While BA Was Down

No Brett character at all. All though the Wee Heavy and 90- seemed off, and I thought it was just the recipe. They both have a lot of cherries in the nose and flavor, and a couple BJCP judges tasted them with me and reviewed the recipe. Their comments were that the fruits were all recipe induced (Special B, C 120, and 1056). The more I taste the beer now, the more I wonder if it is Cherry Pie? The first two batches were quite hoppy, and nothing showed up until nearly month 4. Batch 5 had the zest of 6 oranges and a cinnamon stick, but I thought there was something off with that one, and the carbonation levels just kept rising on it, and there were phenolics I knew weren't supposed to be there. Batch 6 is just finished carbing up, a 10.6% Imperial Stout w/ Cherries in secondary, and a FG of 1.024. I'm not picking up any funkiness on it as of yet, but it is a big beer. I do notice that the flavor is not as explosive as I'd hoped, but that could be recipe derived as well as infection.

I ended up keeping the beers too. My wife actually likes the infected orange stout. The Brown (#1) got dumped to confirm it was the entire batch and not just bottles (popped the top on the last 6 pack and all gushers). The Amber (#2) is just starting to show signs on the last 6 pack (the hops have faded, it is got a twangy acidity in the finish, the caramel malts are kind of muddled, and there is a funkiness in the nose). The Wee Heavy is actually quite nice with the infection. I'm keeping that Imp Stout no matter what, a little funk on it might be nice. So it isn't a total loss.

 

I actually just bought 4 packages of the Dole frozen sweet cherries from Walmart. Turned out well. The cherries taste like crap afterwards, but they were ready to go from purchase. I sanitized the bag, opened, and put into a pre-boiled mesh sack and left in the conical for 4 weeks. I'm too much of a cheap ass to buy the canned puree, and I did puree once before and lost too much volume to it that I tend to stay away from it now.