Cherry Beer Help

[danbriant]

So I'm getting into All Grain Brewing and want to do a small batch. My local shop LIDL has a very good offer on some cherries currently. Really nice and sweet.

Can someone sanity check my first compiled recipe? I'm after a nice easy drinking cherry beer. Ideas, Corrections and that's insane do this comments are very welcome!

Sorry it's all in UK Measurements as well I'm from there xD

Starting Boil 15 Liters
Ending Boil 13 Liters
Boil time 60 Minuets
Steep Time 60 minutes

2KG Maris Otter Pale Malt
100g Light Crystal Malt
1KG Cherry

10g Goldings Hop Pellets Boil Start
10g Goldings Hop Pellets Boil 10 minutes before end of boil
English pale ale yeast

Cherries to be added in secondary

I'm worried about head retention and possibly low ABV, I think around 3.6% with the grains but unsure what the fruit will add

 

[shanecb]

The cherries would only marginally increase the ABV, probably (I think the SG of cherry juice ranges from 1.040-1.080). It'd give you a wee boost, but not much.

I don't really have much experience making fruit beers, so can't comment on the actual recipe with much expertise.

 

[tmendick]

That seems like way too much cherry, relative to the beer. Is it actual cherry fruit, puree, concentrate, etc?
I use a cherry juice concentrate found in the health section of the grocery store (it's sold as a "sleep aid") and use roughly .5KG of cherry in a beer that has 5KG of malt.

 

[stz]

40g/L - 500gL is a typical range for using cherries, ranging from a hint/colour to full on cherry flavour. If you have a puree free of stones/skin/stalks then assume that you'll need 80% as much. If you have a concentrate then 15%. You need a stupid amount of fresh cherries to get a bold in your face cherry candy flavour. In my experience cherry fermented does not taste much like cherry, they also have a medium to high tannin content which benefits from a decent length of time ageing.

 

[danbriant]

These will be fresh cherries and the weight will be without the stones.
Im told these are sweet and don't have much tartness. I will give them a taste before I purchase.

Im after a bit of a cherry hit.
If I have to double the fruit content I don't mind.

If I need to change the composition of the grains etc I don't mind.

Im after a nice ale with a hint of cherry in it.

 

[tmendick]

To me, I would say use about .5KG and see how it turns out. It's much easier to drink a beer that doesn't have as much fruit character as you wanted than one that is way too strong.

 

[stz]

I'm just going to go out on an opinionated limb here and say that people rarely get the fruit character they were expecting without using absolutely tons of fruit and even then, the aroma can exceed the taste.

Last cherry beer I brewed was 500g of dried cherries (fruit, no pits, stems, sugar or other additives) in 15L and it is noticeable, but it doesn't taste like cherry. The hydrated weight of the dried cherries was over three and a half times the weight of the dried. Seriously man, 40g/L - 500g/L depending on how intense you want it.

 

[passedpawn]

I'm just going to go out on an opinionated limb here and say that people rarely get the fruit character they were expecting without using absolutely tons of fruit and even then, the aroma can exceed the taste.

Last cherry beer I brewed was 500g of dried cherries (fruit, no pits, stems, sugar or other additives) in 15L and it is noticeable, but it doesn't taste like cherry. The hydrated weight of the dried cherries was over three and a half times the weight of the dried. Seriously man, 40g/L - 500g/L depending on how intense you want it.

On tap right now, I have a belgian dubbel with cherries. I added 15 pounds of pitted montmercy cherries (not dried). That was too much. It tastes good, but I didn't get a hint of cherry character, I got a cherry beer. So, as one data point, 15 pounds of cherries in 5g is too much cherry, unless that's all you want to taste. It's not a bad beer at all though - believe me, beers that are objectionable in any way go on the lawn, no hesitation.

 

[passedpawn]

Oh, also, fresh cherries have a potential gravity of 1.0036. That means that one pound in 1 gallon will increase your OG by 3.6 gravity points. So, in my case, I added 15# in 5 gallons, so 15#/5g * 3.6 = 11 gravity points in my beer. So, if my OG was 1.060, after adding the cherries, I should assume my OG was 1.071.

(I could be wrong on this, but I kinda figured it out in a roundabout way)

 

[passedpawn]

One more thing (sorry!): cherries in beer won't leave it with a sweet cherry candy taste. You'll taste the cherry fruit, but the sweet won't be there, even if you use a lot. Yeast gets rid of the sweet, and just leaves the slightly tart cherry taste. So, even if you use a lot as I did, it won't be sappy sweet. In fact, don't be surprise if others can't even identify the type of fruit. I had this happen with blueberries. I could taste them, but others who didn't know what the fruit was couldn't identify them. People are so accustomed to the sweet flavor of fruit that it becomes foreign when the sweet part isn't there.

 

[Queequeg]

I recently had Founders frootwood. Epic beer. The barrel aging goes excellently with the cheery flavor, mind is blow on first mouthfull

 

[danbriant]

Thanks for the information.
I just put this brew on today.

Something happened that confused me though, got a much higher ABV than I was expecting. From the ingredients.
I got 1.051. When it should have been around 1.040
Got 12l of beer on the brew. Possibly after trub will get 11 or at worst 10l

Let's hope this ferments out fine and has good flavour and body.

As I have yet to add my fruit. 😂
Gonna rename this to killer cherry juice 😂

Im working through all the fruit feedback. May even do two batches.

 

[danbriant]

I finally worked out what happened.

I got 90% or more efficiency out of BIAB

Compared to 80%ish with normal methods.

Hopefully get some good mouthfeel out of this.