Honey nut brown ale

[Loudawg7777]

Going to try something new. I have ingredients for a honey nut brownale
7lbs amber malt extract
1lb honey malt
2lb caramel barley
2oz goldings hops
Wyeast 1968 liquid yeast
Here's the kicker...
I took 3lbs of cherries halved, put them in a jar with 10L of marshmallow flavored vodka(Smirnoff). Gonna let that sit for 2 weeks to let the vodka draw out the flavor and color of the cherries. In the meantime, in about a week I'll brew the ingredients above for the honey nut ale, ferment, then when I rack to secondary, I'll strain the marshmallow cherry vodka juice and add it to the secondary. How does that sound? Should I add more yeast to secondary? Or am I good as is? Let's have some opinions on this because I've never done this before and I'm shooting from the hip, but it sounds like it'll be quite a flavor for this ale...

 

[Captain Damage]

I'd recommend cutting way back on the caramel malt. 1 lb max. And I mean max. Seriously, go with 1/2 to 3/4 lb. The extract already has a significant portion of caramel/crystal malt in it. Also, you'd be best off mashing the honey malt. It has no diastatic power of it's own, so you'd have to to a partial mash with a pound of 2-row or pale malt. The cherries sound great, but why not add them to the secondary, not just the vodka? No need to add more yeast.

 

[zeus53219]

Cherries in the secondary, not vodka or yeast.

 

[Loudawg7777]

I'm putting the cherries in a container with the vodka for a couple weeks per advice from my local brew shop owner who has been in the business for 25 years. I'm poking around to get feedback. You guys think it'll F up the end result? I trust the guy, but still respect the popular opinion. I can do a partial mash, and plan on doing a secondary, just looking for a wild mix nobody has yet. I'll take your advice and do a partial mash, cut back on the caramel, and no yeast. Still going with the marshmallow vodka, and cherry mix though. I'll let you guys know how it turns out!

 

[Loudawg7777]

I meant no yeast in the secondary