Chocolat Cherry Ale

[DWT]

Please let me know what you think of this recipe.
4 lbs pale malt 2 row
8 oz cara pils
1 lb chocolat chips boil 60 min
1 oz kent goldings boil 60 min
0.50 oz kent goldings boil 15 min
1 pkg safale 05 yeast
2 lbs sweet cherries in secondary after one week.

This recipe is for 2 1/2 gallons

 

[wolfie7873]

I would use tart cherries. The sweet cherries may get lost. Should this taste like a cherry cordial or like a black forest cake? If the former, sweet cherries are fine, if the latter, consider tart cherries.

 

[injun Joe]

DWT.I did a 5 gal batch a few months ago. I would use about 2-3 oz chocolate nibs soaked in vodka added to primary at about 7-10 days . Doesn't need more than 7-10 days in fermenter. I did not rack to secondary.

 

[Nosybear]

This might be an interesting brew. I agree with Wolfie - switch it over to tart cherries. Two years ago I did a Wee Heavy with cocoa, cherries and vanilla. I still love that beer....

Good luck with it and let us know how it comes out!

 

[DWT]

Thanks for your advise.
I am off to buy 2 pounds of tart cherries.

 

[jmcnamara]

my two cents, i'd push the chocolate chips to the last 5-10 mins of the boil. just enough to melt them and stir it around. seems like you'd boil off some of the chocolaty goodness after 60 mins.

 

[DWT]

jmcnamara.
I agree, adding the chocolate at 60 minutes was a mistake. I boiled away the chocolate, can't taste it at all. Glad I only made two gallons.
Thank You
DWT

 

[jmcnamara]

hopefully it'll still turn out good with the cherries! btw, how are you planning on getting them into the secondary?

 

[DWT]

I did not use a secondary. I added the cherries to the fermenter on the 4th day and bottled on the 20th day. The good news is the beer is clear with a good head. The cherry taste is not overpowering and my wife likes it. The bad news is I don't like cherry ale.

 

[wolfie7873]

Let's talk about the chocolate for a while. The fat content in the chocolate needs a long boil to volatilize. What kind of chocolate did you use? Something like Nestle Morsels has a flavor based mostly on sugar which ferments out and fat which boils away. What you want is dark chocolate, like baker's chocolate. Around an ounce of baker's chocolate per gallon boiled for 60 minutes is a good place to start. I made an Oatmeal Chocolate Stout this way and had a great chocolate flavor to it.

 

[DWT]

Thanks for the information/education about chocolate. I'm going to attempt this recipe again in the next several weeks, but this time only 1 gallon. One ounce of dark bakers chocolate and @ four ounces of tart cherries.

 

[Cableman]

Good morning everyone. Just found this site today and have a chocolate cherry fermenting now and thought I would share. I'm just going to paste my post from another site.
"All this talk of cherry chocolate stouts has peaked my interest. Now that all my stuff has came in i wanted to make sure my plan for Saturday doesn't have any missteps. First I start with my Northern Brewer Chocolate Milk Stout kit. All done per instructions until 5 minutes before done adding 8 ounces of Hershey's cocoa. (8 ounces came from another post saying if using 1 pound of lactose add half that size of cocoa). 3 days into ferminting add my can of Vintners Harvest Cherry Puree. Two weeks after add 8 ounces of the nibs. Now leave for 3 more weeks. at bottling time I plan to add 4 ounces of vanilla extract. I also have 4 ounces of brewers best chocolate extract and cherry extract I can add to the bottling bucket if after a taste i feel some flavor needs a little enhancing."
The Northern Brewer Kit includes, KIT INVENTORY:
SPECIALTY GRAIN
0.25 lbs English Extra Dark Crystal
0.75 lbs Fawcett Pale Chocolate Malt

EXTRACTS & OTHER FERMENTABLES
6 lbs Dark malt syrup
1 lb Lactose
HOPS & OTHER FLAVORINGS
1 oz Cluster (60 min)
0.5 oz Cluster (30 min)
4 oz Cacao Nibs (add to secondary for 2 weeks)..

I added 4 more ounces of cocoa nibs from reading ideas and outcomes from other forums. I have to mostly rely on kits and mail order since the closest home brew store is over 250 miles away. I am a week away from bottling and will update here when done.

Thanks all