Questions about brewing a Kriek

Kriek isn't really a style, it's just a beer with cherries, traditionally either lambic based or flanders based. Step one: make base beer. Step two: add cherries, 2lbs per gallon minimum. Finding good cherries will be very hard. You want Morello cherries of which the traditional Belgian schaerbeek is one variety. When you can't find any, montmoency is a distant second choice, but you won't get the same color or flavor.

 

This is a solid recipe:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/dawsons-kriek-all-grain-kit.html

I do hope you're patient, as you will get best results after 18 to 24 months.

 

How about using cherry juice in there? I understand you won't get the same depth of flavor as using whole ones, but Trader Joes sells the tart cherry juice a couple times a year and I've been thinking about incorporating it into a beer. Probably a lighter style, maybe a wheat based one?

 

It's going to water your beer down a lot. You could brew the beer a little bigger at 7-8% and probably end up around 4-5% to compensate for the added water content. For a three gallon batch it took half a gallon of juice to create a decent cherry flavor.

Some organic places sell concentrated tart cherry juice. I'd probably look at using that instead of the regular juice if I were to do it again.

 

Getting ready to cherryfy a Flanders Red shortly...I think

 

I brewed a German Hef, added whole frozen cherries early on, maybe 3 weeks after fermentation was done then added bugs. Once it got soured enough, I added sour cherries from a can for another 6 weeks before bottling. Bottled with wine yeast.