Tart Cherry Juice

[tante]

So I picked up a 5 gallons of this when I saw it on clearance at costco.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/30999684

It is cheribundi tart cherry juice which the label says contains tart cherry juice and apple juice. I planned on making some kind of cherry graff at first but then got worried that it would taste terrible. Has anyone ever used this in brewing before? Has anyone ever fermented a non-concentrate non-frozen cherry/apple juice mix?

I got it really cheap, so I wouldn't mix taking one for the team, but just want to make sure someone hasn't already made this mistake before.

 

[tante]

So I just made up a recipe and will see how it turns out. I"ll post back with some notes.

1 lb Pale DME
1 lb Amber DME
.5 lb Crystal 60 (UK)
.2 lb torrified wheat
.3 oz of northern brewer
2 gallons of tart cherry juice (this is mixed with apple juice already, not concentrate)
2 gallons of fresh pressed apple juice

mash the grain for 30 minutes at 155 in .75 gallon of water and then rinse with .25 of water at 170. Added the DME and boiled with northern brewer.

pitched with WPL002 (English Ale Yeast) as I wanted it to be a bit sweeter to offset the tart cherry.

I decided to do 50% tart cherry and 50% apple because I can taste and adjust my next recipe from there.

Currently fermenting at 68

 

[AkTom]

Sounds good. I need to make more Graff myself.

 

[Ruckusz28]

I did something similar at Trader Joe's last week. I stocked up on unfiltered apple juice, got a half gallon of tart cherry juice, and 2 lb of a local sourced honey. My plan is to ferment out the apple juice with US05 and then backsweeten with honey and juice before kegging.

 

[tante]

kegged the beer a few days ago and it is carbonating now. Much more tart than I expected it to be, kinda like a granny smith apple, since the apple is coming through very strong. I'll give it another taste in a few days when it is cold and carbonated.