Cerises Belges

This is actually an image of "Cereses Belges" blended with "Mas-X Stout." Cereses Belges was a much lighter colored beer... but I didn't take a picture of it :(

I saw a "New Glarus Red" clone recipe in the latest issue of Zymurgy, and the wife has been on a sour beer kick lately. So, I took the basic recipe and tweaked it, and changed a few things around for my system. There's no bacteria or wild yeast in this one, so all the sour in the beer is from the cherries pitched into the secondary fermentation. There's a lot of cherries, so I'm only brewing a 4.5 gallon batch, and the remaining volume will be the cherries.

UPDATE: I did add some wild yeast to the secondary. Check the update below for details.

Grain:
6.00 lbs. (69%) Maris Otter British 2-Row
2.00 lbs. (23%) Wheat Malt
0.51 lbs. (6.0%) Crystal 40L
2.00 oz. (1.5%) Special B
1.00 oz. (0.5%) Chocolate Malt

Single Infusion Mash:
156 degrees for 1 hour
Sparge at 170 degrees.

Boil:
5.8 gal beginning volume and we should boil off a gallon and change and end up with 4.5 gal
90 min. boil

Hops:
60 min:
0.5 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker (4.75%AA)

Yeast:
A 1 day starter of 1 vial of White Labs "Abbey Ale" yeast (WLP530) and 1 vial of White Labs "Trappist Ale" yeast (WLP500) pitched into a carboy with 5.5 gallons of wort.

Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.057 (14.04 Plato) at 75% efficiency

Notes:
Ferment at 68 degrees.
After primary fermentation has completed pitch in a gallon of liquefied sour cherries and let it ferment out again. Total fermentation time should take about 2-3 weeks. If it's not sour enough for me, I'll pitch in some brettanomyces, or maybe even some lactobacillus and let 'er sit for another 6 months. We'll see.

08.09.2007 UPDATE:
I actually ended up getting a 1.060 starting gravity. Shucks.
I pitched in in 1 gallon of Cherry juice (1/3 black cherries and the rest sour cherries)... and I couldn't resist, so I added 1 vial of White Labs Brettanomyces Lambicus. I'll let it ferment out for another couple weeks and then bottle it up until Christmas. Keep yer fingers crossed.