I got some Rainiers recently at my local supermarket, but they were pretty bland. I’m pretty sure they were from Cali. The Rainiers that are around in the mid-to-late summer are worth the wait.
We used Van cherries in a BDS and it turned out great - a lot of flavor in those cherries. They’re too soft for market though, so a guy went and picked them himself at a farm in eastern WA. At that orchard they keep them as pollinators.
Never used cherries in a beer before, but I have a great wild beer (we’ll call it a Flanders Red) that’s begging for them!
When is the prime time to buy sour cherries?
I’m thinking I’ll buy them from the farmers market, freeze, then thaw about 5 lbs and add to the beer.
depending on where in the world you are, now through the end of june is cherry season (assuming northern hemisphere)
I’m from Indiana - I think we get most all of our crop from Michigan.
There were a LOT of stands with Bings in STL, though. I don’t know if they grow them in Missouri or if the farmers just all purchase from the north.
all those northern tier states are good for tart pie cherries which I think are ideal for everything except eating out of hand. but yeah, keep your eyes open at farmers markets etc. now is the time.
The tart cherry crop in MI was 90% wiped out by the March hot weather followed by the freeze.
that’s right, I remember hearing about that. that is rough. Cherry pie will be at a premium this year
I’m pretty sure they grow them here. Wineries have to use like 85% state-grown produce in their wines, and there are a fair number of cherry wines around. There are blueberry farms everywhere here, too. I don’t know if that means anything for cherries.
Here in PA, they just started picking sweet cherries. Sour cherries are usually picked from mid to late June.
So does Bell’s Cherry Stout go up in price as well? Its usually a splurge of mine - its one fine fruit beer.
Picked up 13 lbs of sour cherries at the farmer’s market this morning. Glad I got to it today since the guy said this was the last weekend for them. Got them rinsed, bagged, and in the freezer until the August brew day.
The tart cherry crop in Michigan has been projected to be about a 2 million pound harvest. This compares to a 92 million pound harvest last year. It is worse than they thought. From the local radio report.
I don’t know what Bells will do for the Cherry Stout.
Ontario’s just as bad off as Michigan (cherry wise, not our economy :) )
I’ll be switching my fruit beer needs to raspberries this year (assuming they didn’t take a s**t kicking too).
Michigan’s economy is picking up. Of course we were first into bad times and got in pretty deep. So it might not look great here from outside the state, but it looks better from here, and we no longer have the highest unemployment in the USA. 2 of the closed bars/restaurants have reopened, the other 2 will be open by the end of the month. The main steet in town does not look so bad now.
Two new houses have been started close to my house. The guy 2 doors down that moving sold his in 2 weeks. Let me tell you that neither of those would have happened here 3 years ago.
To keep it beer related, one of the places opening soon is a multitap. 30 taps and 3 beer engines planed. The owner was involved in a successful place not far from here, so this could be a good thing!
Glad to hear things are coming around. I drive through MI a lot and I must admit, it was looking pretty bleak in some places so that’s encouraging news.
More encouraging, I can tell you that there is no where near my place with 30 taps and 3 beer engines so that’s one thing you’ve got over us here. Keep up the good work. Now, does this place offer an AHA discount?
Given that there’s only a few hundred yards of water between you guys and us, whatever hits your agriculture hits ours just as hard so I don’t think I see much cherry beer or cider in either of our futures this year.
Thanks for the heads up on Cherries…my favorite fruit, my favorite pie, and my favorite fruit beer (Kriek) (albiet a buzzkill on the harvest and avaliablity this year)…and thanks for the economic update on Michigan. The promising news from there portends a better economy for the country…a lot of stuff is still designed and made (as well as grown and brewed and mined) there (including myself).
The beer in Michigan has exploded in quantity and quality over the last decade as well. Perhaps I should reconsider moving home.
Let me be clear and say that the local economy is not booming, but it is better. It is like when you have a nice week in March, and you can tell the weather is getting better.
There are breweries popping up all over.
No, not booming, but improving (unless we are talking about the beer scene). I didn’t mean to insinuate otherwise…but improvement in Michigan means people are buying cars and investing in new technologies and research which moves many industries and resource generation throughout this country. It is a leading indicator.
How about the GDP as a leading indicator? Does that include the cherry crop?