Advice on a Chocolate Cherry Porter

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Zephyr259

Zephyr259

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Hello Folks,

Got the urge to brew something dark and interesting, recipe idea is as follows for 8 L.

1.3 kg Maris Otter
100g Crystal Malt
100g Dark Crystal Malt
100g Chocolate Malt

Mash for an hour, probably at 67C so FG is a little higher.

8g Brewer's Gold (6.6% AA) for 60 mins
50 g Cocoa for 10 mins

The hops should give 19.5 IBUs which is towards the low end of the style since there's also cocoa providing bitterness and I don't want it to clash with the cherry.

I'll then ferment with S-04 then add approx 600g Cherries during secondary.

Here's where I'd appreciate some advice, do I need to rack the beer into a new FV for secondary if I'm adding fruit or could I just add the fruit to the primary fermenter once things slow down? I don't normally rack and just leave the beer on the yeast cake in primary for 2 - 3 weeks.

Also, what's the thoughts on the recipe? It's matching the style guide for a brown porter on Brewer's Friend so I'm guessing it's ok.

Thanks
 
Sounds interesting, I think I would want more hops in there, but I am am by no means a expert, either way if you decide to go with it report back on this.
 
I added raspberries to my wheat beer in the primary fv while racking off a dj to keep plain and another to add cherries to.

I added a carton of aldis frozen cherries (480g) to the dj and they were a quite a discrete taste so you may want more than 600g. But adding to the fv after a week should be fine. (Iirc I defrosted and poured 200ml of boiling water over the fruit before adding to fv).

I'll keep an eye on this thread as it sounds a great combo.
 
Yeah, it's an idea from an episode of Basic Brewing Video, they get sent in a chocolate cherry imperial stout and loved it so I felt like trying a more relaxed version. I've already come to the same realisation that I'll need more cherries, maybe up to 2 kg as an american article suggests that milder fruits like cherries may need up to 2 lb per gallon. Aldi's freezer was the first thing that popped into my mind.

Next issue is that with a heap more cherries i'll have to cut the malt bill or end up with something in the 6.5% range and I was hoping to keep this below 5% if possible.

Hops are a tricky one, but I'd rather under hop and have it a bit sweet than over hop and have it clash with the sweet fruit and chocolate. I'll make sure to give feedback either way.

Thanks for the thoughts guys.
 
This sounds interesting. Can I ask, how long will you leaving the cherries in secondary? And will you be adding cocoa nibs then too?
 
Still working out the specifics but I'll be adding the cherries at the weekend as that's when I'll first have a chance, will leave them a week then taste the beer. I don't really have a "normal" procedure yet but I tend to just leave beer in the primary for 2-3 weeks then bottle.

I added 50g of cocoa for the last 10 mins of the boil and the work tasted like chocolate milk. I'll taste it per-cherry and see what fermentation has done to it.

Sorry for the vagueness but I'm just playing this one by ear. Will keep this thread updated.

On that note, I had bubbles after 6 hrs and 2 days of vigorous activity, it's calmed down now but will have to wait til the weekend for cherries.
 
Hi Zephyr. Did you end up with a drinkable result? I'm pondering something similar (after I get a Dunkelweizen in the PB and get my brewing mojo back!)

:thumb:
 
Hi VillageBrew, I did indeed get something drinkable. I fermented the 8L wort in 2 demijohns then racked then into 2 other with (from memory) 1.35 kg of cherries split between them and left for 2 weeks, again that's a bit of a guess, it's in my log book but I'm offshore just now so don't have it to hand. :-)

The resulting beer was really good, I'm not sure you'd pick the cherry out without being told it was there, definitely chocolately but again not sure if it was the cocoa or malt. The bitterness was low but still balanced since it finished fairly dry at 1.010, the cherries added a kinda tartness, not sour but there was a definite sharp fruity edge to it balancing it out. Was a shame there was only a small amount of it, lost a bit of beer to the trub and then a fair bit to the cherries. It's something I may try brewing again but I'd try to find sour cherries (think adsa do frozen) as from what I've read they have a stronger flavour.

Ask away if you have any more questions.

p.s. thanks for making me realise I'd never come back to this thread, it's always annoying when you're researching a beer, find a good thread with heaps of discussion then they never come back to say how it turned out. :-)
 

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