Small Batch Sour Cherry

1) Add 8 quarts of 165 degree water to start mashing the whole grains (German, 2-row, wheat, and American) in a steeping pot as free grains, not in a bag. Should make ~2.5 gallons of mash, maybe a little less.

2) Steep for 60 minutes (or more). Raise temp to 170 for 10 minutes to finish the mash.

4) Cool to 115. Add a reserved handful of grains, and a couple of raw cherries. (To add bacteria.)

5) Ferment for ~3 days, keeping as close to 100 - 115 degrees as possible.

6) Strain grains out into muslin bag, into the boiler. Sparge with 4 quarts hot water. Add hops, malt extract, honey, boil for 60 mins.

7) Strain out the hops, and pour the wort into the primary fermenter. Ferment 5-7 days.

8) Washed and lean the cherries. Mash them up, and add to the 2ndary fermenter. Rack the beer onto the cherries.

9) Let ferment another 2-3 weeks. Strain any floating fruit bits off the top. Rack into a bottling bucket, and bottle.

10) After conditioning for ~2 weeks, it might be good to store in the fridge for a couple of additional weeks.