Cherries for fruit beer

[Horners]

Morning Brewers

I think this weekend I will finally get around to an experimental Belgian cherry ale that I have been planning. Long story short, after a lot of searching around on the web, I decided that I was going to shoot for 13L in the FV and I would need 3kg of sour/ tart cherries.

Unfortunately frozen sour cherries seem to be as rare as rocking horse **** in the UK. A couple of places sell imported Belgium ones but this would be ruinously expensive requiring over £30 worth.

https://www.realfoods.co.uk/product/14646/organic-sour-cherries-frozen

Other options are :

1.freeze dried ones - not sure what weight I would need and whether they would do the job.

2. Use a puree like this - from nutritional info I reckon that each kg of puree is equivalent to 1.5kg whole cherries (does that sound right?)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...c16-d4b886747c64&pf_rd_r=E5ANCH3SWCDV273Y87YT

3. Just use ordinary dark cherries (which I understand are a sweet variety) from Sainos or Tescos which are about £5 for 3 500g bags.

As ever the thoughts of the hive mind gratefully received.

Horners

 

[prog99]

I used frozen dark cherries from Aldi with decent results. I assume they were a sweet variety, never tasted one.

 

[Horners]

I used frozen dark cherries from Aldi with decent results. I assume they were a sweet variety, never tasted one.

Thanks @prog99 - out of interest how many did you use, in what volume and how intense was the cherry? Was it a regular ale or a sour beer?

 

[user 23602]

Whilst not having used Cherry yet. The Puree from Leonce Blanc haven't let me down yet. They produce a decent flavor.

 

[prog99]

Thanks @prog99 - out of interest how many did you use, in what volume and how intense was the cherry? Was it a regular ale or a sour beer?

Hi, it was a belgium sour. Just one packet, there was also a package of raspberries too.
Tastes like fruit juice but is over 8%

 

[MmmBeer]

I've been planning to make a cherry wine and was planning to use a mix of sweet and tart cherries, but ended up with the same issue of being unable to find any tart ones. Going to used Asda frozen ones topped up with Lowicz Cherry syrup.

 

[BeerCat]

Geterbrewed now sell "artisan" fruit extract, might be worth a look.

 

[Horners]

Geterbrewed now sell "artisan" fruit extract, might be worth a look.

Looks like about a tenners worth to do 20L but god knows what it tastes like or how concentrated it would be. I know the sensible thing would be to do a trial brew and increase cherry component to taste but I cant be arsed so I have ordered a pouch of the tart cherry leon Blance puree which I will supplement with whatever the supermarkets have in the frozen section - probbaly 2kg putting what I think will be the equivalent of 3.5kg in a 15L batch.

 

[matt76]

I've never tried fruit additions but it's something I'd like to try - couple of thoughts I had/was wondering about:

1. Tinned fruit - someone on the forum told me they'd used tinned rhubarb, so why not other fruits?
2. Fruit juice - I'm thinking of the fancier fresh ones rather than the cartons.
3. Sorbet - it's basically fruit pulp sieved to remove the bits, and sugar syrup, mixed and frozen. Probably a bit more concentrated than juice. Maybe defrost it first though.

Anyone got any thoughts on these, whether they'd work?

Cheers,

Matt

 

[Horners]

I've never tried fruit additions but it's something I'd like to try - couple of thoughts I had/was wondering about:

1. Tinned fruit - someone on the forum told me they'd used tinned rhubarb, so why not other fruits?
2. Fruit juice - I'm thinking of the fancier fresh ones rather than the cartons.
3. Sorbet - it's basically fruit pulp sieved to remove the bits, and sugar syrup, mixed and frozen. Probably a bit more concentrated than juice. Maybe defrost it first though.

Anyone got any thoughts on these, whether they'd work?

Cheers,

Matt

Well it seems from my research that folk in the US have used tinned (canned) tart cherries so I think its an option provided no preservatives other than a bit of extra sugar etc but cant buy them here. Sure you could find other fruits that you could use but equally most other fruits are available cheap and frozen which seems to be the avenue of choice given sterile and the cell structure breaks down easily post freezing.

 

[samale]

I've never tried fruit additions but it's something I'd like to try - couple of thoughts I had/was wondering about:

1. Tinned fruit - someone on the forum told me they'd used tinned rhubarb, so why not other fruits?
2. Fruit juice - I'm thinking of the fancier fresh ones rather than the cartons.
3. Sorbet - it's basically fruit pulp sieved to remove the bits, and sugar syrup, mixed and frozen. Probably a bit more concentrated than juice. Maybe defrost it first though.

Anyone got any thoughts on these, whether they'd work?

Cheers,

Matt

A friend has brewed a mango lassie IPA a few times. His best results was using the frozen mango piece's from Sainsbury's. The one time he used the pulp the beer was very tart.

 

[MrRook]

Years ago, before I moved to California, I pretty much gave up looking for tart cherries and planted a couple of tart cherry trees.

 

[Ben034]

Are the Asda frozen Morello cherries not a form of sour cherry?

I used 1kg of frozen raspberries in a wheat beer (10l batch) recently and the flavour was strong.

 

[Dutto]

I've used Lowicz Cherry Syrup instead of sugar in Wilko Cerveza and Lager kits.

The taste has been superb and the cherry flavour has lasted for well over a year.

 

[lancon]

Morello cherries are what you want.

 

[Horners]

Are the Asda frozen Morello cherries not a form of sour cherry?

I used 1kg of frozen raspberries in a wheat beer (10l batch) recently and the flavour was strong.

The Asda ones were my original plan but no longer in stock.

Re raspberries it seems well documented that pound for pound cherries impart much less and therefore typically need say twice as much.

 

[lancon]

Where are you, I might have some spare if London, SE based