Sour Cherry Ale anyone?

So a colleague at work tells me "Come try sour cherries at my desk. Don’t be shy about taking as many as you want.  I seriously need your help with eating them….No, I didn’t travel to Europe to pick sour cherries.  I have a friend here who has a sour cherry tree in his backyard."

Well I get to thinking. What can we do with all those cherries? Hmm.. brew beer of course.
How about making a Sour Cherry Ale. Sounds tasty!
Now to find a recipe. This one looks decent http://byo.com/videos/item/1389-sour-cherry-ale-syle-profile. Pretty much a standard ale recipe with the addition of cherries.
I ended up with close to 5lbs of sour cherries. Based on this recipe I can make a half batch (2.5 gallons).

Here's the recipe I came up with.

Sour Cherry Ale

Fruit Beer

Type: All Grain	Date: 25 Jun 2015
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.75 gal	Brewer: Mike the brew king
Boil Size: 4.17 gal
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: 10 Gallon BoilerMaker (5 gal/19 L)
End of Boil Volume 3.12 gal	Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 2.25 gal	Est Mash Efficiency 78.5 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 4 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 81.8 % 8.0 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 9.1 % 4.0 oz Carafa Special II (Weyermann) (415.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.5 % 4.0 oz Roasted Barley (Thomas Fawcett) (609.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.5 % 0.80 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 5 43.6 IBUs 0.14 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 - 5.00 lb Sour Cherries (Boil -15.0 mins) Flavor 7 - 0.40 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 8 0.0 IBUs 1.0 pkg Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084) [124.21 ml] Yeast 9 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.054 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.9 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.2 %
Bitterness: 43.6 IBUs	Calories: 165.2 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 33.0 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Double Infusion, Light Body	Total Grain Weight: 5 lbs 8.0 oz
Sparge Water: 1.25 gal	Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Protein Rest Add 5.47 qt of water at 131.2 F 122.0 F 30 min Saccharification Add 4.40 qt of water at 206.0 F 156.0 F 30 min Mash Out Add 4.95 qt of water at 194.4 F 168.0 F 10 min
Sparge Step: Fly sparge with 1.25 gal water at 168.0 F
Mash Notes: Double step infusion - for light body beers requiring a protein rest. Used primarily in beers high in unmodified grains or adjuncts.
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Bottle	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 1.77 oz	Carbonation Used: Bottle with 1.77 oz Corn Sugar
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 70.0 F	Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Storage Temperature: 65.0 F
Notes
Sour cherries added for 15 minutes after flame out. Remove sour cherries and then add finish hops for 5 minutes before chilling the wort. Sour cherries then added back to the primary fermentor.

Step by step. Firstly I took the sour cherries and removed the stalks and any that were unripe. There is no need to remove the pits. Wash the cherries in cold water and then crush with a potato masher. Place the crushed cherries in a  muslin bag or hop sock. These are added to the wort at flame out for 15 mins.

Sour cherries washed with the stalks removed

Crushing the cherries with a potato masher

The grain bill is similar to that of a dry stout. I used a base malt of Maris Otter with roast barley. I substituted Carafa III for Carafa II and Caramel 10L for Munich 10L.

Grains;Maris otter, Munich 10L, Roasted barley and Carafa II

This recipe calls for a protein rest at 122 F. Interesting...I never bothered doing this before.
Anyway, There's a first time for everything...

0 min - Protein Rest (2 min rise, hold 122.0 F for 30 min)

• Add 5.47 qt of water at 131.2 F 

32 min - Saccharification (2 min rise, hold 156.0 F for 30 min)

• Add 4.40 qt of water at 206.0 F 

I came in a bit low on the mash, around 152 F. Target being 156 F. Using my simple RIMS (Recirculating Infusion Mash System) I slowly brought the temperature up to 156 F.

Mashing in

Recirculate the mash

The mash is complete after approx 1 hour. Drain off the and sparge at 168 F until you collect approx 4.2 gallons of wort. Bring to the boil and add the bittering hops 15 minutes into the boil. I used 0.8 oz of Northern Brewer. After 30 more minutes add a tsp of re-hydrated Irish moss finings and wort chiller (to sanitize). Boil for a further 15 minutes. At flame out add the bag of cherries to the hot wort and rest for 15 minutes. This will sanitize the cherries. Remove the cherries and add the finish hops (0.4 oz of Tettnang). Cool the wort to 68 F using the wort chiller.

Boiling the wort

Once the wort is chilled, siphon off into the primary fermenter and pitch the yeast. Add the back in the sanitized bag of cherries.

In the primary

The fermentation started almost immediately and was pretty much done within the primary after 2 days.

Original gravity was 1.050 and measured 1.011 after 2 days. I let the fermentation run for a further 8 days and removed the cherries (do not squeeze the bag when you remove them as to avoid pectin in your beer) and transferred over into a secondary fermenter (I used a corny keg). The FG came in at 1.010.

Primary fermentation

I let it sit in corny keg for a further 3 weeks and then hooked up the C02 and carbonated for a week.

The finished beer!

The verdict. I was pleasantly surprised with how well this beer turned out. It has a nice roasty aroma normally associated with a stout, good foamy head retention and tartness from the sour cherries. This would be a good winter beer. I'll definitely make this again next year if I can get my hands on some sour cherries...