Ag Fruit Beer Ideas

[SJW]

Wanting to brew a fruit beer of sorts. I have never made a wheat beer but from what I have read wheat beers with fruit go pretty good. Would be happy to try a wheat fruit beer but I dont like that tart yeast flavour.
So what should I base the recipe on? A light Lager or Ale? Low hop IBU's? Go with mainly base malt and little or no specialty malt? And with the fruit, could I just use tinned fruit like strawberries or raspberries or cherry's?
Any help would be great or even a tried and true recipe.

Steve

 

[peas_and_corn]

for the fruit, use the frozen stuff you get at the supermarket

 

[SJW]

for the fruit, use the frozen stuff you get at the supermarket

I should of taken more notice that one time 15 years ago that I went shopping with the Mrs. So I should be looking for a bag of frozen 100% fruit in the freezer section. No preservatives I guess?

 

[peas_and_corn]

Actually, I didn't notice whether the ones I got had preservatives. You need to put them in the secondary fermenter (as primary fermentation 'scrubs' the flavour away), so I don't think it would make much difference.

Here is a link to the AHB article on fruit in beers.

 

[therook]

I tried randyrobs Cherry ale a couple of weeks ago and it was sensational, maybe he can give you some pointers on his brew. His grain bill was mostly Pilsner malt.

Rook

 

[bconnery]

My berry weizen is in the recipe section here
If you don't like tartness then it isn't the way to go though, it was quite tart, and very pink.

Otherwise strawberries on a wheat base but using something more neutral like k97 works well, but you need a lot of strawberries, 2.5kgs minimum for mine...

Wheat beers make excellent fruit beer bases. I like to do a 50/50 or 60/40 wheat pils split, lightly hopped with something like hallertau or almost anything german, then fruit in secondary. I've used fresh and those gourmet frozen berries and both worked well.

You can also go down the darker beer route, a few have made fruit stouts, but I've stuck to pale so far...

 

[Barge]

Ross's Banana Amber is a cracker. Definately worth a go.

Also, I've got a mango wheat to be bottled in the next couple of days. I used 8 kensington pride mangos for 15L. I can PM with taste notes if you want. I got my mangos 1/2 price as they were close to being thrown. They were still good though, just a couple of spots that had to be trimmed off.

Steer clear of tinned fruit as they have sugar added...fresh or frozen is the way to go.

 

[Katherine]

I tried randyrobs Cherry ale a couple of weeks ago and it was sensational, maybe he can give you some pointers on his brew. His grain bill was mostly Pilsner malt.

Rook

I'll second that... very nice!

 

[Muggus]

I've currently got a Raspberry Hefeweizen in secondary. Kept the recipe for the hefeweizen quite simple. (2/3 wheat, 1/3 pale malt, hopped to ~15 IBU with Hershbruker/Hallertau, K-97 wheat ale, ferment around 20-24 degrees) Racked it around 15L of it onto 3kg of frozen raspberries I picked up at a wholesaler near my place.
Gonna leave it on the raspberries for 2 weeks, and see how it goes.

 

[Rick]

I have a wheat in primary right now and am considering adding apercots to. I have a tree full of them right now.

 

[winkle]

Anyone been bold enough to try Lilly Pillys in a fruit beer?

 

[Goose]

apologies to reply to a 'necro' thread, cheers bribie

however I am about to attempt a plum infused beer and have a question on the wiki article that suggests that the fruit should be treated (pasteurised ?) at 80 deg C for 1 min and the fruit should also be prior frozen to break down the cell structures before adding to the secondary.

is it advisable to do both ? or would freezing the fruit also do the job of sanitation, or, should I pasteurise then freeze ?

tks in advance

 

[IsonAd]

Freezing will get rid of some nasties but not all. I usually freeze then pasteurise. You could do it the other way round but obviously would need to bag it.

 

[Yob]

Ive thrown frozen Raspberries at a RIS with no nil effect.. fookin delicious is what it was.. Wish I had more of it

 

[Goose]

thanks for this.

finally, how long should you / do you leave it atop the fruit in the secondary for optimal flavour ?

 

[IsonAd]

Varies hugely depending type of fruit, style of beer, alcohol, temperature, how much flavour you want and probably a million other things. Not a helpful answer I know. I'd try to investigate other people's experiences with plum in beers and go from there.

 

[Weizguy]

Kiwifruit lager (recipe from Ausbeer magazine). Cali lager yeast, pale malt extract, big muslin bag of frozen kiwis - halved and thrown in the delicate brew. about 14 IBU of Hallertau hops iirc.

Can find the recipe if interested...?

 

[pajs]

Citrus zest into the end of a boil isn't a bad way to start with fruit flavours, I reckon, including how they can interact with malt, yeast & hops. I've had a couple of goes at using rhubarb too - not entirely successful, those. Easy to get too sharp & astringent if you are working with fruits that can contribute tannins or other phenolics. For that reason, I'd be a little careful with plums. I'd try them in something not too wheaty and if the skins were too tannic, I'd blanch, peel and take the stones out (stones of stonefruit will give flavours of their own - think almond/marzipan/bitter almond/cherry brandy type flavours).

I freeze fruit and then thaw before adding, either at the end of the boil, or into the fermenter when pitching, or when racking to a secondary. For example, I've got a Belgian Cherry Dubbel finishing in the fermenter now. That was backyard fruit picked last summer, frozen, then added at the end of the boil. I meant to use a pectinase enzyme to deal with some of the haze risks of putting fruit into hot wort, but forgot. Unless you are working with really high pectin fruit, or really keen on clarity, you can probably avoid adding pectinase.

One thing I'd like to do but have not yet is use blueberries in a red ale recipe for both flavour and red colour. With plums, I'd be tempted to take a golden ale type recipe that fits well with a hop like Amarillo and use the plums in a secondary to complement the hops, maybe with Marris Otter on the grain side for something biscuity.

Best of luck.

 

[smcc3573]

I have made a rhubarb saison similar to this

http://chopandbrew.com/recipes/rhubarb-saison-homebrew-recipe/

came out very nice, tart and refreshing

 

[shacked]

I did a cherry wheat: equal parts 2-row and wheat with a touch of Caramunich. Willamette at 60m to 18 IBU fermented with American Wheat Beer (WLP320 I think) then racked onto 2 kg of cherries for 3 weeks.

I pasteurized my cherries in wort (made from DME). 2 mins at 70 degrees did the trick.