Add cherries to cherry beer

[clives-online]

Greetings

I am planning to brew a Brewferm cherry-beer (kriek like), planning the inital fermentation for three weeks.

I am planning to add some cherries to the beer kit approx 20l. What volume of cherries should I add (1kg??), and how long should I leave them in for??

Planning a secondary fermentation for 8 weeks, before bottling.
Does that sound right??

Appreciate any advice!!

Regards,
Clive

 

[Horners]

Couple of posts on using cherries on my brewday thread. It looks like I used significantly more but then doesn't that kit come with a cherry flavoring. I seem to remember really struggling to find sour cherries. Second link is to a discussion on the cherry options I had at the time.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/horners-brewdays.83267/post-853628
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/cherries-for-fruit-beer.83509/

 

[geigercntr]

In terms of amounts, the table here (Soured Fruit Beer) on MilkTheFunk suggests a range in the region of 0.5-1.5 kg/gallon cherries. Like @Horners says, the cherry flavouring that comes with your kit will need to be considered.

Asda sell frozen Morello cherries which are the sour type (Online Food Shopping - ASDA Groceries).

In terms of time, there's no one answer. Depends on whether you're fermenting with Brett and wanting that to convert cherry into Interesting Flavours (so think in terms of months) or whether you're more interested in a cherry flavour per se (thinking in terms of weeks).
Your proposed approach sounds like a good start to me though.
Good luck!

 

[clives-online]

Thanks for the feedback about the volume of cherries.

This a Belgium Kriek style beer, having a sourish tang. I want to give the beer depth, character and a fuller flavour.

How long should I leave the cherry pulp in the wort??

For three weeks, till I transfer the wort to condition??
Or do I transfer the cherry pulp into the conditioning barrel??

Thanks,
Clive

 

[geigercntr]

Thanks for the feedback about the volume of cherries.

This a Belgium Kriek style beer, having a sourish tang. I want to give the beer depth, character and a fuller flavour.

How long should I leave the cherry pulp in the wort??

For three weeks, till I transfer the wort to condition??
Or do I transfer the cherry pulp into the conditioning barrel??

Thanks,
Clive

I've never worked with barrels, only glass carboys, so I'm not ideally placed to advise. But... I'd keep the beer on the cherries right up until bottling. I did a cherry infused saison with added Brett/LAB and left it on cherries for about 8 months before bottling. Came out great. I'm sure I could've gotten away with bottling much earlier, but I'm a 'set it & forget it' style of mixed fermentation brewer :)

 

[The Baron]

You could use @ 2.5Kg of frozen cherries for a reasonable cherry flavour without going OTT or Lowicz cherry syrup around 2 bottles for a cherry flavour without dominating the beer too much but this may be a little sweeter than morello or maraschino cherries. If you use real cherries I would stone them as the stones can impart a bitter taste if left in too long

 

[clives-online]

Greetings,

Hope all have a good weekend.

I will add 0.5kg/5l (1 gallon) to the fermentation in a muslin bag, then move it to the "conditioning" barrel or carboy for several months before bottling.

Thanks, the advice it is much appreciated.

Regards,
Clive

 

[clives-online]

You could use @ 2.5Kg of frozen cherries for a reasonable cherry flavour without going OTT or Lowicz cherry syrup around 2 bottles for a cherry flavour without dominating the beer too much but this may be a little sweeter than morello or maraschino cherries. If you use real cherries I would stone them as the stones can impart a bitter taste if left in too long

 

[clives-online]

Thanks Baron,

I will go the lazy route and get frozen pitted cherries.

Thanks, for the advice.

 

[The Baron]

Thanks Baron,

I will go the lazy route and get frozen pitted cherries.

Thanks, for the advice.

I generally use the frozen fruits in most of my fruitish beers, frozen mango's are good in a IPA So is Rhubarb and do use a large bag also when you use fruit you will lose quite a bit of your beer volume to the fruit

 

[MrRook]

Couple of posts on using cherries on my brewday thread. It looks like I used significantly more but then doesn't that kit come with a cherry flavoring. I seem to remember really struggling to find sour cherries.

I had an issue finding sour cherries for years and ended up planting some sour cherry trees in the front yard.

 

[Ajhutch]

I’ve got a Flanders Red sour going now and I did a gallon with 500g of dried sour cherries. I’ve read that for dried fruit you can halve the weight, which makes sense to me. The other advantage is less wastage because there’s less mass in there.

 

[geigercntr]

I’ve got a Flanders Red sour going now and I did a gallon with 500g of dried sour cherries. I’ve read that for dried fruit you can halve the weight, which makes sense to me. The other advantage is less wastage because there’s less mass in there.

The big issue I had with dried fruit is that it sucks up a lot more than frozen/fresh. I left 1 gallon of sour beer on dried apricots for about a year. Only managed fill two 375 ml bottles

 

[Ajhutch]

Yeh I’ve had that sort of problem. My trick now is to overdose the fruit a bit, then rack and blend in some unfruited sour beer to top up to a sensible amount for a while before bottling.

 

[Zee]

The big issue I had with dried fruit is that it sucks up a lot more than frozen/fresh. I left 1 gallon of sour beer on dried apricots for about a year. Only managed fill two 375 ml bottles

Could you soak them in Vodka for a while to rehydrate them?