When to add fruit

I’m planning to brew an easy drinking cherry sour (just kettle souring with Lactobacillus) but was wondering when to add the fruit. I’m in Australia and cherries aren’t in season for another month or so, so I’ll be using good quality 100% juice.

I’m wondering if I can add the cherry juice at knockout? I know for aromatic fruits they’re better added towards the end of fermentation so the CO2 doesn’t carry all the aroma away, but cherries don’t seem very aromatic to me, so I don’t see why I’d need to add it later?

After or toward the end of primary fermentation is my preferred time for fruit addition.  I did a tart cherry Berliner Weisse with this schedule: Lacto first, followed by German ale yeast.  Once this was near complete I racked onto tart cherries. 
Delicious.  Need to brew that again when it gets warm.

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

Thanks for the reply, JT - but why? As I said, only reason I can think of is loss of aromas, which doesn’t seem to apply here, given that cherries aren’t very aromatic and I’m using juice…

Heating foods and/or beverages tends to change their flavor profiles.

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

What JT said and I like to add a bit of simple sugar with it( sucrose or honey) the yeast seems to go after the sugar first and preserves more of the fruit flavours

Thanks for the replies. I think I’ll add it when I pitch my yeast to the cooled wort so I don’t have to open the fermenter again once it’s sealed up

I’ve never had great luck using cherry juice. It never seems to get a strong amount of flavor. Maybe the tart cherry juice concentrate is a better route. It’s not bad but I remember going back to the store to buy more juice and adding 2-3 times as much as expected to get even close to a good cherry flavor.

I have never added cherries or cherry juice to beer but from what I’ve read and heard interviews the stones have a great deal to do with the flavours especially the peppery notes

How much did you end up adding? And was it a dark, full bodied beer?

Yeah I was thinking that - I don’t want to wait for them to come into season though! Also, to add enough of them will be very expensive I suspect…

That’s why I’ve never added them;cherries grow a bit further south than where I live