Help with fruit.. incorrectly added.

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Robhaigh
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Help with fruit.. incorrectly added.

Post by Robhaigh » Mon Apr 16, 2018 5:35 am

Had a bit of a brew mare day... Was rushing / doing 10 things at once etc etc...
Anyway...
Brewed a cherry porter at weekend and incorrectly added my cherries to the fermenter at start of ferment rather than waiting and adding to secondary .
Nothing I can do about it now as it's merrily fermenting away.
But...
Curious as to what monster I have created :-)
Will the cherry flavours now be lost and just ferment off ?
Will it be a strange beer / wine hybrid ?
As it was a large grain bill have I made an expensive drain pour?

I know..... Let it ferment and see what happens but .. just curious as to what y'all think :-)

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gr_baker
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Re: Help with fruit.. incorrectly added.

Post by gr_baker » Mon Apr 16, 2018 1:25 pm

It should be fine. It may be a little different from how it would have been if you added the fruit in the secondary but it should be perfectly drinkable.

If you have a look around on the 'net, you'll see that people add fruit at all stages from mash to boil to primary to secondary and they all swear by their particular method. I suspect that it doesn't really matter.

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Meatymc
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Re: Help with fruit.. incorrectly added.

Post by Meatymc » Mon Apr 16, 2018 2:56 pm

Rob

Would be interested to see your recipe/process/etc.

Did a cherry porter last year using 100% tart cherry juice (into secondary) which was both expensive and, for the cost, underwhelming. Have just bottled a Wonky Berry Porter (Morrsions Frozen Wonky Berry 1kg pack) - cheap but messy Jury is out on that one at the moment except the fruit element is too dominant.

And the apparent accepted fact that froxen fruit - having supposedly been picked when ripe rather than early to allow transportation time etc is nonsense. Very, very tart although I could/should have checked that before starting.

Robhaigh
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Re: Help with fruit.. incorrectly added.

Post by Robhaigh » Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:13 pm

Meatymc wrote:Rob

Would be interested to see your recipe/process/etc.

Did a cherry porter last year using 100% tart cherry juice (into secondary) which was both expensive and, for the cost, underwhelming. Have just bottled a Wonky Berry Porter (Morrsions Frozen Wonky Berry 1kg pack) - cheap but messy Jury is out on that one at the moment except the fruit element is too dominant.

And the apparent accepted fact that froxen fruit - having supposedly been picked when ripe rather than early to allow transportation time etc is nonsense. Very, very tart although I could/should have checked that before starting.

No probs.
Recipe as follows.
OG - 1085
FG - 1020

Fermentables
450g Crystal 40
450g Chocolate malt
200g Black Patent Malt
5kg Pale Malt
680g Munich 10L
750g Flaked oats

60min mash

Hops
56g easy Kent holdings at 60min boil
21g Fuggles at 15min

Addition
450g Pecans at 60min boil

Additions
227g cocoa powder - flame out
112g Cocoa nibs - in the fermenter
1kg Dark Frozen cherries ( I get em from Tesco) after 6 days in fermenter

Yeast
2 packets US-05

Ferment
10 days 18degrees


I bottle conditioned this.

Not saying it just because its my brew but, it came out bloody lovely :-) definitely on a par with commercial brews.

Ps. Just this week I have rebrewed this one and the flaked oats are a new addition to up the ABV a little. My first brew was without them and came out at around 7.4%
Just adding them as an experiment to up it to over the 8 , see if it adds much character, warmth etc etc...


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Meatymc
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Re: Help with fruit.. incorrectly added.

Post by Meatymc » Wed Apr 18, 2018 10:51 am

Cheers Rob

Similar profile although I didn't have as much pale malt as I thought so under your total bill and ABV. I used (wasted being a better word) columbus out of habit - no idea why given the hop profile dissapears with the additions. Will try the flaked oats addition next time.

What I actually want to try and produce is a clone of Titanic Plum Porter but haven't even got close as yet.

Robhaigh
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Re: Help with fruit.. incorrectly added.

Post by Robhaigh » Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:47 pm

recipe from the Grainfather site for Titanic Plum Porter... (if it helps).. not brewed it but may be worth a go.
5.2kg Maris otter
340g Caraaroma
230g carafa II
230g caramunich III
Hops
30g east kent golding (90 min boil)
90g east kent golding (7min)
Yeast
WLP004
Extras
2.2kg plums - 2 days
1tsp yeast nutrient - 10 min boil
1tsp irish moss - 15 min boil

mash
65degrees C 60min
75defrees mash out 10 min

Note
ferment for 5/7 days. then add plums then leave in ferment for another 2 weeks.

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Meatymc
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Re: Help with fruit.. incorrectly added.

Post by Meatymc » Wed Apr 18, 2018 4:18 pm

Thanks again. Very similar to what I've done before -= it's getting the correct plum flavour/balance that's the issue. Guess I'll just have to keep trying :wink:

BrewDorg

Re: Help with fruit.. incorrectly added.

Post by BrewDorg » Wed Apr 18, 2018 4:18 pm

How much cherries did you add? I added frozen raspberries to a beer before in primary and the raspberry character was great. That was a pale beer so I got a lovely colour and piles of raspberry flavour too. I only added about 1.5kg too. I think yours will be just fine although I've read that you need a lot of cherries to stand out.

edit: just saw you posting the recipe above #-o

Robhaigh
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Re: Help with fruit.. incorrectly added.

Post by Robhaigh » Wed Apr 18, 2018 7:13 pm

BrewDorg wrote:How much cherries did you add? I added frozen raspberries to a beer before in primary and the raspberry character was great. That was a pale beer so I got a lovely colour and piles of raspberry flavour too. I only added about 1.5kg too. I think yours will be just fine although I've read that you need a lot of cherries to stand out.

edit: just saw you posting the recipe above #-o
Yep. 1kg.
Not a massive cherry bomb hit but, not what I wanted, not a fan of overly flavoured beer. Just a nice cherry hint.


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