Cherry Tree - Smoked Lagers

I’ve probably had the idea of making a beer that uses both cherries and cherrywood smoked malt for over a decade but never actually went through with it. After purchasing 10 pounds of cherrywood smoked malt nearly a year ago and only using a pound of it in my Smoked Helles, I finally decided to take the plunge. For this recipe I decided to go with a super simple SMaSH recipe: 9 lbs Sugar Creek cherrywood smoked malt, 1 oz. hallertau mittelfruh, and a lager yeast. I only added the cherry fruit to part of this beer at secondary in order to have both a fruited and unfruited version.

Tasting:

Unfruited Version:

Appearance: Pours a nice light golden color, with a white medium sized head that fades somewhat quickly but leaves a small solid layer (the photo is about 5 minutes after pouring). Slightly hazy, not entirely surprising with a bottle conditioned beer and I may have not poured quite as cleanly as I could.

Aroma: The sweet, fruity, and phenolic notes that I associate with cherrywood smoke stand out but this is a fairly subtly smoked beer compared to many rauchbiers. Light grainy and honey malt sweetness from the malt and a very low note of sulfur from the yeast also appear. Not surprisingly the hops aren’t noticeable on the nose.

Taste: Sweet neutral malt leads the way followed by moderate smoky phenols and some fruitiness from the smoke. Finish is just lightly bitter with a lingering fairly light smoke character. Some would definitely find this very smoky but compared to other smoked beers it isn't very strong.

Mouthfeel: Medium low in body with medium carbonation, could maybe be a little more carbonated but I like it for this beer. The smoke phenols seem to linger and tingle the tongue and pull at the back of the throat a bit in the finish and aftertaste but I find it more refreshing than off-putting.

Overall: I’m extremely happy with this beer. The smoke is noticeable but not overpowering and I find it extremely drinkable and thirst quenching. I lost track of taking notes during this tasting as I kept just going back for more. The cherrywood smoked malt from Sugar Creek might be the least smoky smoked malt I’ve used but the character it does have is very enjoyable. This is the 4th time I’ve made some version of a smoked helles using cherrywood malt and it’s pretty clear why I keep coming back to that idea - it’s tasty. That said, less of the smoke character, a slightly thinner body, and a touch more carbonation would put this more in line with what I want out of a lightly smoked pale lager.

Fruited on the left, unfruited on the right

Cherry Fruited Version:

Appearance: Slightly orange/pink tint from the cherries. Head was very small and white and quickly faded to just a small ring. Haze is a touch higher than the unfruited version though that may have just been this pour.

Aroma: Light cherry is the dominant note. While the fruit isn’t strong the smoke is much subtler than in the unfruited version and I have to search hard for it. The light cherry aroma also seems to block the yeast and malt derived aromas as well, though I can just find some grainy sweetness when really trying. As it warms the fruity cherry aroma shows up more and more and phenolic smoke fades even further.

Taste: Moderate cherry flavor fills the mouth. Finish is lingering with just a touch of bitterness and phenolic character. While the cherry character isn’t strong it seems to dominate everything else and what does come through seems more like an off note to the cherry than smoke. The aftertaste has a strange tongue coating sensation that is likely the phenols but there still isn’t a smoky taste.

Mouthfeel: Similar medium level of body as the unfruited version but with a little less carbonation. This is probably due to using the same amount of priming sugar in this batch despite it being slightly larger. Higher carbonation would probably improve a few things, including the head and the ability for the smoke and fruit to pop more, but it’s not totally flat.

Overall: Not bad in any way and for a weird beer experiment that’s probably a win but this one doesn’t quite work. The fruit doesn’t so much compete with the smoke as the cherry flavor subdues any smoke into submission, making it seem more like a slightly strange cherry beer than a smoked beer with cherries. If I were to attempt this again I would likely use less cherries per gallon and/or a more prominent smoked malt. Using both more fruit (cherries or otherwise) and a much smokier malt (e.g. the stjordal style malt) might also be a fun experiment.

12/17/22 Brewday:

Ran into some issues milling as the battery on my drill overheated at one point, then the battery died after cooling down and had to be recharged. Dealing with this caused me to spill some grain and likely caused a slightly higher amount of the malt bill than usual to go uncrushed. Last pound or so of grains were milled and added once the battery had recharged, about 10 minutes after the initial mash in.

Treated 5 gallons water with a quarter campden tablet. Mashed in initially at 148F before adding boiling water about 5 minutes later to raise mash temp to 157F. Temp had fallen to 150F after an hour which is more of a drop than usual but I added some of the grain later, it’s cold out, and I stirred several times. First runnings gave 3.5 gallons wort with gravity measuring 1.051.

Batch sparged with 3 gallons campden treated water at ~120F giving 1.020 second runnings and a combined 6.5 gallons at 1.041

Wort had moderate smoke and barnyard aromas, not nearly as strong as when I made the 100% Stjordal smoked beer and with a very different character of barnyard, fruit, and breakfast cereal in addition to phenolic spicy smoke.

Ran into a few issues during the brewday, including the propane running out at some point during the boil when I wasn’t watching so I boiled for an additional 15 minutes after switching tanks.

After cooling to 60F the wort was transferred to a 6 gallon carboy and placed in a chest freezer set to 50F with the temperature gauge attached to the outside of the carboy. After 3 hours the temperature probe was reading 50F and I pitched a pack (12g) of Cellar Science "German" dry yeast which I have not used before but appears to be their version of W-34/70.

12/18/22: Increased temperature to 53 as there haven't been any real signs of fermentation after nearly 48 hours.

12/19/22: Still no real signs of fermentation more than 48 hours after pitching and I'm a little worried. The yeast packet recommended rehydrating, which I didn't do, and also recommends fermentation temperature of 54-62°F which is higher than it has been for most of the past few days. Gravity sample shows it is down to 1.040 which is down from the original gravity that was around 1.050. Increased chest freezer temperature to 55F to try and get it to really kick off fermentation. Taste of the gravity sample is good, fairly strong but not overly overpowering or phenolic in the smoke character but also with a lot of sweetness that needs to ferment out. Will be interesting to see how this one changes once fermentation really kicks in.

12/20/22: After a night at the slightly higher temperatures a nice layer of krausen and airlock activity show that this one is fermenting strongly now. Dropped the temperature by a degree to 54F, plan to slowly drop it further over the next week.

12/21/22: Dropped temperature to 52F. Still fermenting strongly.

12/22/22: Dropped temperature to 50F. Still showing strong signs of fermentation. Gravity reading at 1.028.

12/23/22: moved out of chest freezer to an area of the basement near a door where temperatures are measuring between the upper 50s and low 60s. Plan to leave for diacetyl rest/completion of primary fermentation before returning to the chest freezer for lagering.

12/29/22: 

Cherry version on the left, still transferring unfruited version on the right

Racked about half of the batch onto 3 lbs of Oregon Red Tart Cherry puree in a 3 gallon carboy and the remainder into a separate 3 gallon carboy. Plain version was placed in fridge at 32F to lager while the other version was left at room temperature to allow full fermentation of the fruit.

1/16/23

Racked unfruited version into bottling bucket with 1.8 oz table sugar boiled in 1/4 cup water. First time bottling in nearly a year and first time using a bottling bucket in as long as I could remember.

1/26/23

Followed the same bottling process as the unfruited for the fruited version. Tasting pretty nice with noticeable but not intense Cherry and drying phenolic smoke still coming through. Cracked open a bottle of the unfruited version - undercarbonated and still a touch sweet but very enjoyable with only moderate phenolics at this point. Will be interesting to taste both side by side once carbonated.

2/6/23: Brought a bottle of each to a bottle share where they were both pretty well received.

3/7/23: Tasting notes above.

4/2/23: The unfruited version of this beer received a 36 and placed first in the Wood and Smoke beer category at the DC Homebrewers Cherry Blossom Competition. I'm not entirely shocked to see this do well as a Smoked Helles in a BJCP competition, it was tasty, clean, and with a noticeable but not abrasive smoke character. One judge noted that more breadiness would help with the balance, and I think they have a good point and will likely use some Vienna malt in addition to less smoked malt the next time I make a smoked helles.

5/3/23: This beer didn't place in the Smoke, Historic & Wood Beer category of the BURP Spirit of Free Beer competition scoring a 20!? :The scoresheets don't really make sense, claiming a clorophenol(?) character that I don't get at all. While this beer is smokey for a smoked helles, and definitely has some smoke phenols, it is not an extremely smokey beer (like the Stjordalsol was) and I also don't get any of the faults the judges noted. It's tough when entering a beer in these types of styles because some people's taste thresholds are very different, as seen by the polar opposite scores this beer received in the two competitions. It's possible the beer is dropping off in quality after a few months but after having a bottle tonight I would still consider it very good.

10/27/23: had a bottle of the unfruited version for the first time in a while and it is still really drinkable. It has also gotten extremely clear at this point, by far the clearest bottle conditioned beer I’ve made. Really a nice beer that I may brew again at some point, even if I go closer to my regular smoked helles next time.