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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Using sweet cherries
« on: October 08, 2012, 05:44:25 pm »
I would certainly reserve some for a pie!
Jamil said in one of the podcasts (I think on Baltic Porter) that cherries are one of the harder fruits to work with. You either have the problem of driving off too many volatiles by adding during the late stages of primary fermentation, or if you add them too late, they can sometimes just taste funny. What many say works best with fruit is too add them after primary fermentation has completed, and to SUPPLEMENT with the same fruit extract at bottling/kegging, or slightly before. If I were you, I would do the following:
Select a style -- I believe that american wheats and porters are several styles that work better than others with cherries. I'm not sure if its sour or sweet (or if it matters). Add 6 lbs of them to your batch of whatever you make after primary fermentation. If you can puree them after thawing, do that to add surface area and pulverize the skins (sanitize your blender/food processor, though the alcohol in the beer at that point will be helpful in staving off bugs/bacteria from taking hold/multiplying). Wait another few weeks (order some cherry extract in the meantime), let them ferment out and taste it.
This is the best part: draw about 8 ounces of the beer, and separate into 4 glasses. Dose each one with increasing amounts of the extract and taste each one, clearing your palette in between (it helps to have some additional palettes/pieholes around). Then scale it up to the amount of beer remaining prior to kegging/bottling.
Then, once its carbed, send me a six pack.
Jamil said in one of the podcasts (I think on Baltic Porter) that cherries are one of the harder fruits to work with. You either have the problem of driving off too many volatiles by adding during the late stages of primary fermentation, or if you add them too late, they can sometimes just taste funny. What many say works best with fruit is too add them after primary fermentation has completed, and to SUPPLEMENT with the same fruit extract at bottling/kegging, or slightly before. If I were you, I would do the following:
Select a style -- I believe that american wheats and porters are several styles that work better than others with cherries. I'm not sure if its sour or sweet (or if it matters). Add 6 lbs of them to your batch of whatever you make after primary fermentation. If you can puree them after thawing, do that to add surface area and pulverize the skins (sanitize your blender/food processor, though the alcohol in the beer at that point will be helpful in staving off bugs/bacteria from taking hold/multiplying). Wait another few weeks (order some cherry extract in the meantime), let them ferment out and taste it.
This is the best part: draw about 8 ounces of the beer, and separate into 4 glasses. Dose each one with increasing amounts of the extract and taste each one, clearing your palette in between (it helps to have some additional palettes/pieholes around). Then scale it up to the amount of beer remaining prior to kegging/bottling.
Then, once its carbed, send me a six pack.