Oatmeal cherry stout help needed

[JimboJ]

I'm currently fermenting a batch of oatmeal stout and I wanted to add some cherry extract at bottling time. Problem is I can't find cherry extract anywhere locally. Its been in the primary for 3 weeks now, and I don't want to wait another week or so to buy it online. I did find a liter bottle of sour cherry syrup, like the kind they use in coffee and tea.

The only ingredients listed are sour cherry juice and sugar. I figured since this contains a large amount of sugar, I can just boil the cherry syrup and use that instead of priming sugar. The question is how much to use so its enough to create adequate carbonation, yet not overpower the beer with cherry flavor..

So here's what I'm thinking... You normally use 5 oz priming sugar, which is about 570 calories. One ounce of the cherry syrup is 105 calories. So I figure if I use about 6 oz of the syrup, I will have roughly the same amount of sugar, and get at least a little cherry flavor. Does this make sense? Or will 6 oz of the syrup not be enough to provide any noticable flavor?

 

[tbarrjr]

I wouldn't mess with a good oatmeal stout. Especially since you don't know how much syrup to add.

 

[Judd]

Some people put a can of Oregon canned cherries into secondary.

 

[JimboJ]

FYI, I ended up adding 6 oz of the sour cherry syrup at bottling with no additional prming sugar. When I tasted it, it seems to have just a hint of cherry flavor, which is what I was going for. Keeping fingers crossed the carbonation is ok and I don't have exploding bottles. I'll let you know how it tastes in a couple of weeks when I crack open the first bottle.

 

[MrInternet]

How did this turn out??

 

[scinerd3000]

in the future, Oregon fruit purees are great and pasteurized. On northernbrewer.com: item #9100, and #6262 (cherry extract and fruit purees). They also have a dark cherry stout. Sounds like you did ok...only time will tell.