Pop the Cherry

Bunglebrewsbeer said:

Do you not need to sterilise the fruit?

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jeg3 said:

A Belgian Wheat beer with cherries. My 2nd AG brew, and 14th all time brew.

5.2%
6.5 EBC (not accounting for the cherries)
21 IBU

2.2kg Wheat Malt
2.3kg Lager Malt

22g Northdown 90 mins
3.86kg Frozen Cherries from Sainsburys (special offer, cost ��£16) steeped in muslin bags for 20 mins post boil, then pressed in the FV
20g Pectolase added to the boil.

13l Mash at 66 degC for 90 minutes
20l sparge at 77 degC

Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale, pitched at 24 degC

OG 1.048

22l into the FV

Primary 4 days
Racked into secondary for 10 days. FG 1.010

Bottled with 100g sugar.

Bottle conditioned for 4 weeks. The resulting beer was a typical Belgian wheat beer, with a slightly sour, lambic flavour, a deep red colour with subtle cherry flavours. The yeast remained fluid in the bottle and made a nice addition when swilled with the last third and poured into the glass.

My most expensive beer to date at 75p per pint.

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jeg3 said:

Yeah I pondered adding the cherries post fermentation but wanted to ferment the sugars and was OK with the trade off of less flavour.

If I had bought fresh cherries it would have cost �£80, as it happened they were on special offer and got 8 bags of frozen cherries for �£16. For flavour alone cherry syrup would probably be better

Click to expand...

jeg3 said:

A Belgian Wheat beer with cherries. My 2nd AG brew, and 14th all time brew.

5.2%
6.5 EBC (not accounting for the cherries)
21 IBU

2.2kg Wheat Malt
2.3kg Lager Malt

22g Northdown 90 mins
3.86kg Frozen Cherries from Sainsburys (special offer, cost �£16) steeped in muslin bags for 20 mins post boil, then pressed in the FV
20g Pectolase added to the boil.

13l Mash at 66 degC for 90 minutes
20l sparge at 77 degC

Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale, pitched at 24 degC

OG 1.048

22l into the FV

Primary 4 days
Racked into secondary for 10 days. FG 1.010

Bottled with 100g sugar.

Bottle conditioned for 4 weeks. The resulting beer was a typical Belgian wheat beer, with a slightly sour, lambic flavour, a deep red colour with subtle cherry flavours. The yeast remained fluid in the bottle and made a nice addition when swilled with the last third and poured into the glass.

My most expensive beer to date at 75p per pint.

Click to expand...

HoppyTommy said:

That looks great. I cheated and used a few bottles of cheap cherry syrup from the Polish supermarket and a few small bottles of cherry brandy essence. The finished product tasted like snake bite and black but in a nice sort of way.

I'm considering approaching my local green grocer about a big order of strawberries when they are in season for a strawberry wheat beer. They must get them dead cheap in bulk.

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