I recently brewed my 400th batch of beer, a Belgian Quad with sour cherries (I used sour cherry juice instead of pureed fruit). I used Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey Style Ale yeast to ferment it. It attenuated well, however it didn’t flocculate as well as I thought at the end of fermentation. I fined the beer with gelatin after cold crashing and got a lot of the yeast to drop out (two twelve ounce glasses worth) but it still hasn’t cleared after about a week or so. I know time will cure this and the beer will also get better with some aging. A bit more information, the juice I used was pure juice with no added sugar, so I did not see the need for using pectin enzyme since it appeared to me that the juice would not be fermentable.
It tastes wonderful (but is a bit dangerous at 10% ABV) and I love the Belgian flavor this yeast imparts in the beer. I am just wondering if anyone else on this forum has used this strain and has had the same flocculation issues I have experienced? Inquiring minds want to know.
I used 1214 a few times but it’s finnicky and I didn’t feel like I had a great handle on it. It doesn’t seem to be great about flocculating, which is probably one of the reasons Chimay lagers those beers before packaging.
I would be surprised if the cherry juice didn’t have any fermentable sugar just because there wasn’t sugar added.
Regardless, the juice went in during the last few minutes of the boil and would probably be fermented if there was any natural sugar. I really didn"t think any pectin enzyme was needed and I don’t think that 10 oz of juice in a 5.4 gal batch would hinder the clarity.
I am not saying that this is the problem but I am not following your statements about the cherry juice. The thing about added sugar isn’t relavent to either whether or not the juice will ferment or whether pectic enzyme is needed. The juice has it’s own naturally occuring sugar that ferments just as much as any other simple sugar, that is to say quickly and thoroughly.
Since cherry juice has some pectin and was added to the boiling wort I would have added pectin enzyme as insurance. While you only used 10 oz (I assume not concentrate) and cherries are not a fruit loaded with pectin, there is at least some pectin brought to or near a boil so I think there could be an effect. Even though it’s a small amount think about what a tiny amount of irish moss or gelatin can do.
That being said the fact that you said you hav a couple pints of yeast in the first pours indicates that is likely the bigger problem.
FWIW as I understand it boiling activates pectin, fruit added during fermentation isn’t a problem.
I probably would not have added the fruit juice to the boil or anywhere more than about 150 F. You’ll probably need a different clarifier than gelatin to clear it.