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Author Topic: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak  (Read 41973 times)

Offline 1vertical

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sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« on: March 21, 2010, 05:28:59 pm »
i am considering making 15 gallons of rochefort in the venue of Herman Holtrop's recipe
fermenting it with the saccromyces to completion then rack it into an oak cask
that had red wine last on the wood (recently). Then I was going to put in a good amount
of Brettanomyces Lambicus and some tart cherries to see what happened when you
get carried away with an already great beer...... :-\
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Offline dj99

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2010, 05:47:18 pm »
Umm, how close are you to the NW?
I loves to Homebrew!
(in SW Washington)

Offline 1vertical

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2010, 05:48:49 pm »
I am in central bfe Whyoming...why?
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Offline dj99

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2010, 05:53:13 pm »
'cause I want a taste!  Why else?

Please let your mind take you wherever you want to go.  Sounds fantastic.  Do it!
I loves to Homebrew!
(in SW Washington)

Offline karlh

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2010, 08:36:13 pm »
It sounds great, although it will probably take one hell of a lot of cherries, and you have to push them all through that little tiny bunghole with a stick or something.  Hopefully you have one or two trees and can dedicate the entire crop for a year or two, or you can order 30-40lbs from hops/cherries direct.  I might age the beer in oak with the brett and then rack 5 gallons onto cherries in a year or three.  I have found organic tart cherry extract/syrup (from Michigan I think) that came in quart bottles and claimed to be the equivalent of "3 gallons of cherry juice"... I think they cost around $15 or more a bottle.  I added one of these to a 5 gallon batch of lambic a few years back, along with a spice called mahlab, which is dried sour cherry pits (available from penzies spices and in ethnic markets with a middle eastern bent.... Turkish, Iraqi, Iranian, Pakistani, maybe Greek but they probably call it something else).  The overall effect was good (I would recommend the mahlab... it really adds a nutty thing that reminds me of good belgian cherry beers), but I felt like I would want to double the cherry in the next batch... for your 15 gallon barrel, that would be a $90 investment.  I'm not sure how many cherries you can fit in a 15 gallon barrel, but I would try to fill it for the maximum effect and then put a finished beer on top of it for an extended ferment (near a floor drain).
Karl
Mundelein, IL  USA

Offline 1vertical

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2010, 11:48:27 pm »
Thanks Karl, you have just assisted me in devising my methodology for
this project. I desired to try some non brett beer from this barrel.  I will harvest
a batch and replace it with a fresh batch and then put in the brett...a couple
months from now.  Then when cherries come into season bring them into
the arena...should be july/aug for sour cherries. thanks for the tip on
that spice and I will try to procure some of that in the interim. So many options so little time....
 ::)
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Offline enso

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2010, 11:59:15 am »
Man you are making me drool every time I read about this project!

@ Karl.  I had not heard of mahlab before.  Though I have read somewhere IIRC that cherry pits are used to make an almond flavoring.  Is that what mahlab tastes like?

Man this sounds fantastic.
Dave Brush

Offline 1vertical

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2010, 12:09:26 pm »
Please let your mind take you wherever you want to go.

Man, I'm already gone in my own mind!  :P :o :P :o

The rochefort is finishing primary as I type...
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Offline skyler

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #8 on: April 02, 2010, 12:17:45 pm »
I had not heard of mahlab before.

Neither had I, and I'm 1/2 Iranian. I have learned that some spices have 2 names, though. What my mom calls, "Hell" (more like "Jel" in Spanish, actually, because it's a throaty "H" sound - I call cardamom. Mahlab might have a number of different names, depending on the primary ethnicity of the Market you go to. On the west coast, those markets nearly always have a decidedly Persian (Iranian/Afghani) or South Asian (Indian/Pakistani/Bengladeshi) feel.

Offline enso

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #9 on: April 02, 2010, 01:12:54 pm »
I had not heard of mahlab before.

Neither had I, and I'm 1/2 Iranian. I have learned that some spices have 2 names, though. What my mom calls, "Hell" (more like "Jel" in Spanish, actually, because it's a throaty "H" sound - I call cardamom. Mahlab might have a number of different names, depending on the primary ethnicity of the Market you go to. On the west coast, those markets nearly always have a decidedly Persian (Iranian/Afghani) or South Asian (Indian/Pakistani/Bengladeshi) feel.

Well, there is also the consideration of translating from the original language(s) which can vary widely when adapting something from one language to another.
Dave Brush

Offline karlh

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #10 on: April 03, 2010, 11:36:57 am »
Man you are making me drool every time I read about this project!

@ Karl.  I had not heard of mahlab before.  Though I have read somewhere IIRC that cherry pits are used to make an almond flavoring.  Is that what mahlab tastes like?

Man this sounds fantastic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahlab

See link above for wiki discription.  I thought it added nice almondy...nuttiness, and everything I read was that the lambic makers used whole cherries with pits, and it was the easiest way for me to use the concentrated juice and still get the pits. 
Karl
Mundelein, IL  USA

Offline 1vertical

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #11 on: April 06, 2010, 12:02:09 pm »
On the record, The rochefort is in the oak!  That was a job and
a learning experience.  Lots of clean up now.

Let the Solera Roll!  8)
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Offline 1vertical

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #12 on: April 06, 2010, 09:13:52 pm »
I just got 1/2 # of Mahlab shipped to my addy for $20.00 thought that was a fair price.
Sounds like such a delicious addition....almond....cherry....mmmmmmm....going in the solera.
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Offline tom

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #13 on: April 07, 2010, 02:02:35 pm »
A friend here uses 2# of cherries per gallon of kriek.
Brew on

Offline resto3

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Re: sour cherry rochefort brett in oak
« Reply #14 on: April 22, 2010, 10:12:12 am »
did the cherry pits come whole or ground?  I have a 5 gal barrle that I use for souring beers.  This sounds like a great project.  I wish I have a 15 gallon one.  Where did you get yours?

Richie