# Fruits In Beers



## Liberate88 (7/8/07)

I have mainly been doing kits and following recipes but I'm going to start making my own recipes and I'm trying to experiment a bit. I am hearing a lot about using fruits, berries ect in beers but how is this done? I'm hoping to make a sort of red coloured ale, not as bitter as an english bitter (since I've already got tones of that still). Are there any fruits you should not put in together?
Do you guys have any suggestions with what fruits would be good to use as ingredients? :beer:


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## Muggus (7/8/07)

Most berries are good for putting in beers, particularly raspberries, they have a strong flavour and colour, so a little goes a long way. 
Of course, if your beer has a strong flavour or colour to it, the fruit might not be as noticable.


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## Liberate88 (7/8/07)

yeah I thought most berries would go well but I mean how do you do it? Just cut it up and stir it up in the boiling wort, or do you need to crush the fruit first? sorry I dont know much.


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## 0M39A (7/8/07)

if possible, freeze them first for a bit, then boil them in a couple of litres of water and hopefully they will pulp up nicely (and get rid of any nastys).

add them to secondary.


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## /// (7/8/07)

Never use watermelon. Bad personal experience here.

Better off to rack to a secondary and then add. Adding to primary ferment will leave a high degree of color loss (yeast can soak up to 25% of color) and its harder to manage the flavour.

Or, you can always buy extract used by distillers and add to a secondary to taste!

Scotty


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## Phrak (7/8/07)

I spent quite a while researching fruit sanitisation for my cherry blonde. The summary of my research is here:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=183275

short version:
- DON'T boil, you'll lose all your fruity goodness & create pectic acid, causing a haze.
- DON'T pulp. Don't bother - This will just make it harder to rack your beer off the fruit. See "Freezing" below.
- DON'T use in primary, you'll ferment-out all your flavour and aroma.

- DO sanitise in water at 80C for 1min or 70C for 2mins. Use a hop-sock or muslin wrap to allow the hot-water to touch all the fruit. Using a zip-lock bag is mostly pointless.
- DO freeze your fruits for a few days or weeks before you use it. This will break-down the cell membranes and make the fruitiness easier to extract into your beer.
- DO use in secondary.
- DO use a sediment reducer, if only so your fruit bits don't clog your tap-hole.

If you're worried about pectic haze, you can use a pectic enzyme to break-down the acid. Should be available from your LHBS.

Unless you grow them yourself, don't bother with strawberries - you need a truck-load of them to make any impression on the beer.

And use twice as much berries as you think you'll need. B) 

Good luck!
:beer:
Tim


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## Phrak (8/8/07)

I've added some of this information to the WIKI:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/ineo...;showarticle=39
Feel free to contribute to the article 

Brew strong! :beerbang: 
Tim


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## joshuahardie (9/8/07)

I made a Cherry Blonde, and a Rasberry Blonde a few weeks ago.

Just did it the very simple way.

Made up a K&K batch of Canadian Blonde, and brewed for 5 days.
I then racked my beer to 2 seperate fermenters, and in one added 750gms of frozen good quality rasberries, in the other i added 1.5kgs of jarred cherries.

I didn't just dump them into the fermenter, i put the fruit into sanitised stockings. i gave the fruit a bit of a squash in the stockings, to break the fruit up slightly.

then i let it sit for another week, before bottling

results are, the cherry blonde has a wonderful red colour, nice fruit aroma, but the end result, was very 'cordial' tasting. it is on the higher end of sour, with a fair amount of mouth pucker, but if you like things like lemon/lime/bitters as a drink, it was more than palatable. Possibly i could of used less cherries, or omitted the juice out of the jars.

the rasberry blonde, is a real winner. colour is light amber with a soft touch of pink, the taste of the fruit is subtle, but perfectly suited to the beer. Nice simple blonde foretaste, with a soft fruit aftertaste. i would definatly attempt this one again, i think the better quality fruit, was worth the small extra expense.

I brewed it simply as an exercise, to give to my friends, to get their girlfriends, and wives, to look at beer in a more positive light. and from that regard, a fairly plain, lightly fruity beer was a winner.

it is never going to be great like a fruit lambic, but as a start, it was a great experiment.


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## petesbrew (9/8/07)

Phrak said:


> I spent quite a while researching fruit sanitisation for my cherry blonde. The summary of my research is here:
> http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=183275
> 
> short version:
> ...



Top advice, Tim.

I made a raspberry canadian blonde too . I used about 1.3kg raspberries total between the primary and secondary. Yep, the primary strips a lot of the flavour. Secondary is better bang for your buck.

I didn't use a stocking for my raspberries, and there was um, a fair bit of sediment in every bottle.
I used a tea strainer for all the beers, until the last bottle, where I was brave enough to enjoy the pulp as well. IMO it was brilliant, and regretted not ditching the tea strainer earlier.
My only regret was dry hopping some cascade, which IMO didn't work with the raspberry flavour.

Tried a mate's Passionfruit Imperial Stout the other night. Very interesting. I'm going to follow his lead but try racking a small portion of my next toucan stout onto some mulberries.
All the best with your fruit beer, mate
Pete


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## bconnery (9/8/07)

Phrak said:


> Unless you grow them yourself, don't bother with strawberries - you need a truck-load of them to make any impression on the beer.
> 
> And use twice as much berries as you think you'll need. B)
> 
> ...



Another option is to buy a big box of very ripe "jamming" strawberries from a grower. At a farmer's market or berry place you can often get a box for about $5-8 (or at least you could last time I did...)

3kg in a light wheat gives enough of an impact but not the same fruitiness of other fruits...

On the other hand a mate of mine just put about 8kgs in his strawberry beer


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## bconnery (9/8/07)

1.3kgs of frozen rasberries certainly works well. My berry hefeweizen is going great guns. 



Petesbrew, very interested about the mulberry idea. I've had it in mind for ages but keep having too much on come mulberry season, maybe this year...

Let us know how the experiement goes because I'm trying to get an idea on amounts...



I'd second pretty much all the research on the best methods there. 

It's kind of the method I've decided on...

Freeze, microwave, secondary, strain into tertiary/bottling bucket. 

I like experimenting with fruit beers but it is all a matter of finding the right amounts for a particular fruit, that's the fun. 

Fresh/frozen fruit, never extract or concentrate is the only way for me. All the best homebrewed and commerical fruit beers I have tried used real fruit.


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## fixa (9/8/07)

I've been making a cherry pale ale. Start with a pale ale base, the rack it onto a tin of cherrys slightly mashed. Leave for a week. Sensational. 
I've tried the morello cherries and the sour cherries as well, the morello's are slightly sweeter, but the sour ones are sweet too. Just a different kind of beer that most people will like i've found. Leaves the APA's to me!!!


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## tk75 (12/9/07)

petesbrew said:


> I'm going to follow his lead but try racking a small portion of my next toucan stout onto some mulberries.



Hey Pete, hows that stout coming along?? I have been reading into the addition of fruit quite a bit and I'm really tempted to give it a shot. I was thinking maybe raspberries or blackberries in my next 2can stout...


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## barls (12/9/07)

here is my thread on raspberry wheat
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;f=4&t=5546


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## petesbrew (12/9/07)

maltaddict said:


> Hey Pete, hows that stout coming along?? I have been reading into the addition of fruit quite a bit and I'm really tempted to give it a shot. I was thinking maybe raspberries or blackberries in my next 2can stout...


Hi Maltaddict,
It's still in the secondary at the moment, although I'm planning on bottling it by sunday.
I've put in two of those takeaway tubs full of frozen mulberries (not sure of the weight), but from the taste, it could use at probably two more, as the mulberry flavour is pretty weak... well, considering it's in a toucan I guess it's not suprising.

Also I must shamedly admit, I've been pretty bloody slack with sanitation, but I'll blame that on a strong swap beer consumed before racking, and the fact it's only 7litres worth of the toucan!
Will post again once it's bottled and carbonated.
Good luck with yours, mate :beer:


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## tk75 (12/9/07)

petesbrew said:


> Hi Maltaddict,
> It's still in the secondary at the moment, although I'm planning on bottling it by sunday.
> I've put in two of those takeaway tubs full of frozen mulberries (not sure of the weight), but from the taste, it could use at probably two more, as the mulberry flavour is pretty weak... well, considering it's in a toucan I guess it's not suprising.
> 
> ...



Cheers Pete!



Ok, I'm thinking then I should use something near 1.5kg of whatever berries I go with...


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## barls (12/9/07)

with the raspberries depending on where you get them. if they have are from a farm or have been fresh bought do not go over a kg in a light flavoured beer as mine was on the upper limit. if its the supermarket ones go for it they have little to no aroma


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## petesbrew (14/9/07)

Just finished bottling the mulberry stout. Suprisingly I didn't have too many problems with the seeds, up until the final three stubbies. Then there was a fair bit of clogging. Took a good scooping with a strainer, and a knife jabbing to the seeds that caught in the tap strainer to finish the job. 

Actually last time I made a raspberry blonde, I forgot to put in that tap strainer. Turned out it was for the best, apart from a 2cm layer of rapsberry pulp in each bottle! (added to the taste I found)

See for yourself with the photos.... a grainbag or hop sock would be recommended, but read the notes in the Wiki section.

Shall post again upon tasting.


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## tk75 (14/9/07)

petesbrew said:


> Just finished bottling the mulberry stout. Suprisingly I didn't have too many problems with the seeds, up until the final three stubbies. Then there was a fair bit of clogging. Took a good scooping with a strainer, and a knife jabbing to the seeds that caught in the tap strainer to finish the job.
> 
> Actually last time I made a raspberry blonde, I forgot to put in that tap strainer. Turned out it was for the best, apart from a 2cm layer of rapsberry pulp in each bottle! (added to the taste I found)
> 
> ...



Scoop out the remainder, put into a saucepan and reduce to a thick syrup. Bottle in sterlized jars, store for 1 week then apply liberly to golden toasted crumpets...F%$KN YUM!! :beerbang:


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## bconnery (15/9/07)

barls said:


> with the raspberries depending on where you get them. if they have are from a farm or have been fresh bought do not go over a kg in a light flavoured beer as mine was on the upper limit. if its the supermarket ones go for it they have little to no aroma



Hard to say as they depend on the beer too. I used 1.3kg of the 'Gourmet' brand frozen berries in a wheat and it was great for colour and flavour. I'd much prefer fresh though...


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## petesbrew (17/9/07)

maltaddict said:


> Scoop out the remainder, put into a saucepan and reduce to a thick syrup. Bottle in sterlized jars, store for 1 week then apply liberly to golden toasted crumpets...F%$KN YUM!! :beerbang:


Too late... they were down the drain straight after this photo was taken... sounds good for the next recipe though!


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## petesbrew (24/9/07)

Tasted it last night. Poured flat with no head. Bugger all Mulberry flavour. Next time will use heaps more... maybe raspberries again. Stout is a strong flavour for fruit to overcome anyway.


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## dpearce (24/9/07)

petesbrew said:


> Stout is a strong flavour for fruit to overcome anyway.



I put 2k of blueberrys in my stouttwo thursdays ago and hardly any of the blueberry flavour has gone into it. I just added another two today. Hopefully it'll help but I doubt it will. Maybe stout was never meant to be fruity.


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## yardy (24/9/07)

Phrak said:


> I spent quite a while researching fruit sanitisation for my cherry blonde. The summary of my research is here:
> http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=183275
> 
> short version:
> ...



Top post Tim,

i've got a tree full of Mulberries that i want to put in a Wheat and i'm sweating on Mango season B) 

Cheers

Yard


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## winkle (31/10/07)

I'm finally getting my finger out and brewing a fruit beer for the QLD case swap.
After getting stung by wasps and bitten by mossies I've got close to 800gm of ripe acerola cherries.
I'm intending to dump them into the fermenter at secondary into

80% BB Pils Malt (pale)
10% Carapils
10% Cane Sugar

15gm Pacific Gem (60 min)
US-05

Hopefully the paleness of the malt will allow some of the colour to come through, I suspect that the (tart) flavour should be ok.
Any thoughts/suggestions?


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## Jye (31/10/07)

The carapils and sugar are counteracting each other, one adding non-fermentables and the other adding only fermentables :huh: I would go with one or the other depending on whether you want the beer dry or not. 

I would go with 250g of carapils since the cherries will be adding only fermentables and the carapils will help maintain some body.


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## winkle (31/10/07)

Jye said:


> The carapils and sugar are counteracting each other, one adding non-fermentables and the other adding only fermentables :huh: I would go with one or the other depending on whether you want the beer dry or not.
> 
> I would go with 250g of carapils since the cherries will be adding only fermentables and the carapils will help maintain some body.



That makes a fair bit of sense Jye, I'd put the carapils in to boost head stability but was after a pretty dry, light bodied beer. OK, ditch the sugar and mash around 65 C. Hopefully this will end up a nice manly light pink


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## winkle (9/11/07)

I'm trying to figure out how much 800gm of acerolas will add to the ABV of a 23 litre batch. I realize that sugar content of different fruits will vary , but can anyone tell me a ballpark figure?


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## Screwtop (9/11/07)

winkle said:


> I'm trying to figure out how much 800gm of acerolas will add to the ABV of a 23 litre batch. I realize that sugar content of different fruits will vary , but can anyone tell me a ballpark figure?




Got a refrac, use the same method as the winemakers! Volume * Brix/SG


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## KHB (9/11/07)

ive got a pomegranet tree in my backyard and was thinking of using the fruit in a wheat beer. anyone got any good ideas?? cheers ben


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## winkle (9/11/07)

Screwtop said:


> Got a refrac, use the same method as the winemakers! Volume * Brix/SG



Mike,
I've chucked the fruit in after 4 days in primary (day 4 SG = 1012) fermentation has livened up again but the SG is still on a downward path (currently 1006). You reckon if I read the refrac at the death I can work it out?
Doesn't really matter I suppose - the flavour is starting to get interesting (hopefully "interesting" will soon become good  ) - expect an rather unusual beer in the swap anyway.


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## Screwtop (9/11/07)

winkle said:


> Mike,
> I've chucked the fruit in after 4 days in primary (day 4 SG = 1012) fermentation has livened up again but the SG is still on a downward path (currently 1006). You reckon if I read the refrac at the death I can work it out?
> Doesn't really matter I suppose - the flavour is starting to get interesting (hopefully "interesting" will soon become good  ) - expect an rather unusual beer in the swap anyway.




You know my love of out there beers, looking forward to it. One day, one day, I'll have a crack at something, am envious of Fringe Brewers.

Screwy


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## petesbrew (27/2/08)

As posted by Airgead in the Raspberry Ale thread, here's the site for Frozberries, a Hornsby based supplier. They seem to have great prices on frozen berries & pulp (heaps better than the supermarkets)
Frozberries website


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## ozpowell (27/2/08)

petesbrew said:


> As posted by Airgead in the Raspberry Ale thread, here's the site for Frozberries, a Hornsby based supplier. They seem to have great prices on frozen berries & pulp (heaps better than the supermarkets)
> Frozberries website



Note for those in SEQ, they also have an outlet in Ormeau (see Contact Us link on their site).

Anyone actually dealt with them before? They appear to be geared toward wholesale, I wonder if they deal with the general public? I've been meaning to give them a call and try to buy 4Kg of their sour cherries....

Cheers,
Michael.


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## kook (9/3/08)

Racked 22L worth of witbier ontop of 3kg of frozen raspberries on the weekend. It is amazing how quickly the beer takes on the colour. Its bright pink now! Will be bottling / kegging next weekend, and I'll post some more pics.


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## TidalPete (6/4/08)

Just been up to Woolies to look for frozen berries for my first fruit beer & picked up four x 450g packets of McCain Berry Mix (raspberries, blackberries, & blueberries) for $14. The shelves were nearly empty & all the frozen raspberries were gone.  
McCain seem to be having a bit of a promo (Up here anyway) on their frozen berries ATM. Buy one & get one free. 
Might be worth checking out your local woolies if you're interested?

TP :beer:


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## pmolou (6/4/08)

there seems to be alot of raspberry flavoured beers beers but has any one tried differant fruits like pear in a golden ale and figs in a darker ale
just thoughts of using something like that or is there a reson everyone mainly uses raspberries ???
ps anyone used pears or figs


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## Screwtop (6/4/08)

Woolies at Currimundi had jars of Maraschino Cherries pretty cheap, think around $4 for 500g might be time to think about doing a Kriek.


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## sqyre (6/4/08)

A few months ago the local fruit and veg barn had a heap of "going out of season" cheeries..
$12 for 7 kg box..(if my memory serves me correctly)
Had them in the deep freeze ever since...
I should have invested in a few more boxes.. <_< 

Sqyre...


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## drsmurto (7/4/08)

Have a fig tree overflowing and after making jam, my mum made jam, my partners mum made jam it doesnt look like any figs have been removed. Damn tree is taller than the house!

So has anyone used figs in a beer? Was going to 1/4 them, freeze them and add them to secondary in much the same way Ross makes his banana beer but in a basic english pale ale. Something to allow the fig flavour to come thru as its quite subtle.

I reckon i can get 3kg without having to get out the ladder - that sounds about right for a 20L batch?

Will dry whats left to go with a good blue cheese!

Cheers
DrSmurto


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## ozpowell (1/5/08)

ozpowell said:


> Note for those in SEQ, they also have an outlet in Ormeau (see Contact Us link on their site).
> 
> Anyone actually dealt with them before? They appear to be geared toward wholesale, I wonder if they deal with the general public? I've been meaning to give them a call and try to buy 4Kg of their sour cherries....
> 
> ...


FYI - finally got around to contacting them yesterday for my upcoming Belgian Sour Cherry Ale. Here's an email with some info about how to source the frozen fruit from their factory in Ormeau:



> From: "Sales - Frozberries" <[email protected]>
> To: Michael Powell
> Subject: RE: FrozBerries Website Enquiries
> Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 07:37:21 +1000
> ...


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## ozpowell (2/5/08)

Paid Frozberries a visit this morning and picked up 5kg of frozen pitted sour cherries - $32.50 (they don't sell unpitted cherries, unfortunately). According to the proprietor, they source their sour cherries from europe, so I'm hoping they'll go well in my Belgian sour cherry ale.

Cheers,
Michael.


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## soupbones (3/5/08)

Hi ALL.
Had this recipe lying around for a while now, but I have not made it yet. Seems to go against many of the things people say when making a fruit beer.

Passion Lager ( makes 23l batch)
Any light Lager kit ( Coopers or Morgans are good )
40g of Nelson Sauvin hops
Can of Morgans lager malt
Carapils grain- steeped
CAn of pasion fruit pulp
safLager yeast

. steep carapils grain at 70c for about half an hour
.then strain, and add liquid from stain and malt to your boil pot and bring to the boil
.when boiling add 10g of the Nelson Sauvin hops, for 20 mins then another 10g for 30 minutes
.at flame out add kit of lager and the remaining hops
.Cool wort and add to fermenter. Fill with cold water and pitch yeast at 24c
.when fermentation is almost complete ( bubbling has slowed right down ) boil a can of passion fruit pulp. At falmeout add 5g of Nelson Sauvin hops and add to fermenter through a strainer bag or seive.
. prime and bottle


I have been meaning to have a go at this one for a while now, but after reading this thread I think I would rack it to a secondary and add the fruit to the fermenter there. Not so sure about all the hops in this recipe either, as I would have through a fruit beer would have to be low on the hops otherwise you will kill out the taste.
Also using a blond or a mexican cerveza I think would be a better idea for a base rather then using a lager kit.

any thoughts people???


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## Damien13 (6/8/12)

ozpowell said:


> FYI - finally got around to contacting them yesterday for my upcoming Belgian Sour Cherry Ale. Here's an email with some info about how to source the frozen fruit from their factory in Ormeau:




Hiya,
how were the sour cherries? I am hoping to source some for a kriek.

Are they really sour? How did they go in your beer etc etc.

Cheers,

Damien


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