Adding cherries to secondary

Mashing
1

Living in the mitten, I’m currently inundated with sour cherries. I’d like to use them in a stout.

2 questions:

  1. Would you add them to the boil or the secondary?

  2. If added to the secondary, how would you control sanitation of the fruit so as not to introduce those that may be unwelcome to the party? (I would be using fresh fruit, most likely macerated and then frozen)

Thanks y’all

2

If you do a search you find that most people have added them to the secondary, at the rate of about 1lb per gallon. Frozen, thawed, maybe crushed with a rolling pin and refrozen works. Added to a secondary, contamination seems to be rare. And yes, sour cherries work much better than bings.

3

When making country wine, I use 1 campton tablet per gallon of fruit to knock out the wild yeast and bacteria… I believe it adds sulfite though, in very small quantity… Sneezles61

4

[quote=“discowheelie”]Living in the mitten, I’m currently inundated with sour cherries. I’d like to use them in a stout.

2 questions:

  1. Would you add them to the boil or the secondary?

  2. If added to the secondary, how would you control sanitation of the fruit so as not to introduce those that may be unwelcome to the party? (I would be using fresh fruit, most likely macerated and then frozen)

Thanks y’all[/quote]

The secondary has alcohol: deadly to unwelcome little beasties.

5

I think this is the best way to control any wild yeast. If you are going to put the beer in a keg and keep it cold the whole time, I would not bother with this step.

And of course, if you’re making sour/wild beer, you may even want the bugs.