Macerating

RobWalker · Jul 23, 2013

re this...

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewt ... 21&t=41269

apparently the cherry is made by Macerating cherries. that means, from what I gather, using the skins to leech colour and flavour into a beer or wine, rather than fermenting the lot.

So er...how would one go about this for a gallon of beer in a simple, non ridiculous and non wasteful way?

Use a different ingredient that's local in abundance such as elderberries, mash them up and strain the juice off, then add the skins to the fermenter?

Just chuck a good amount of blended cherries in for a long time and stop whining?

Obviously I can't use supermarket juice, as that's juice, and doesn't contain skins...

maybe a packet of this? https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/produ ... CHAQ8wIwBQ

or a few of these?

Would regular beer yeast suffice, as I'd just like to use a gallon of amber ale or something, or does it need to be a sour yeast? It doesn't have to be a perfect replica as it's only a gallon and a bit of fun really...

ideas welcome, would love a gallon of strong cherry (or maybe something else) beer for christmas!

simon04 · Jul 23, 2013

Good question....

I recently brewed a Kriek kit.... it was nice, but I'm swayed towards all grain now.

I did wonder if there's tome kind of tinned cherry, or cherry extract that I could use as a flavour in all-grain.

simon04 · Jul 23, 2013

Oh, and I did find this before;

viewtopic.php?f=41&t=14965

graysalchemy · Jul 23, 2013

There are two trains of thought on adding fruit. One is to brew the beer then add the juice of the fruit to the secondary, this way you retain the delicate flavours of the fruit, thus this method is good for Strawberries and raspberries. You will need to sterilise them with campden first though or run the risk of infection.

However for more robust fruit ie elderberries I find it is better to add the pulped fruit to the last 5-10 minutes of the boil this way the fruit is sterilized and also it is getting fermented from the start resulting in a more subtle flavour which is what you probably want with robust fruit. i used this method for my elderberry stout as I wanted more of a stout and port (velvet pussy) flavour than a stout with elderberries in it if you get what I mean.

I have heard that cherries fall in to this category as they are quite robust in flavour but i haven't heard of macerating them and only using the skins. you certainly wouldn't want to do that with elderberries given their high tannin content in the skins.

Anyway that is my two peneth worth on the subject :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: