Apple Juice in a Doppelbock

[thermo_47]

I have a slightly unusual idea, hoping experienced brewers can shed some light on it for me.

I plan to make an out-of-style Bock-ish thing and add a few litres of apple juice to the boil. I envision a very full, malty red ale around 7% with lovely toasty melanoidins and basically, a hint of apple. However, I'm quite worried that trying to add a dimension of apple will just come out like acetaldehyde. Anyone ever added apple juice to the boil?

My rough idea is along the lines of:

55% BB Ale Malt
30% Munich II
7.5% Carared
7.5% Melanoidin

All 60 min hops to 20 IBU.

2L of preservative free decent quality apple juice in a close-to double batch of 44L.

Thinking of no-chilling 2 cubes and trying two different yeasts - perhaps even one lagered as a Bock and the other fermented as an ale.

I'm not a brewer who is precious about sticking to style - let's not attack on that front - I just want a malty, toasty and slightly appley red beer!

I also haven't brewed with Melanoidin before, so thoughts on that percentage would be great

Cheers,

Jon

 

[thermo_47]

Forgot to mention that I'm not decoction mashing this time, just 30 mins at 62C and 45mins at 69C with a mashout, but if the flavour concept works well I'd love to try my hand at decoction and a long boil next batch!

 

[Dave70]

Two words.
Pectin haze.

I don't think you'll be getting much out of the juice in the way of flavor anyway.
I fully endorse not sticking to style, but I've found out more than once that there are some rules that need to be followed in order to make a decent product.

 

[thermo_47]

Cheers.

Might brew sans-apple and experiment with adding apple chunks etc post ferment.

 

[brettprevans]

If u want a red ale use an irish red recipe. Im not sure about dopplebock.
If u want flavour I wouldnt add it to the boil. No reason to add it there. Just add to primary or secondary.
Apple chuncks impart veru very very little flavour. U just dont get flavour extraction

 

[scon]

What about starting by making a doppelbock and a cider and blending post fermentation to see if the flavours work before committing a full batch to it?

 

[thermo_47]

I like it scon, that's more along the lines of what I'm thinking. I do like Billy B's Apple Ales (both dark and golden) and have even considered a post-ferment blend with a touch of funky yeast action - just souring it slightly. No experience with brett etc, but there's a first time for everything!

 

[Adam Howard]

http://brewingtv.com/episodes/2012/9/18/brewing-tv-episode-68-how-to-make-graf.html

Graf is beer with apple juice added prior to ferment. It's a fictional drink in a Stephen King book but homebrewers have taken the idea and run with it.