Beer Forum

I'm going to brew my girlfriend her Cherry Wheat Ale I promised her and was wondering about the flavoring.

Is it better to use an extract flavoring syrup or the real cherries themselves?

I am sort of a purist and like the idea of the actual cherries, but don't look forward to the extra costs or work...

Any experience with flavor differences?

Well, speaking from experience, it's always difficult to use freash fruit in brewing because the outcome is hard to predict. I tried a cherry stout, raspberry wheat and a few others. The natural sugars in the fruit is consumed by the yeast which will change the natural taste of the cherries. If you really want to go that route then hit your beer with potassium metabisulphite or camden tablets to inhibit the yeast. I would also rack the beer to a clean "conditioning" tank that will allow you monitor your progress.

Or you just add cherry extract at bottling or kegging. Just my two cents...



Darin

If you're using the extract, go REALLY light handed. The last time I made a cherry stout with extract it tasted exactly like Sucrets. I swear this stuff would cure a sore throat.

I've been really happy using the Oregon Fruit Puree.



http://www.northernbrewer.com/beer-flavorings.html

They are expensive and messy, but I love the flavor that I get using this instead of the extracts. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but the times I've used the extract I end up with stuff that tastes like medicine.

If you go with real fruit or a puree you will want to do it in secondary. Let the wheat beer base ferment out in primary then rack to secondary on top of the fruit. Let that ferment out then bottle or keg.

Travis

Ditto on Lufah's suggestion.

Failing that, I make my own fruit purees, but its a royal PITA with cherries and other stone fruits. Bob Girolamo (of the late Shark's Tooth brewing) swears by quality extracts, but I've never used the kind he recommends (which can be found here: http://www.mane.com/map_americas.html).

See this thread for fruit discussions:

http://www.tastybrew.com/forum/thread/53725

Ziggy-san wrote:Failing that, I make my own fruit purees, but its a royal PITA with cherries and other stone fruits.

Try one of these:


They knock the stones out of the cherries quick, then you can puree them however you wish. Not too pricy at $13. My mom had an even cheaper one that you worked like a syringe, but it made your hands tired after a while.

I made a cherry saison and a cherry bock last year. I went too heavy on the cherry in both so start light on the fruit. 1 lb of fruit (including the pits) per gallon of beer is plenty for my taste. I didn't pit the cherries. They fall to the bottom when the ferment is done. The cherries will float while the ferment is going. Then, they turn lighter in color and fall to the bottom as a sludge/skin layer. You might want to bag them. I didn't, and had to put a hop bag over a stainless steel scrubby on the end of my racking cane. Otherwise, the cherry skins all gather around the cane tip and pug it up.
To clean up the cherries, I added some 10% Phosphoric acid to some RO water to get it done to 3.2 pH, then added 50 ppm potassium metabisulfite. I soaked the cherries in this bath for an hour then drained it. I understand that heating them can set the fruit pectin and add haze, but that might not be a problem for a wheat beer.