give it more time before being concerned.

 

[_the_CaverDave]

Mines kegged, so it's getting forced.

on another note, my brew bud added .5# of lactose to his (5gal) to sweeten & give it a bit more body... said it totally changed the taste and he's in love!

 

[joety]

How would this turn out if I brewed a smaller version in say the Ten Fiddy range so it's done in five to six weeks?

 

[strangebrew14]

Happy brewing holidays everyone! I brewed this recipe on Sunday but sadly had to do a variation :0 ( local home brew store has been really slow and looking to open a brewery in January.

So long story short I am using norther brewer for bittering and fuggles for late addition. For yeast they didn't have much but guy recommend Wyeast 1187 Ringwood and said he did a stout with it and it turned out great.

Yeast was slow starting even with a starter which I guess is normal for this strain but now 2 days in I have a nice layer of krausen building. Plan to wait a few days and add 36oz organic tart cherry concentrate...wait about two weeks and add the vanilla beans and cocoa.

Definitely excited to get this beer on tap :0)

 

[FLBeerGuy]

How is the cherry in this recipe? Is it sweet, on the sour side?, overly sweet?...