Where do you guys get tart cherries for flanders ales?
I get mine from a farm in eastern WA. You get on their email list and then they tell you when they’ll be available. I picked up a 25lb bucket of pitted tart cherries this year. I don’t know where you are or if they ship, they mostly prefer to deal locally.
The season has come and gone here (those come on early here), and it was a 3% crop in Michigan. Good luck.
You might consider a jar of the concentrate.
Well I know Russian river uses dried tart cherries so I was assuming they ordered them from somewhere
Michigan is one of the states that grows a lot of cullinary (the new term for tart) cherries. Those are grown in other areas. I have heard of some being sourced in Europe, Poland IIRC.
Don’t discount the concentrate for use in adjusting beer/mead. I have used it.
i ordered some from here, but have yet to use them. i found out about it from a guy who buys them for his sour cherry ale (the one out of sam c’s (dfh) book).
http://www.cherryrepublic.com/shop-cherry-republic/dried-cherries
i am currently located in austin/round rock texas and have gotten fresh tart and pitted dried tart from our local whole foods type market called h e b central market. i can also get dried unpitted year round from the mideastern market and they were supposed to get fresh tart in september but i never saw them, shop keeper said they must not be coming.
I was unable to find tart cherries in my area. I’ve used concentrate on two different flanders reds and it’s worked out well…
I’ve never used them, but this source looks promising: www.leelanaufruit.com. They sell either concentrate or dried tart cherries.
I’ve ordered from these guys before and was very pleased:
U ordered dried or the tarts in water
I actually got the quick frozen whole pitted cherries for my kriek, but they don’t seem to be available right now. I think the canned cherries would be good, though.
You can get a big cherry flavor by fermenting with BM45 and using the Wyeast B. lambicus, no cherries required.