Cherry Pie Cream Ale

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My wife loves Sam Adams Cherry Wheat so I am looking to make a similar style light ale. Was thinking of using a cream ale recipe as a base and adding 1 lb lactose for added creaminess and sweetness. Will likely flavor with brewer's best cherry extract at bottling. Any thought on how this could turn out or suggestions on getting close to my desired end product?
 
How were you intending to get crust and whipped cream flavors? And what crust? For the whipped cream flavor, I'd use some vanilla, not much, you're suggesting cherry pie, not making cherry pie in a glass. As for the crust, you can go with a "cracker" style crust - think Vienna malt with some wheat, fermented out dry. But you don't want dry for a cherry pie beer so I d go in the general direction of a graham cracker. Some molasses or brown sugar might do that for you. See, there are lots of options and you are going for a rather complex beer. Or you could cut to the chase, make a good ESB on the low end of its bitterness range, add your cherry and vanilla and call it good.
 
Lots of great ideas Nosy! Still learning the ropes so trying to keep it simple as can be. Also want a lighter style beer that is easy to drink for the Mrs. I think the addition of a small amount of vanilla is a great idea. Does this generally go into the boil, secondary, or at bottling?
 
I add vanilla at bottling using store-bought extract. I'd use the real stuff, not the McCormack type using synthetic vanillin. In fact, you can add any extract at bottling to taste, even the cherry flavoring!
 
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homeb...1/american-pie-series-ii-cherry-pie-cream-ale

So I brewed this recipe three weeks ago, started with a base cream ale recipe and added a few things to try and make it resemble cherry pie. Add graham crackers to the mash, vanilla extract in the boil and at bottling, and 4 oz Brewer's Best cherry flavoring. At bottling it had a strong wild cherry smell and previous experience with BB flavorings are that they start out a bit overpowering if you use the whole 4 oz but mellow out nicely over time. Impatience got the best of me and I just had to try a bottle after only one week of bottle conditioning and much to my surprise it has no cherry taste or aroma but rather smells and tastes like a mild hefe or american wheat beer. It has some of that distinct banana/clove characteristics of a hefe. Fermented for a little over two weeks at roughly 68 degrees F so I don't believe that it was caused by too high of temps.

Any ideas why a cream ale recipe would result in these flavors and has anyone else had the added flavorings seemingly disappear in the finished product? Hopefully it is just too green and will change given more time but it is hard to believe there will be any of that desired cherry flavor and smell based on the early sample. Any input on what may have caused this and what I could do differently in the future would be greatly appreciated!
 
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Well itll sure nock your socks off after a few at 7% dont know about sessionable... but I'd take a hefe over dumper any day.
You've got a pretty pale grist but no wheat in there but maybe the the lactose and carapils is tricking you into tasting that creamy full body you get from a wheat beer.

I just dont know how you've landed with absolutely no cherry flavour aroma after adding it to the bottle. You did add it after primary fermentation as well?
 
I use Brewers Best flavorings in many of my ciders and find that different flavors can have quite different results. 4 ounces of blackberry in a 6% dry cider barely gave a hint of flavor and 6 ounces was definitely noticeable. 4 ounces of Mango in the same cider recipe was overpowering but has mellowed over a month or so. I always add to the keg before filling, but thinking about starting out with lower doses and adding as needed after tasting to reach a desirable level.
 
Well itll sure nock your socks off after a few at 7% dont know about sessionable... but I'd take a hefe over dumper any day.
You've got a pretty pale grist but no wheat in there but maybe the the lactose and carapils is tricking you into tasting that creamy full body you get from a wheat beer.

I just dont know how you've landed with absolutely no cherry flavour aroma after adding it to the bottle. You did add it after primary fermentation as well?

Cherry flavoring was added at bottling. Beer spent 15 days in the primary and hit terminal gravity before bottling. As for the 7%, I obviously didn't take into account the effect a box of graham crackers would have on the fermentables. All in all, it's gonna be a very drinkable brew just way off the target result I was aiming for.
 
i'd probably forget that too.
 
I am by far not the most knowledgeable person on this, but my guess is the graham crackers are big part or the culprit.
Cinnamon sugar is what is on outside of graham crackers, so maybe try adding cinnamon and use brown sugar for carbonation.
I used brown sugar to carbonate a cider i made and the residual flavor is there, definitely helped.
 

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