Cherry Fruit Beer with fresh cherries

[Beer Luvver]

So I bought 3 kilos of lovely sweet cherries on the market today. Now I'm really keen to make a nice beer out of this lovely fruit. So my thoughts are to make an 8 litre wort with 50% Pale malt, 25% Acidulated Malt 15% Torrified Wheat and 10% Chrystal Malt. I'm trying to balance the sweetness with a bit of tartness (a bit like a Kriek Lambic perhaps ) with Acid Malts. I want to boil the cherries for about 10 minutes so to kill any wild yeast and bacteria, pop it into the FV and pour on the wort, shake, leave for a couple of hours shaking occasionally and then pitch Saison yeast with a good attenuation. Want to ferment at fairly high temps, about 23 to 25C. Any thoughts anyone?

[Befuddler]

That's waaay too much Acidulated malt. Drop it to 8-10% and be very careful with your water treatment. 10% Acid malt could drop your mash pH by as much as 1.0, so you'll have to counteract that. If your mash pH drops below 5.0, your beer will be ruined. I'd also use wheat malt instead of torrified if you're going for 15%... Torri can taste a bit weird at high percentages.

What hops were you thinking of? I bet Pacific Gem or Bramling Cross would go well with cherries...

[jmc]

For lambics cherries are typically added after the brew is fermented. Some brewers add cherries to barrels then top up with fermented wheat beer from primary. Yeasts from primary and fruit get to work on fruit sugars to cause secondary fermentation.

You've got fruit now so don't waste it. If I had it I'd add it to boil with 10 mins to go to sanitise (I wouldn't want wild yeasts to run primary).At flame out I'd add cherries to FV then chill, pour and brew as normal. There will be lots of detritis in brew but that goes with the territory.

+1 to Befuddler on Acid malt. Remember Saison yeast will add a bit of tartness too.

I'm sure it will be a lovely brew.

[Beer Luvver]

That's waaay too much Acidulated malt. Drop it to 8-10% and be very careful with your water treatment. 10% Acid malt could drop your mash pH by as much as 1.0, so you'll have to counteract that. If your mash pH drops below 5.0, your beer will be ruined. I'd also use wheat malt instead of torrified if you're going for 15%... Torri can taste a bit weird at high percentages.

What hops were you thinking of? I bet Pacific Gem or Bramling Cross would go well with cherries...

Ah yes. Did a bit of reading up on the Acidulated Malts. Seems like 8% is more like as it mimics the Berliner Weisse kind of beer. I'm not treating water as this is quite reasonable, if anything slightly hard. Recipe has been adjusted accordingly. Thanks for the pointer. I'm going to try some gentle hops (Saaz and Hallertau) as I think the stones will add a bit of bitterness and want to let the fruit do most of the work, hence the 3 kilos of cherries to a total of 10 litres (2 and a bit gallon)

[lord.president]

Don't forget the pectolase! I have a recipe in a book that is just lager malt and wheat malt,with Northern brewer.

[jmc]

That's waaay too much Acidulated malt. Drop it to 8-10% and be very careful with your water treatment. 10% Acid malt could drop your mash pH by as much as 1.0, so you'll have to counteract that. If your mash pH drops below 5.0, your beer will be ruined. I'd also use wheat malt instead of torrified if you're going for 15%... Torri can taste a bit weird at high percentages.

What hops were you thinking of? I bet Pacific Gem or Bramling Cross would go well with cherries...

Ah yes. Did a bit of reading up on the Acidulated Malts. Seems like 8% is more like as it mimics the Berliner Weisse kind of beer. I'm not treating water as this is quite reasonable, if anything slightly hard. Recipe has been adjusted accordingly. Thanks for the pointer. I'm going to try some gentle hops (Saaz and Hallertau) as I think the stones will add a bit of bitterness and want to let the fruit do most of the work, hence the 3 kilos of cherries to a total of 10 litres (2 and a bit gallon)

I think you're right with those hops. No need to compete against what may be a mild cherry aroma.

I've heard if you crack a few cherry stones you may get a hint of almond too.
Good luck with your brew and remember to tell us how it turns out.

[Beer Luvver]

So, bad planning meant I couldn't rack the cherry beer and went on holiday for two weeks, resulting in a 7 week fermentation! Cherry scent is absolutely amazing though. Has been bottled for 4 weeks now. Initially, after about two weeks it tasted slightly tart but now it has progressed further the tartness is gone. The acid malt did not make it tart and just reduced the Ph making it a very soft, fruity and slightly bitter (in the finish) beer. Lots of cherry flavour but I'll drop the Acid Malt next time. Anyone have any other ideas to get a tart finish to this sort of beer (other than using Lambic style yeast)? The amount of cherries were perfect. The scent is amazing and the colour is a beautiful, red wine-like hazy sheen. Experiment continues although the cherries are almost finished now. Suppose Pumpkin is the next one...

[6470zzy]

Anyone have any other ideas to get a tart finish to this sort of beer (other than using Lambic style yeast)? .

The first thing that comes to my mind is to use some sour cherries, perhaps Morello if you can get a hold of some. Other than that you may want to think about adding an acid such as Malic acid which is that one that I would tend to opt for as it would be the most complementary to the cherry.

I would love to see a photo of your finished Cherry beer if you would care to share a picture.

Cheers

[Rookie]

The first thing that comes to my mind is to use some sour cherries, perhaps Morello if you can get a hold of some.
Cheers

I don't know about where you live, but around here sour cherries are a pain in the arse to find fresh. Four years ago we planted a sour cherry tree in the front yard; two years ago we planted another.

[6470zzy]

If the sour cherries are hard to source then you can try your hand at the Malic acid suggestion

Cheers

[Rookie]

On the other hand, a cherry stout made with fresh sweet cherries can be pretty good.