First Cherry Beer

[George Downs]

My other (better) half has asked me to brew a cherry beer for her for bonfire night. Means I’m going to have to brew tomorrow night, which means I have to order everything in the next 3 hours.

What do you folks think of this?

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/709252/rachel-s-cherry-beer

It’s adapted from a few things I found online. It’ll be in primary for 10days(ish) and then in secondary on the cherries for two weeks before being bottle conditioned.

Any feedback is very much appreciated!

 

[bucketnative]

That looks pretty good to me. I made a variation on the Mad Elf clone recipe (http://files.samfoust.com/Uploads/madelf2.html), where they (Troeg's) suggest adding the cherries (split between sweet and tart) mid-way through primary fermentation. I did that; adding the cherries (0.4 lb/gal) on day 4 of fermentation. It sat in the primary fermentation vessel for two weeks. The cherries are subtle at that rate, not in your face like a Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat (admittedly, the only cherry beer I have had out side of Mad Elf). So, if you're looking for a stronger cherry flavor, I would recommend doubling, at a minimum, the 0.4 lb/gal that I used. The recipe that you linked to uses cherries at a rate 0.94 lb/gal - so that fits, in my opinion.

 

[George Downs]

Sweet. I'm actually after the Sam Smith's Cherry flavor. So that sounds about right to me. Adding them through primary is a good shout too. I'm guessing that'll bump the ABV somewhat.

 

[IslandLizard]

Or use cherry juice concentrate, off Amazon.

Add the cherries or the concentrate to the "primary" when fermentation has slowed down. Omit racking to a "secondary," it's not needed, only more chance of oxidation and infection.

 

[George Downs]

I normally skip out the secondary anyway (for that exact reason) but I thought the exception was when you're adding fruits etc.

 

[IslandLizard]

I normally skip out the secondary anyway (for that exact reason) but I thought the exception was when you're adding fruits etc.

The main reason for "secondaries" was to get the beer off the yeast to prevent autolysis. That's not happening at homebrew level that quickly, yeast will be fine in a fermentor for at least 8 weeks. If you want to leave it longer (not sure why, unless it's a sour) a secondary may be considered.

If you want to harvest cleaner yeast from the fermentation, there may be a reason to rack, but it's easy to overbuild a yeast starter and save some out to make a starter from for the next brew.

1 pound of cherries per gallon is a good start for subtle flavor. One of my brewing friends uses cherry concentrates off Amazon for his Krieks, not sure which. Concentrates contain much less water than fruit or juice, so you use much less.

 

[George Downs]

Do you have any idea how much concentrate your friend used per gallon? I want this thing to punch of cherries.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Hmm.
Kveik yeast. Lactobacillus.
Cherry juice concentrate.
Ferment at 98°F.
Done, bottled, and carbed in one week

Damnit. Now I have to brew this.

 

[bucketnative]

By the way... just to clarify, in the Mad Elfin beer that I brewed, I used the Oregon Fruit canned cherries... one can of sweet and one can of tart. I mashed them up with whatever water or syrup they were with and dumped them into the fermenter. As @IslandLizard said, this restarts a bit of fermentation and pushes most of the oxygen introduced into the fermenter out.

 

[bucketnative]

Hmm.
Kveik yeast. Lactobacillus.
Cherry juice concentrate.
Ferment at 98°F.
Done, bottled, and carbed in one week

Damnit. Now I have to brew this.

Yes, the Kveik yeasts and the potential to do a true co-fermentation is exciting.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

In Belgium, 200g/l of cherries is common, they will go up to 400g/l. That's a LOT - but they are using traditional varieties that don't have much flesh on them. So you can probably halve that with modern varieties - as has been mentioned, a mix of sweet and sour cherries is a good approximation to those old varieties.

You can get cherry syrup from Eastern European shops, even supermarkets. For instance, I've had a beer that had one 400ml bottle (I think) of Lowicz cherry syrup from ASDA in a gallon. The fruit was there, the trouble with industrially-processed cherries is they pick up quite a lot of that almondy-marzipan flavour from the stones, and I really, really hate marzipan! You also have to allow for the high levels of sugar in syrup, there's a lot of fermentable in there which can dry it out if you're not careful.

PS If you're in the UK, it's best to make that clear in your profile, otherwise you may get a lot of US-centric recommendations.

 

[George Downs]

In Belgium, 200g/l of cherries is common, they will go up to 400g/l. That's a LOT - but they are using traditional varieties that don't have much flesh on them. So you can probably halve that with modern varieties - as has been mentioned, a mix of sweet and sour cherries is a good approximation to those old varieties.

You can get cherry syrup from Eastern European shops, even supermarkets. For instance, I've had a beer that had one 400ml bottle (I think) of Lowicz cherry syrup from ASDA in a gallon. The fruit was there, the trouble with industrially-processed cherries is they pick up quite a lot of that almondy-marzipan flavour from the stones, and I really, really hate marzipan! You also have to allow for the high levels of sugar in syrup, there's a lot of fermentable in there which can dry it out if you're not careful.

PS If you're in the UK, it's best to make that clear in your profile, otherwise you may get a lot of US-centric recommendations.

Super helpful advice. Cheers!

 

[ong]

I would think about leaving it on the pits for awhile, too, for more flavor(although as the previous poster mentioned, some don’t love that flavor). When I make cherry jam I save all the stones to infuse brandy for kirschwasser.

 

[George Downs]

I've simplified the grain bill following a few people's advice. https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/709252/rachel-s-cherry-beer

 

[IslandLizard]

Do you have any idea how much concentrate your friend used per gallon? I want this thing to punch of cherries.

Sorry, no clue.

What you really want is pure concentrated fruit juice, without any sugar or any additional flavorings added.