I’m going to try this recipe again, with cherries, because I think the cherry taste is more agreeable with the chocolate flavor.

After 1 week in the bottle, this brew was overpoweringly raspberry. No chocolate taste at all. At 2 weeks in the bottle, the raspberry had really mellowed, and the chocolate came thru. Yummy. Next time, I’ll used 1-1.5 lbs of cherries or raspberries. I’m looking for just the barest hint of fruit flavor. I may only use 4-6 oz of choc. also. I’m also looking for a dark-chocolate flavor in the stout, so I’ll have to continue experimenting. Ultimately, I’m aiming for a smooth stout that has overtones of those Mon-Cherie chocolate-covered cherry candies.
Ingredients:

* 3.3 lbs John Bull plain dark extract syrup
* 3 pounds plain dry malt extract
* 1 pound crystal malt
* 1/2 pound roasted barley
* 1/2 pound black patent malt
* 1-1/2 ounce Northern Brewer hops pellets
* 1/2 ounce Willamette hops pellets
* gypsum to create hard water
* 3 pounds frozen raspberries
* 2 packages Edme dry ale yeast
* 1-1/4 cups dry malt extract
* 8 ounces baker’s chocolate

OG: 1056
Procedure:
Heat 1.5 gal water to 170F. Add grains, cover, and let sit for 30 min. stirring occasionally. Remove grains. Bring to boil. Add gypsum, malt extracts, NB hops, chocolate, and boil for 60 min. Turn off heat. Add raspberries to hot wort (be careful of splashing). Cover, and let sit for 13 min. Add Willamette hops. Cover, and let sit for 2 min. Cool wort. Dump entire mess into primary, aerate, and pitch yeast (I rehydrated it while waiting for the rasp. to steep in wort).

4-5 days in primary. Rack *very carefully* into secondary, to avoid racking fruit particles. 10-14 days in secondary (I went 14).

* 3.3 pounds, John Bull dark unhopped malt extract
* 2 pounds, Munton & Fison light dry extract
* 1/2 cup, black patent malt
* 2 ounces, Cascades hops
* 2 tablespoons, gypsum
* 1 teaspoon, salt
* 3-5 pounds, pitted chopped cherries
* 1/2 ounce, Hallertauer hops
* yeast

Procedure:
Steep black patent malt in 2 gallons of water bringing to boil. Strain out grain. Add extract and boil with Cascade hops, gypsum, and salt. Boil 60 minutes. Remove from heat. Add finishing hops and cherries. Steep 30 minutes. Strain into fermenter with cold water to make 5 gallons. Pitch yeast.

This really turned out great… two weeks after bottling the brew was very cherry-like, almost too much – but after 6-8 weeks it mellowed out to a much more subtle brew. I think you’ll like it.
Ingredients:

* 3 kg Ireks Weizenbier extract (hopped)
* 1/2 lb. Ireks wheat malt (grain)
* 1/2 lb. Munich malt (grain)
* 5 lb cherries (I think I used Bing)
* 2 oz. Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail
* 1 oz. Hallertau – alpha 2.4%

Procedure:
Crack grains, bring to boil, remove @ boil
add extract
@ 30 min. add 1/2 oz. Cascade
@ 58 minutes, add 1/2 Cascade + 1 oz. Hallertau
@ 60 minutes, remove hops and turn off heat
add cranberry and crushed cherries (I removed pits)
steep for 20 minutes – temperature @ 170 degrees
pour all of wort (including cherries) into 5 gal. fermentation bucket along with cold H20 to fill Note: don’t use carboy – cherries will clog blow-off! add yeast when temperature goes below 80 degrees

I let the primary go, left cherries in for 1 week, then racked off to carboy. At two weeks, rack to bucket, boil 3/4 cup corn sugar and stir into bucket, and bottle.

* 6 pounds, 2 Row English Pale Malt
* 4 pounds, Malted Wheat
* Gypsum (for adjusting PH)
* Irish Moss (Clarity)
* 10–1/2 pounds, Cherries
* 1 pound, Honey
* 1 ounce, Saaz Hops – Boiling
* 1/4 ounce, Saaz Hops – Finishing
* yeast

OG: 1.040
Procedure:
I mashed using 10 quarts at 140 F strike heat for a protein rest at 130 F. Then added an additional 5 quarts at 200 F to bring to a starch conversion at 150 F raised to 158 F, with a mash-out at 168 F. Sparged with 5 gallons of water at 168 F recovering over 7 gallons. Boiled for two hours. Chilled down to about 70 F, pitched yeast.

* 3.3 lbs. John Bull plain dark malt extract syrup
* 2 1/2 lbs. Premier Malt hopped flavored light malt extract syrup
* 1 1/2 lbs. plian dark dried malt extract
* 1 lbs. crystal malt
* 1/2 lbs. roasted barley
* 1/2 lbs. black patent malt
* 1 1/2 oz. Northern Brewer hops (boiling): 13 HBU
* 1/2 oz. Willamette hops (finishing)
* 8 tsp. gypsum
* 3 lbs. sour cherries
* 2 lbs. choke cherries or substitute with 2 lbs. more sour cherries
* 1-2 pkgs. ale yeast
* 3/4 c. corn sugar or 1 1/4 c. dried malt extract (for bottling)

Procedure:
Add the crushed roasted barley, crystal and black patent malts to 1 1/2 gallons of cold water and bring to a boil. When boiling commences, remove the spent grains and add the malt extracts, gypsum and boiling hops and continue to boil for 60 minutes. Add the 5 lbs. of crushed cherries (pits and all) to the hot boiling wort. Turn off heat and let the wort steep for 15 minutes (at temperatures between 160-180 degrees F{71-88 C} in order to pasturize the cherries. Do not boil. Add the finishing hops 2 minutes before you pour the entire contents into a plastic primary fermenter and cold water. Pitch yeast when cool. After 4-5 days of primary fermentation, rack the fermenting beer into a secondary fermenter. Secondary fermentation should last about 10-14 days longer. Bottle when fermentation is complete.

I think lots of aroma volatiles got lost with all the outgassing in the primary; I think next time I may wait to add the berries to the secondary. I may also skip the roasted barley, and use only 1/2 pound of 40L crystal so the blue from the berries is more obvious.

The next batch is going to be a cherry wheat, with lots of tart baking cherries in the secondary and a looong maceration. Yum!
Ingredients:

* 6–1/2 pounds, pale malt
* 1/2 pound, wheat malt
* 3/4 pound, crystal malt (80L)

OG: 1.046 (5–1/2 gallons) FG: 1.010
Procedure:
Mash in 2 gallons at 130F, protein rest 30 minutes at 125F, add 1.25 gallons, mash 30 min at 150F, raise temp to 158F until converted (15 minutes), mash out 10 minutes at 170F. Sparge with 4 gallons to yield 5- -1/2 gallons at 1.046. Add Fuggles and 3/4 ounce of Goldings after 20 minutes of boil, boil 60 minutes, add last 1/4 ounce of Goldings and boil 15 minutes more. Rinse blueberries in a dilute sulfite solution (after weeding out the fuzzy ones), puree, and add to primary along with yeast.

I tried a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat and really enjoyed it and said to myself,self I think I would like to try and make a Cherry Wheat.So I did. I don’t know the results yet but what I’ve tasted when I racked this into the secondary it was good.It had just a hint of cherry taste that I hope will increase with time.Give it a try and see how you like it.This isn’t what I was hopping for but it will have to do for now.

Size:

• 2 1/2 gallons

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 Lbs.American 2 row
• 2 Lbs. Wheat
• 1/4Lb. Vienna
• 1/4 Lb. Dextrine
• 1 1/2 oz. American blend hops(3/4 oz. Willamet 3/4oz.Cascades)
• 2Lb.4oz.frozen cherries
• 1/2 tsp. Irish Moss
• Wyeast 1056(american ale which I made a starter from)
• 2 tsp. Polyclar
• 2Tbs. corn sugar(priming)

Brewing Instructions:

Step mash all grains at 131f for 45min.Raise to 158f for 45min.Sparge untill you get 4 gallons of liquor.Keep running the liquor through the grain bed for about 45min. to extract all or most of the sugars.Boil this for 60 min adding 1/2 oz. of the hop blend at the beggining of the boil. With 20 min. left add another 1/2 oz. along with the irish moss.With 2 min. left add the remaining hops.Cool to 80 and pitch yeast starter.Ferment for one week.After a week thaw,crush,and steep the cherries in 175f water for 1 1/2 hours.Rack the wort into a glass carboy and add the cherries this will start to ferment again for about another week.When this is done rack into a secondary with the polyclar for one week.Then bottle with corn sugar and condition as you normally would.

Fermentation:

Ingredients