Priming With Fruit Juice?

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Schlenkerla

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I've been considering making a big brown ale with several cans of Oregon Cherries.

Dark Sweet or Red Tart Cherries ~ 5 cans for 5 gallons.

https://www.oregonfruit.com/specialty-fruit-products/category/cherries/red-tart-cherries

I was thinking of moving this to a keg after its done fermenting then priming with Cherry Juice. However I'd prime like a gyle. Obviously I'd take a gravity reading of the fruit juice to prime properly.

Gyle Calculator

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Have any of you tried priming with fruit juices?

I want to try priming in the keg. All this time I've relied on force carbonation.

Thoughts??
 
You can look on the label, amount of sugar per serving is listed, and I believe cherry juice sugars are all fermentable. Add enough juice to give desired priming amount, for instance 5 gal you would want to add enough juice to contain 4 or 5 oz sugar. Sour cherry is pretty acidic, if I recall.
 
You can look on the label, amount of sugar per serving is listed, and I believe cherry juice sugars are all fermentable. Add enough juice to give desired priming amount, for instance 5 gal you would want to add enough juice to contain 4 or 5 oz sugar. Sour cherry is pretty acidic, if I recall.

I'd take a gravity sample of the cherry juice. I'm guessing it would be close to 1.040. Then put that into they gyle calculator for 2.0 volumes of CO2.

Looks like it might take 1.5 qrts of cherry juice to prime if its 1.040 and I have about 4.5 gallons in the keg.

I'm OK with tart in this beer, I like sours, even it its not a lacto. Oud Bruin is a sour often blended with choke cherries.

It would be a good idea to just to taste the cherry juice. :D
 
FWIW - I have left over cherry juice.... tried in a "Fat Tire" as a test. Purdy good tasting. Very subtle at 1:12oz
 
Looks amazing I'm brewing a coopers lager next and was wondering how it would taste primed with juice I enjoy a couple of drops of lemon juice in my cup of beer in the summer time would I be able to use lemon juice or is it to acidic?
 
Looks amazing I'm brewing a coopers lager next and was wondering how it would taste primed with juice I enjoy a couple of drops of lemon juice in my cup of beer in the summer time would I be able to use lemon juice or is it to acidic?

Well it depends how much sugar is in lemon juice. The lower gravity the juice has, the more you would need to add to carbonate your beer. If it's low in gravity and you have add a lot, question is would it be too much lemon taste and would it ferment out. Even though it's pretty acidic I think it would, but it might take longer.

If you made a wheat beer it'd be like a summer shandy. It might be an awesome summer beer.

BTW - There's a thread in hbt called "skeeter pee" that is a fermented citrus beer. I haven't seen it posted in for awhile. HBT Thread Skeeter Pee
 
Just primed my kegged Cherry Christmas Wheat with R.W Knudsen's "Just Tart Cherry"!!!

That's a great idea, thanks for posting.
Can you describe the flavors of the finished beer? Any Cherry flavor left, or did it all ferment out? I'm thinking a closed fermentation would help retain some flavors/aroma. Did you keep any of the original beer without the cherry to compare?
I'm going to try this in a summer wheat beer and also some cider that came out kind of dull.
 
That's a great idea, thanks for posting.
Can you describe the flavors of the finished beer? Any Cherry flavor left, or did it all ferment out? I'm thinking a closed fermentation would help retain some flavors/aroma. Did you keep any of the original beer without the cherry to compare?
I'm going to try this in a summer wheat beer and also some cider that came out kind of dull.

I didn't separate out the beer. All of it cherry gyled.

My wheat beer had four cans of Oregon Tart cherries in five gallons of beer. The beer at kegging time had a very subtle cherry taste (warm and flat). I didn't think it was an obvious cherry taste to me. I wanted to have more cherry flavor. More like a kriek, but not necessarily sour.

To be honest my keggerator was full so I could not put it on gas. So I decided to gyle since I still wanted to serve this by Xmas.

I was going to gyle regardless.

Two Three weeks after I gyled it I tried it out. It had a notable tart cherry taste and I tasted a yeast ester that wasn't sure I liked. Other people liked it. Right now as you can see it's very clean and taste-wise its ester free from aging. It's an easy drinker. I like it in a goblet. It's definitely a session beer I usually drink two or three when relaxing.

Would I do it again. Yes. Maybe next time in a Belgian brown ale, like an oud bruin.


It's not too cherry in my opinion.
 
That's a great idea, thanks for posting.
Can you describe the flavors of the finished beer? Any Cherry flavor left, or did it all ferment out? I'm thinking a closed fermentation would help retain some flavors/aroma. Did you keep any of the original beer without the cherry to compare?
I'm going to try this in a summer wheat beer and also some cider that came out kind of dull.

This is the recipe I used. Tart Cherry Wheat

I used mt hood, so the hop profile doesn't compete with the fruit flavor. The gyling definately amped up the cherry flavor.

Today, its effervescent and little tart, with a definite cherry flavor with slight hop or yeast ester at the end. The ester is barely detectable at this point. I thinks it because I know its there from when it was young.
 
I mentioned an ester taste in this beer. It comes from the yeast and I used S-04. I think using juice takes a little longer to clean up than corn sugar or table sugar.
 
I've primed a few sours with juices. Thus far I've used prune (in a plum sour), cherry (concentrate actually, not juice), and pineapple (mango/pineapple sour). I simply use the sugar content to calculate my priming dosage. Sometimes I'll supplement with dextrose or palm sugar. I've used a raspberry/pomegranate frozen juice concentrate for priming and adding fruit flavor as well.

I also have used juices at times to purée dried or relatively dry fruits into a slurry to avoid semi whole pieces floating on top once fermenting and lifted by CO2. I had used the prune juice to purée with prunes for the plum sour. I also used the prune to purée figs and dates together. I've used pure cranberry juice with whole fresh cranberries which were on sale cheap after thanksgiving (that's still in the freezer awaiting an appropriate beer).

I'm a fan.
 
How would other types of juice work? I see y'all are saying cherry juice

I think pretty good. I like the Knudsen Farms juices, especially the single fruit juices. They also have blends. These are readily available in Walmart and local grocers. Typically in quart sizes.

Check out the following juice groups in the link below; Juices, Single Fruit Juices, and Organic Juices

http://www.rwknudsenfamily.com/products

I've primed a few sours with juices. Thus far I've used prune (in a plum sour), cherry (concentrate actually, not juice), and pineapple (mango/pineapple sour). I simply use the sugar content to calculate my priming dosage. Sometimes I'll supplement with dextrose or palm sugar. I've used a raspberry/pomegranate frozen juice concentrate for priming and adding fruit flavor as well.

I also have used juices at times to purée dried or relatively dry fruits into a slurry to avoid semi whole pieces floating on top once fermenting and lifted by CO2. I had used the prune juice to purée with prunes for the plum sour. I also used the prune to purée figs and dates together. I've used pure cranberry juice with whole fresh cranberries which were on sale cheap after thanksgiving (that's still in the freezer awaiting an appropriate beer).

I'm a fan.

That's a good idea, puree and dried fruits together for fermentation. I have a Xmas beer that's still fermenting with Mince Meat soaked in E&J VS Brandy, and a little cherry juice.

It looks like you've used a bunch of juices for fermenting and priming. I plan to branch out like you've done. Do you use a calculator to do your priming? If not, be sure to check out the gyle calculator in post #1.

Do you do any blending? I've been thinking for awhile about making a really simple but big beer either like a triple or a quad then age it on pureed fruit, then breaking it into gallon jugs topping them off with juices to age further. Then use a gallon jugs to blend into a 4-Gallon batch of; wheat, amber, brown, or a dark strong ale. The thought is to make a relatively young beer appear aged and complex.
 
I do blend. After long aging of my sours, I'll split up into 1 gallon jugs with different fruits. I normally blend in a keg for bottling. I just use the keg for dispensing into the bottles. It's in the keg I add my priming sugar or juice. I tend to overload the fruit level on the jugs knowing it'll just be a component in a blend. My pipeline is finally up to full flow with several batch at 18 months old. I have about 70 gallons total, mostly as 5 or 10 gallon batches. Just got elderberries, black currants, and black raspberries out of the freezer yesterday for a racking session tonight.

I use Beer Alchemy software and just reference the calculators within.
 
I do blend. After long aging of my sours, I'll split up into 1 gallon jugs with different fruits. I normally blend in a keg for bottling. I just use the keg for dispensing into the bottles. It's in the keg I add my priming sugar or juice. I tend to overload the fruit level on the jugs knowing it'll just be a component in a blend. My pipeline is finally up to full flow with several batch at 18 months old. I have about 70 gallons total, mostly as 5 or 10 gallon batches. Just got elderberries, black currants, and black raspberries out of the freezer yesterday for a racking session tonight.

I use Beer Alchemy software and just reference the calculators within.

That's Awesome!!!! :rockin:
 
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