Beer Forum

i'm preparing to brew jamil's black forest stout from his specialty beer show, and was hoping for some guidance from people who might've brewed it already. the recipe calls for:
10 lb Pale LME
1/2 lb Chocolate Malt
3/4 lb Black Roasted Barley
10 oz Crystal 40
10 oz Crystal 80
2.1 oz Kent Goldings (5% AA) for 60 min
8 oz Cocoa Powder last minute of boil
2 cans (98 oz) Oregon Cherry Puree

jamil suggests starting with 7 gallons in the kettle and there will be 6 gallons left after boiling. rack 5.5 to the fermenter for a finished volume of 5 gallons. my questions are the following:
1. after steeping my grains, how long should i boil for? 60 minutes and add the hops at the beginning or do a 90 minute boil?
2. how long should the beer remain in the primary before i rack to the secondary (cherry puree goes in the secondary)?...i was thinking 1 week
3. how long should the beer remain in the secondary before i prime and bottle?...i was thinking 2 weeks

any other help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated...thanks!

Boil for 60 minutes. Hops go in as soon as your boil starts.

Use the 1-2-3 method here. 1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, 3 weeks in keg/bottle. If you bottle condition I would recommend a temperature of about 68 degrees. Yes, rack on top of the cherry puree.

I plan on doing this recipe but, having roots in Michigan, my cherrys will be from Traverse City, MI.

Thanks for the quick reply! Good luck brewing yours--I'll be brewing on Thanksgiving day!

I just bottled a split batch of 3 gallons of JZs Black Forest Stout and 3 gallons plain stout without the chocolate and cherries about a month ago. I was going to use the Oregon Cherry Puree as well, but accidentally found some imported European sour cherries at a local Russian grocery store, so I pureed them, and stuck the puree in the freezer during primary fermentation to break up the cells. After about 10 days in primary I funneled the thawed puree into the secondary, racked the beer and most of the chocolate on top, and let it sit for about a month as I tend to fall into "the longer in secondary the better" camp, especially where fruit and/or chocolate are concerned as the intention is to get as much out of these additions as possible. Fermentation was between 65F and 68F throughout. Though mine turned out very good I think the suggested 1-2-3 method would work out just as well. Hope this helps a little!

I just tapped the JZs cherry chocolate stout I brewed about 4 weeks ago.
The chocolate comes through great, but the cherries are barely there if at all.
Note: chocolate and cherries for 10 days in secondary.
Maybe the cherries will come through when this beer gets a little age on it.

Both chocolate and cherries (puree) benefit from longer aging than you think. I would start at 1 mos. minimum. Taste, then go from there. I wouldn't be surprised that 2 mos. in a carboy might be best providing you don't have a huge yeast cake for autolysis to occur on the bottom.