Q about cherry beer

[makislav]

Brewing a cherry beer with the following recipe:

About 4,5 pounds of fresh cherries
2 cans of St. Peters Ruby Red Ale LME
Around 1 lbs of dextrose to get a good fermentation
Some hop addition that came with the extract kit

I chopped the cherries and removed the stones. I boiled them for about half an hour. I mixed up all the ingredients an added water to the 23 liter mark. OG 1.054.

I tasted the worth, and I could not taste any cherry!

The next thing I would like to do, after racking it to secondary in a few weeks, is to put a bag of cherries to the brew. My concern here is sanitation. I can imagine that fresh cherries could contain all sorts of bacteria.

Any advice how to do this in a proper way, and to avoid possible infection?

 

[Temp81]

When I make my cherry wheat I do not put any cherries in the primary. I make my base wheat beer recipe, then add a few pounds of frozen cherries to the secondary. The flash freezing process that is used by the commercial market typically kills any nasties. I have done this quite a few times with great results.

 

[Microscopist]

I usually pasteurise my fruit - heating to 70c for 10mins and add to secondary. I've only every done cane fruit and if that's anything to go by, be prepared for a hell of a lot of foaming.

I found the toughest bit was getting the balance right between the beer aromas and the fruit.

 

[Vikings]

Cherry pits in secondary can add a lot of body and flavor. Don't cut/crush them and use them as you would oak.

 

[makislav]

Thanks guys for these tips!

From these options, I find Microscopist's suggestion to be the most appealing. Do possible bacteria die at 70c?

 

[Microscopist]

The ones that can cause you problems should be killed off, you could take it to 75-80 to be sure but run the risk of extracting pectins. Basically it kills or injures any present bacteria enough to stop them getting a foothold in the brew - easier because your yeast is already established.

I'd normally pulp my fruit a bit to help even the temperature, I imagine the cherries would sweat enough to give liquid to help even out the temperature - stir well. Or you could leave them whole and float them in a heated water without loosing much juice.

Looking at the wild cherry trees round here with interest now - not much flesh when I've used them for cooking but added to a brew is another matter..

 

[zmanzorro]

I definitely second the motion to heating them up for a bit. What I've read is to do it between 150 and 180 F for at least 20 minutes. Any hotter and the pectin in the fruit sets and will create a haze in the beer. For a wheat beer, the haze wouldn't be bad but any styles that should be clear, it would be a problem.