Cherry Ripe Dark Ale

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Dazza88

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Hi,

This is my first post. I have been brewing kits for a few months and so far all good. I have been thinking of including additives into my next brews and have looking at recipes on the net.

My coopers dark ale kit with DME (and kit yeast) turned out quite nice. I have seen chocolate stout and ale recipes and also a cherry dark ale recipe so I am thinking that surely dark chocolate and cherry dark ale will be a winner. It would technically need coconut to be cherry ripe but not sure if coconut is a good idea in beer.

Anyways, so far i am thinking the following:

1 kit of Coopers Dark Ale
1kg of DME
2 cans of cherries
Dark Chocolate Block (1 or 2?) - Got whittakers blocks, 1 dark and 1 ghana
Ale yeast like safale

Any suggestions? Would something like cocoa be better than chocolate? (I am thinking i would at least melt the chocolate to add to the fermenter) Any better suggestions for the yeast? Any suggestions for hops? Should there be a secondary fermenter?

I would like a full strength brew. Going to play by ear with the OG and adjust with dextrose if needed. How can i predict the affect of cherries and chocolate on the specific gravity and the alcohol content?

Thanks for the advice in advance.

Daz :)
 
Hi,

This is my first post. I have been brewing kits for a few months and so far all good. I have been thinking of including additives into my next brews and have looking at recipes on the net.

My coopers dark ale kit with DME (and kit yeast) turned out quite nice. I have seen chocolate stout and ale recipes and also a cherry dark ale recipe so I am thinking that surely dark chocolate and cherry dark ale will be a winner. It would technically need coconut to be cherry ripe but not sure if coconut is a good idea in beer.

Anyways, so far i am thinking the following:

1 kit of Coopers Dark Ale
1kg of DME
2 cans of cherries
Dark Chocolate Block (1 or 2?) - Got whittakers blocks, 1 dark and 1 ghana
Ale yeast like safale

Any suggestions? Would something like cocoa be better than chocolate? (I am thinking i would at least melt the chocolate to add to the fermenter) Any better suggestions for the yeast? Any suggestions for hops? Should there be a secondary fermenter?

I would like a full strength brew. Going to play by ear with the OG and adjust with dextrose if needed. How can i predict the affect of cherries and chocolate on the specific gravity and the alcohol content?

Thanks for the advice in advance.

Daz :)
Go hard son. That's one of my planned brews in future.
I'd leave dextrose out, and just use more DME.
Can't say about the cherries, but search for the fruit in beers article. You might need about 2kg worth of cherries IMO.

As for the coconut addition, I did a coconut beer last year, it can work, but DON'T put coconut essence(imitation) in your beer. It will ruin it, I guarantee you.
Go for canned coconut cream, milk, or the real coconut juice.
 
welcome to the forum

- do a search for Chocolate and coconut and you'll find quite a few threads with all the info you need. there are a few pitfalls with using both ingredients.
- you'll also probably want more than 5 cans of cherries. just blend them up and add once fermentation has mostly finished. if you search under fruit or cherry etc you'll get heaps of posts about adding fruit to beers.
- go a more specific yeast than safale. maybe nottingham or windsor. but safale will suffice.
- hops: you have a plethora of hops that would suit. willemette, EKG, fuggles, maybe galena for a differant slant, styrian,

edit: beaten by the coconut and choc man himself
 
I was in a chinese grocer the other day one of my favourite places to be, conviently next to a very good yum cha... anyhoo im going off!

In the freezer section there was frozen young coconut juice and meat. They could work.
 
I did a coconut cider once with NZ fruit juice concentrate packs and 1/2 the meat of a small coconut shredded and placed in a stocking (boiled first for a few minutes to sterilize) and "dry hopped".

It worked okay - it was quite subtle.
 
Sounds a bit like Jamil's Black forest stout to me...
 
There's a good article on adding fruit to beer in the wiki section. My memory of things (never done it myself) is that a lot of brewers will rack onto fruit after primary is finished or when it is winding down.

I'd go for quality cocoa myself but having said that I've never tried actual chocolate (only cocoa a while back). There will be some extra sugars in chocolate which you will need to account for during fermentation. The other thing to look out for though is the fat conent which can affect head retention.

Consider also steeping some chocolate malt (doesn't have to be mashed and does give a chocolate quality to beers). It will add colour too.
 
Hi,

Finally attempted to make this brew.

1 x Can of Coopers Dark Ale
1 x 1kg Dark Liquid Malt

Steeped
200g x Chocolate malt grain
200g of carafa 2 grain

Boiled (into steeped grain solution)
Goldings hops 15g at 50 min, 10 at 30 min, 15 at 10 minutes (guessed this)
Fuggles bag at 10 min and into fermenter
250g of Shredded Coconut at 5 minutes (a spontaneous decision)
2 tablespoons of cocoa

British Ale yeast (Craftbrewer i think?)

Pitched at 20oC. Re-hydrated, hope i did it right.

19L OG - 1.043 (K_E Beer Designer.xls predicted 1.051)

A little bit of fat (coconut) on the top of boil but tried to skim most off and rest is floating on top in fermenter. Assuming racking may get rid of the fat.

At the end of primary fermentation, I will rack onto cherries. Have a mixture of canned (3 cans) and frozen (700g). Will dip frozen into 80C water @ 1 min to sterilize.

Should I sterilize the canned cherries? I thought they would already be sterile in a can.

Anyway, first attempt beyond a kit and kilo i suppose - it was fun. Tastes good out of fermenter - chocolate, some coconut, quite bitter aftertaste. I am assuming the sweetness of the cherries and all the malt in there will subdue the bitterness a touch.

--- Oh yeah, the inspiration for the beer was the birth of our first child, a little girl called Ruby. Keep on thinking of red coloured brews. --
Daz
 
Should I sterilize the canned cherries? I thought they would already be sterile in a can.


I would just dump them into the fermentor personally. Maybe give them a shot with the stick blender to break them up.
 
Mmm cherry ripe :icon_drool2:

As a wise man once said:

Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby Rubaay
Nah nah nah nah nah naaah
Do ya, do ya, do yaaa
Nah nah nah nah nah naaah
Know what you're doin doin to me?
Nah nah nah nah nah naaah
 
Always gotta stress the no essence f##kup, CM2! :D
I've had quite a bit of success using essence. I've used chocolate, rum, brandy, aniseed and a few others I can't remember. As long as you're not too heavy handed they generally turn out alright. I will say that I was on the borderline of stuffing up a choc licorice stout by using too much aniseed essence.
 
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