Seeking advice on adding cherries to a Belgian Brown

[jameshasnames]

I want to brew a Belgian Brown Ale with cherries added in the secondary, but I'm a little confused about the fermentation schedule.

Recipe:
12 lbs Belgian 2 Row
8 oz US Chocolate Malt
6 oz Crystal 120
6 oz Crystal 60
.65 oz Target @ 60 min
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale
3 lbs 1 oz (1 can) Cherry Puree

In seeking some advice on adding fruit to secondary I found this where Jason Tomsic of New Belgium offered some advice on brewing NB's Frambozen

"After fermentation rack your beer off the yeast and chill it around 30° F if possible. After 2 weeks of aging, rack your beer (being careful not to transfer any sediment) onto raspberry pulp... Rack off the raspberry pulp after about two weeks, then let your batch settle again for several days before bottling."​

Questions:
* Why does he recommend the cold crashing before secondary and is it really necessary?
* Is two weeks really long enough on the fruit? Based on what I've seen on here and HBT, I'd think it would need about a month minimum.
* If I'm using puree instead of pulp/whole fruit do I really need to rack and settle again before racking/bottling?
* General critique/advice on the recipe itself is also welcome and encouraged.

Thanks ahead of time for your advice.

 

[jameshasnames]

Bump

 

[eastoak]

i wouldn't worry about the cold crashing part, i would leave it on the berries for more than 2 weeks. i'd just be really careful with bottling rather than move the beer again even if it means leaving more beer than usual behind. a really good cold crash should keep things down.

 

[jtejedor]

Well personally I don't think you will get much benefit from bringing a lot of yeast over to secondary so in that case a cold crash will help minimize that. In the rare beers that I use a secondary that is one advantage. You get two chances to cold crash and put a cleaner beer into kegs or bottles.

 

[eastoak]

in this case i think he will be leaving more beer behind than usual so if he racks twice he'll lose that much more beer. it seems unlikely that raspberry puree will stick to the bottom as well as yeast does, but i could be wrong.

 

[RIC0]

I would say ferment for 2 weeks, rack to secondary I see no reason to cold crash. Add your fruit, let it age another 2 weeks, then cold crash and off to keg/bottle. 2 weeks in a secondary for me when adding fruit, vanilla or whatever has always been plenty of time to pick up the taste. Same goes for my mead, 2 weeks on the fruit then it's off to bottle.