When / how to add cherries?

[beermebeavis]

I am an experienced all-grainer, but it has been quite awhile since I did a fruit beer. I have got a robust porter (very chocolate-like due to a lot of choc malt) that is near final gravity. I want to turn it into a “sour cherry porter”.

In the past, I have used cherry juice concentrate to good effect, but this time I have access to fresh sour cherries and would like to try “real” fruit - not just juice.

My current plan is: rack the terminal=gravity beer off of its yeast sediment and into a secondary bucket, which contains a mixture of the aforementioned fresh cherries, and a blend of purchased sweet and sour cherries (frozen, in plastic bags from grocery store), all under a blanket of CO2. Probably around 5# total weight of cherries. BTW, the fresh cherries are frozen, destemmed and rinsed well, but still have pits- I’m not concerned about the pits. I want to thaw all the cherries in the sanitized secondary bucket, then rack the porter onto them and allow to sit for some weeks, then keg. I can doctor-up the cherry character with cherry concentrate and / or citric acid, near the end of secondary or while in the keg.

My main question is: Should I mess with sanitizing the cherries? As stated, some are store-bought, bagged, frozen; and some are picked, rinsed and frozen. I don’t want this to turn into a “sour” beer- it will be kegged and consumed within a couple months…so maybe that’s not a valid concern(?).

If I do need to sanitize the fruit, how would I do so without losing a great deal of fruit character? Don’t want it to have a “cooked” fruit flavor. I think the Book says to steep in 160F water for a certain period of time…

Any experienced thoughts on any of this? Lennie?
—guys if you’ve never done a fruitbeer and have merely read about it, please forego answering my questions. I have read alot about it myself. I am hoping for experienced answers.----

Thanks!

[flip]

Interested what people have to say because I’m planning something very similar in the next few months (sour cherries in an amber). I was planning on going straight from the freezer to thawing and into the carboy without anything else. I think I recall Denny saying that was what he has done with success.

[beermebeavis]

copy. A few more nods like yours and I will throw unsanitized fruit in and pray.

[ken_in_mn]

Here is some information I found that confirms my initial thought, that the green beer is high enough in alcohol and low enough in pH to inhibit any kind of infection.

http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/679-fruit-brew-part-2-techniques

[grainbelt]

you can just throw it in after thawing, I have given things a quick dunk in star san before to, but rarely do that

[loopie_beer]

The alcohol and low pH should be enough to fend off anything. I have never sanitized in the past and have had no problems. What I do is use a bucket and place the fruit in a big nylon bag like dry hopping. This way you can just pull it out to remove most of the fruit.

[lazy_ant_brewing]

Question, would the cherries have enough natural sugars in them to initiate another round of fermentation with the residual yeast in the wort and how violent a fermentation could that be?

I thought I’d heard someplace that you needed a blowoff tube for safety’s sake when you did this.

[grainbelt]

[quote=“lazy ant brewing”]Question, would the cherries have enough natural sugars in them to initiate another round of fermentation with the residual yeast in the wort and how violent a fermentation could that be?

I thought I’d heard someplace that you needed a blowoff tube for safety’s sake when you did this.[/quote]

depends how much headpsace you have

[lazy_ant_brewing]

for Grainbelt

The amount of headspace would be what’s available in a 5=gal plastic carboy used as a secondary fermenter.

Any advice?

[grainbelt]

[quote=“lazy ant brewing”]for Grainbelt

The amount of headspace would be what’s available in a 5=gal plastic carboy used as a secondary fermenter.

Any advice?[/quote]

the amount you have in secondary varies from batch to batch and then the amount of fruit you plan on using, if you dont think you have enough room put a blow off on

[lazy_ant_brewing]

Thanks Grainbelt

Drinking Porter and Stout

Bottle Conditioning Red Ale

[wahoo]

My guess is that you are going to have a tough time fitting 5 gallons of beer plus enough cherries in a 5 gallon carboy. How much fruit are you planning on using? General rule of thumb is 1-2 lbs per gallon of beer.

[beermebeavis]

Ah, I gotta 7 gallon or so bucket. Lotta headspace in case the fruit causes a massive refermentation.

As stated above- was gonna start out with one lb cherries / gallon – so 5 lbs cherries. Then I can add concentrate later, if needed.

Thanks again guys for the advice