Cherry beer???????

Intresting idea, my guess is that it'll either be really good or really bad... I say give it a shot!

I have tried making a cherry porter beer a couple of times. What I discovered was that by using an ounce of cherry extract, adding it to the wort boil achieved very little effect. 2 Gal of cider might make a noticeable difference, however. I found that adding an extract at bottling time produced the most dramatic cherry flavor.

Great, I would love to hear about how it turns out.

I think that the boiling is going to completely destroy the aroma and a lot of the flavor of the fruit. I've made cherry wheat beers by adding the cherries at the end of the boil and turning the heat off to pasteurize the fruit. Even this ruined a lot of the fruit essence. After reading this NG and taking the advise of such good folk as Denny, I tried putting the fruit right into the secondary, and man what a difference!

My advise? If you are trying to capture the essence of the fruit, keep it away from heat of any kind.

You'll likely set the pectins in the juice and make cherry jelly beer!

---------->Denny

Use pectolase to break down the pectins if you are worried about it. Can find in any good winemaking shop.

Also it takes like years usually to get jelly accidently.

Hmm for a third thought heat dosent actually destroy the flavors. They just vaporize at a low boiling point and you are letting them escape with the steam. There are many ways to get around this problem, the easiest i think is to just cover your wort pot with a top that is holding lots of ice.

__Stephen

I never thought about Jam. That is an interesting idea.

Interesting concept. But as much as I try to avoid it in my fruit beers, I can't see actually *introducing* pectin into my brews.

I hear ya Bill, that is a valid concern.

I don't like adding fruit or cider during the boil, for fear of setting the pectins. If I add fruit, I use a sterile puree or puree frozen berries myself. Then I put it into the bottom of the primary and pour boiled wort over it. Or sometimes I add juice into the secondary.

Jason