I’m working on a recipe for a cherry wheat. OG will be around 1.050. I plan on adding cherries to the secondary. I usually use fresh fruit for brewing, but cherries certainly aren’t in season now. So, I’m looking at Oregon cherries. I’m thinking about blending tart and sweet cherries. I am thinking three 14.5 oz cans of tart cherries and two 14.5 oz cans of sweet cherries. I want a solid cherry presence, but at the same time, I don’t want it overbearing. Is this a good amount? Also, should these cherries be in water or heavy syrup?
If you are making 5 gallons of beer then you are a low. The range for cherries is 1-2 lbs/gal and it would be better to be close to the high end.
I haven’t used canned cherries, but I suspect the only difference between water/juice and heavy syrup is just sugar.
You really think that’s low for a beer this small and light? I was concerned with it being too much. I brew a tart cherry stout… the first time I used 10 lbs for 5 gallons and it took about a year to mellow out so that it tasted like a beer and not a pie. I used 7.5 this year and it was much better.
Let your taste buds be the guide unless you plan to make the beer for me.
Touche
I’m in the process of building a Chocolate Cherry Oat & Rye Stout recipe. I found this product at Trader Joe’s the other day and am thinking of giving it a try. It appears to be a good mix of tart and sweet flavors.
http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=1477
If the juice tastes like they say in the flyer, I think it would be so much simpler than adding whole cherries.
The Trade Joes juice would be one way.
I have used tart cherry concentrate in meads with good results. One year we found a blend of Montmorency and Balaton cherries in the concentrate that was excellent. That was before the wiped out 2012 crop in MI. Have not seen it since.
I’m going with a 32 oz bottle of tart cherry concentrate.
You can add some at a time, to taste. Thos have a high Brix, so try and estimate the sugar going if you want to know ABV.
For non-sour / long-aging beers, I use tart cherry juice from TJ’s/Whole Foods. Great stuff.
I’ve never used (or seen) concentrate. Is it in the frozen section? Can you buy it unpasteuized?
This is what I got. Hoosierbrew recommended it to me…
http://www.cherrybayorchards.com/cherry-concentrate/bottle.html
Bookmarked! Montmorency & Balaton cherry concentrate, plus dried whole fruit!
Makes a very nice tart beer !
I actually ordered mine from Amazon… The shipping was about $4 cheaper.