[bcnihart]

I have been given a quart of home made natural maple syrup and 2-3 pounds of choke cherries with the direction to make beer.  I am looking for ideas on what to do with these (to be used separately).  Any ideas?  I was thinking of priming an amber ale with the syrup and maybe a cherry wheat with the choke cherries?  The cherries are pretty tart.  Should I use a higher malt recipe to balance the tartness?

Thanks for any ideas.

[beerrat]

For the choke cherry, how about a belgium cherry wheat - something like a New Glarus Belgian Red clone, but with the choke cherries... see last page of this pdf for recipe idea:

http://www.beertown.org/pdf/BestBeersAmerica4.pdf

I'm thinking that 2-3 lbs may be just enough for getting a mild flavor.  You can scale from 5gal to  4 gal if ya want more of the tart flavor.