Kriek Ish Recipe

[Helmut]

I want to try and make a Kreik style beer for the Missus (And myself I must confess).
Have in the cupboard

2kg Coopers DME
500g Dried Wheat Malt
250-500g Caramalt (Steeped)
Dextrose Qty???
Danstar Munich Yeast or K97 Yeast
Have some B Saaz, Amarillo, Centenial, Southern Cross and Cascade hops as well if needed.


Coles have 750g jars of Morello Cherries (Cherries soaked in a Fructose/Glucose Syrup) which look the goods, or they have frozen cherries.

Questions are:

1. Would this base recipe be "Wheaty" enough? I can also steep some Wheetbix easily enough or should I get a Wheat extract can or Wheat Beer Kit to use instead?

2. How many cherries would I need to use and can I put them into the primary after 3-4 days and leave for another 2 weeks or should I attempt to rack into a secondary with the cherries? (I have never racked before and have only just acquired a second fermenter)

3. Should I drain the cherries if I was to use the jars or chuck it all in and get some extra Alc% from the syrup?

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

Leon

 

[Swinging Beef]

Mate,
Im a big fan of Kreik, but your recipe seems quite a way off.
What I see here is a nice simple beer that cherry would go well in, but for real kreik flavours you are going to need to head down the path of the home brewers nightmare, and use some crazy arsed wild yeasts like Brett.

What is the planned outcome?

 

[manticle]

Where will you get the characteristic sourness from which will make it kriekish?

Looks like a cherry wheat-ish beer otherwise. Generally rack onto fruit after primary fermentation is finished. Article on using fruit here: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=39

Great article on lambic here: http://www.brewery.org/library/LmbicJL0696.html (more a book than an article - loads of reading and some complicated stuff you may not need to know at this point)

For something to be vaguely kriekish you probably need to use various yeasts and bacteria and age for a decent length of time. If you just want a slightly tart refreshing beer with cherry character then what you've got is probably fine. If that's the case though, I would replace the coopers LME (which is what I presume you mean) with 2 tins coopers wheat LME. The wheat tins are 50/50 malt barley anyway.

Too much bitterness can get in the way of sourness which is why lambics use aged hops.

 

[raven19]

The time frame to brew something close to a Kriek will be long also, unless you sour your mash or add lactic acid to the beer.

+1 to the posts above also.

Its a lovely beer, but bloody hard to replicate in a short time frame imo from my lambic readings over the years.

 

[Silo Ted]

Without using a lambic yeast, would souring the wheat addition bring anything desirable to the requirement of sourness ? I have read that leaving wheat mashing overnight will add a lot of tartness. Realise that this is K & B recipe, but simply throwing the query out there. Obviously it still wouldnt be a kreik as such but potentially a poor mans version if constrained by yeast availability.

 

[manticle]

My understanding of overnight mashing is that resulting sourness will be caused by lactobacillus growth.

Shoulkdn't overcomplicate the thread though seeing as how it's K& E.

OP: Could try using sour cherry juice in secondary to see what effect that has.

 

[Helmut]

Thanks for info guys.

I know it is no where near a genuine Kriek (Thanks for the spelling) but I was hoping to make something in the ballpark. I read a post on another brew forum ages ago about someone attempting a "real" Kriek at home, and he was ageing it for months and months in the secondary. Too much effort for me. If I can get a refreshing spritzy Cherry Flavoured beer I'll be happy.

Manticle, it is 4 x Coopers 500g Dried Malt boxes and 1 x 500g pure dried wheat Malt from Craftbrewer, but I can head to the LHBS on the weekend and grab a tin of Coopers Wheat LME.

Should I use any hops in this brew at all? Bittering/Flavouring?

I can source some Lactic acid or Tartaric Acid to give it some sourness if needed.

How many cherries do we reckon? 3 bottles? 4?

 

[Helmut]

OP: Could try using sour cherry juice in secondary to see what effect that has.
[/quote]


Reading the ingredients on the Lindeman's Kriek bottles I have at home (I think it's Lindemans) The ingredients are Water, Malt, Wheat, Cherry Juice 30%.

Maybe I can just get 6 odd litres of Cherry Juice and add that to secondary?

 

[raven19]

Maybe I can just get 6 odd litres of Cherry Juice and add that to secondary?

I would be leaning towards using the whole fruit. No doubt cheaper too, as you can use 'seconds'.

 

[petesbrew]

I'd steer clear of american hops in this. I threw cascade in my first framboise and it didn't mix with the raspberries.
Actually I've pretty much only used Styrian Goldings & Saaz in my belgians.
Yeast, you could try T-58.
Also, for the sour effect, you could try getting a proper lambic stubby, drink, save dregs, add a few drops into half the bottles, and save for a few months - worked for me.

edit: as mentioned above, the "fruits in beers" article is worth reading. You'll need at least 1.5kg fruit in the secondary (at least that's what's worked for my framboises)

 

[manticle]

Thanks for info guys.

I know it is no where near a genuine Kriek (Thanks for the spelling) but I was hoping to make something in the ballpark. I read a post on another brew forum ages ago about someone attempting a "real" Kriek at home, and he was ageing it for months and months in the secondary. Too much effort for me. If I can get a refreshing spritzy Cherry Flavoured beer I'll be happy.

Manticle, it is 4 x Coopers 500g Dried Malt boxes and 1 x 500g pure dried wheat Malt from Craftbrewer, but I can head to the LHBS on the weekend and grab a tin of Coopers Wheat LME.

Should I use any hops in this brew at all? Bittering/Flavouring?

I can source some Lactic acid or Tartaric Acid to give it some sourness if needed.

How many cherries do we reckon? 3 bottles? 4?

Definitely use some hops - just aim for lowish IBU (say 15-20 ish)

Good thing about aging in secondary is that you can adjust if the flavour is not strong enough (hard to take out though) but still you will need a good whack. The linked article should give you some hints.

As for the wheat - maybe just use DME but make them all wheat. Pretty sure the dried is also a blend of marley and wheat malt - just double check that though.

 

[J Grimmer]

Also, for the sour effect, you could try getting a proper lambic stubby, drink, save dregs, add a few drops into half the bottles, and save for a few months - worked for me.

Why add it to the stubbies, could you add it to the fermenter to sour the batch as opposed to the bottles?

J

 

[mossko]

Hi Guys, I'm trying to make a similar beer

Have been putting a recipe together in Beersmith and this is it so far

12 Litre batch (experimental)

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
0.75 kg Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 60.00 %
0.50 kg Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 40.00 %
6.00 gm Saaz [4.00 %] (60 min) Hops 5.3 IBU
3.00 l Cherry Juice (Secondary 7.0 days) Misc
9.00 L Melbourne, Australia Water
1 Pkgs Safbrew wheat yeast (DCL Yeast #WB-06) Yeast-Wheat

Making a 9lt batch in primary then adding the 3lt (~30%) Cherry juice to the secondary to keep the flavour and aroma

I haven't made a wheat beer before, so any info suggestions would be welcome

From reading this and other threads, it won't be an actual Kreik with the sourness but more like a cherry flavoured wheat beer which I'm happy with for now

Could I substitute the Saaz hops for POR? would it taste the same?

 

[Josh]

Wow, well instead of starting a new thread, here's the beer I'm brewing today.

3kg JW Pilsner malt
1.5kg unmalted wheat
4g CaCl in mash

16g old Styrian Goldings 60mins

Wild yeast captured in my backyard.

After fermentation has slowed down, I'm gonna add an amount of cherries.

My question is, what cherries would be best for a lambic kriek style? I'm thinking 1kg cherries in about a 1.040 original wort.

 

[barls]

if you want a kit kriek, the closest you will come without using a funky yeast would have to be the brewferm kits. ive been drinking a frambrose without the funky yeast and one with and they are bloody nice for a kit beer, ditch the yeast that comes with them and use a liquid one from the belgian range.
im currently waiting on my frambroise to finish ageing up in the bottle so i can start trying it.

 

[matr]

I'm on the bandwagon for this myself.

Didn't want to use any funky yeasts but still wanted to go for Tart, Dry & fruity..

So I've got this in Primary now. Sitting at about 29C. B)

Cherry de Garde

60% Pils
40% Wheat

Mashed @ 68C for 90mins

90min boil
Hallertauer to 6IBU

OG 1.042
22L (before cherries)

Wyeast 3725PC Biere de Garde fermented @ 28 - 30C

Primary for 2 weeks then rack onto whole smashed cherries (about 4kg).

Secondary for 2 weeks - maybe more.

Cheers, Mat.

 

[scott_penno]

I've been thinking about cherries over the last few days for a brew that's currently fermenting. I remember reading/hearing that you want to use whole cherries (including pips) as the pips also contribute to the flavor. I can't remember where I read/heard this so have nothing to really support this...

sap.