Contribution of Cherries to Gravity

[permo]

I am about to rack a 1.085 OG currently 1.018 FG stout onto 5 # of frozen cherries. I am sure over time all of the sugar will ferment out of the cherries, but I am just trying to figure out how much sugar/alcohol the cherries might add to my brew?

 

[Oldsock]

They'll actually reduce the effective original gravity of the beer since they contain water as well as sugar (and in this case a lower density of sugar than your original wort contained). Assuming you have 4.5 gallons of beer now, and the cherries are around the standard 1.053 gravity and don't contain pits, the ballpark would be that your effective OG is ~1.081. I just did a post on this topic since this is a common question people have: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/10/adding-fruit-to-beer-increases-alcohol.html

 

[permo]

They'll actually reduce the effective original gravity of the beer since they contain water as well as sugar. Assuming you have 4.5 gallons of beer now, and the cherries are around the standard 1.053 gravity and don't contain pits, the ballpark would be that your effective OG is ~1.082. I just did a post on this topic since this is a common question people have: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/10/adding-fruit-to-beer-increases-alcohol.html

Wow, thank you! You seem to know alot about this type of stuff....do you think Frozen bagged cherries from the grocery store will be fine for adding to a stout? I don't feel like pitting and freezing all them dang cherries.