cherry wheat

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
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Secla
Lost in an Alcoholic Haze
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Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 1:26 am

cherry wheat

Post by Secla » Thu Nov 02, 2017 2:39 am

Planning on doing a cherry wheat bear.
Anyone have any experience and can advise whether frozen cherrys or 100% cherry concentrate would be the better option, and how much in a 23l batch o give a good cherry hit ?

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Meatymc
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Re: cherry wheat

Post by Meatymc » Thu Nov 02, 2017 11:05 am

I did a cherry porter last Summer using 100% tart cherry juice - 1L in a 10L brew (split a 20L base brew - the other 10L with 2 vanilla pods). The flavour was there but very much in the background. When I do it again it will be with at least double the quantity so for your project you'd be looking at 4/5L although it all comes down to personal taste obviously.

Pure cherry juice is very expensive by the way. I used Biona which I think was about £4.50 a litre - no doubt you can get it cheaper off 'tinterweb' though. You can get concentrate but that is silly money - around £12 for 500ml - but I don't know what the concentration is so maybe would be cheaper overall.

I've also done a plum porter this year using fruit - stewed 3lb of fruit and boiled down to 750ml of liquid for a 13L brew. I didn't carb this brew to see if the resicual sugars in the juice were sufficient. Initial thoughts were it was absolutely bloody rubbish but, as times gone on, I have to say it is starting to grow on me. Again, would double up on the fruit next time and probably try gelatin as plums are heavy on tannins and the brew is not clearing at all.

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