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I'm looking at this imperial stout recipe, and planning on adding cherries (perhaps bourbon-soaked) to the secondary. I'm pretty new to extract brewing, and have only done one batch previously (only ever done kits customised with extra hops and speciality grains before). I've therefore got a few questions:

  • How much in the way of cherries will I have to use? (this will probably dictate as to whether or not I soak them in bourbon first!)
  • Do I need to pitch extra yeast to the secondary?
  • If I bottle after the secondary, will the stout carb up? And how much glucose (or whatever) do I need to add?
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  1. ) The rule of thumb is 1 lb. of fruit per gal. of beer. For best results, freeze and thaw them first to break down the cell walls and extract more flavor.

2.) Nope, no extra yeast needed.

3.) Sure, it'll carb fine. Use whatever amount of priming sugar works for you. The cherries will have no effect on that.

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  • I'd also recommend pasteurizing any fruit before you add it to your beer. Heat it to 170, cover, remove from the heat and let it sit for five minutes. The go ahead and put it in your secondary and rack on top of it.
    – TMN
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 14:11
  • I admit that I have never done anything to pasteurize fruit and I've never had any problems. The most I've done is give it a quick spray with StarSan before freezing it. That includes chanterelle mushrooms picked from my own forest. I brush the dirt off, chop them, vacuum pack them and freeze them, then thaw them and add to the beer. I've done that more than once.
    – Denny Conn
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 15:37

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