Brewing With Fruit

[barls]

any chance of getting those recipes well for the base beers anyway.

 

[winkle]

any chance of getting those recipes well for the base beers anyway.

No problems mate, I'll PM you the updated recipes once I've finished with the update :icon_cheers: .
(you should enjoy the Bisayan Maputi if you can get hold of calamansi's)

 

[thedragon]

Just kicking this old thread back to life....

Has anyone used any of the recipes mentioned above? What did the beer taste like like?

I have time tomorrow and was thinking of the following:

9 litre BIAB, 5.5% ABV, 17.8 IBU
1.700 kg Pale Ale Malt
0.200 kg Caramalt
10.0 g Amarillo Pellet (8.6% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil)
Ferment at 19C with Safale US-05

Rack to secondary after 7 days, again at 19C. Add 1 kg McCains frozen mixed berries. The bag says it contains 91g sugars which I presume will ferment out.

It'd be great to get some advice from the experienced guys out there:
1. Is 1 week in the primary enough, or should I leave it until FG is reached (1012)
2. When racking to secondary, do I leave the yeast cake behind, or should I gently stir it up and transfer all to secondary vessel? Probably a dumb question, I know, but I've never used a secondary vessel before.
3. Should I add the berries to the secondary fermenter before or after racking? Or doesn't matter?
4. Should I run the frozen berries through the blender before adding to the fermenter?
5. Am I wasting my time? Any other advice (e.g. IBU too low, 10% caramalt too much)

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Daniel

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

Just kicking this old thread back to life....

Has anyone used any of the recipes mentioned above? What did the beer taste like like?

I have time tomorrow and was thinking of the following:

9 litre BIAB, 5.5% ABV, 17.8 IBU
1.700 kg Pale Ale Malt
0.200 kg Caramalt
10.0 g Amarillo Pellet (8.6% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil)
Ferment at 19C with Safale US-05

Rack to secondary after 7 days, again at 19C. Add 1 kg McCains frozen mixed berries. The bag says it contains 91g sugars which I presume will ferment out.

It'd be great to get some advice from the experienced guys out there:
1. Is 1 week in the primary enough, or should I leave it until FG is reached (1012)
2. When racking to secondary, do I leave the yeast cake behind, or should I gently stir it up and transfer all to secondary vessel? Probably a dumb question, I know, but I've never used a secondary vessel before.
3. Should I add the berries to the secondary fermenter before or after racking? Or doesn't matter?
4. Should I run the frozen berries through the blender before adding to the fermenter?
5. Am I wasting my time? Any other advice (e.g. IBU too low, 10% caramalt too much)

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Daniel

Hey Daniel.

From what i have read, Rack the finished beer onto the whole berries. I'm not sure you would want 1kg of berries on 9L of beer, it will be too tart. When racking to secondary, leave the yeast cake behind. this will also aid to clear the beer.

 

[bconnery]

Just kicking this old thread back to life....

Has anyone used any of the recipes mentioned above? What did the beer taste like like?

I have time tomorrow and was thinking of the following:

9 litre BIAB, 5.5% ABV, 17.8 IBU
1.700 kg Pale Ale Malt
0.200 kg Caramalt
10.0 g Amarillo Pellet (8.6% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil)
Ferment at 19C with Safale US-05

Rack to secondary after 7 days, again at 19C. Add 1 kg McCains frozen mixed berries. The bag says it contains 91g sugars which I presume will ferment out.

It'd be great to get some advice from the experienced guys out there:
1. Is 1 week in the primary enough, or should I leave it until FG is reached (1012)
2. When racking to secondary, do I leave the yeast cake behind, or should I gently stir it up and transfer all to secondary vessel? Probably a dumb question, I know, but I've never used a secondary vessel before.
3. Should I add the berries to the secondary fermenter before or after racking? Or doesn't matter?
4. Should I run the frozen berries through the blender before adding to the fermenter?
5. Am I wasting my time? Any other advice (e.g. IBU too low, 10% caramalt too much)

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Daniel

If you are using the frozen mixed berries I'd highly recommend using a wheat base.
I tend to do this for a lot of fruit beers. Just 50/50 wheat pils, noble hopped to about 10-15 IBU.
Wb06 dried wheat, or other wheat yeast that leads more to the spice than the banana etc. because you don't want too much banana etc. going in there with your berries, at least in my book. Or you could go the plain old US05 too.
Your beer there could work quite well, I just think a wheat base goes nicely with a lot of different fruits.

As for the questions.
1,2 &3. I leave it for around a week, then dump the fruit into primary and leave it for another week or so. That way if you end up with quite a bit of small loose fruit you can secondary and crash chill to really get the last small bits out.
I then rack to secondary and chill that down for a few days or even a week to really drop out as much of the fruit pulp as you can.
4. Never really thought of that to be honest. I just generally defrost them with some boiling water and mash them a little with a potato masher to break them up but I don't think it is essential. You could just as easily dump them in frozen, especially with these mixed berries. I have before...
5. No! A well made fruit beer can be a great beer, another ingredient adding another dimension.

 

[thedragon]

Hey Daniel.

From what i have read, Rack the finished beer onto the whole berries. I'm not sure you would want 1kg of berries on 9L of beer, it will be too tart. When racking to secondary, leave the yeast cake behind. this will also aid to clear the beer.

Brilliant, thanks Wallace, you've saved me from stuffing up the brew. You are right - now I look at other recipes people have used 1kg for a 23 litre batch, so I'll drop it down to 400g.

 

[thedragon]

If you are using the frozen mixed berries I'd highly recommend using a wheat base.
I tend to do this for a lot of fruit beers. Just 50/50 wheat pils, noble hopped to about 10-15 IBU.
Wb06 dried wheat, or other wheat yeast that leads more to the spice than the banana etc. because you don't want too much banana etc. going in there with your berries, at least in my book. Or you could go the plain old US05 too.
Your beer there could work quite well, I just think a wheat base goes nicely with a lot of different fruits.

As for the questions.
1,2 &3. I leave it for around a week, then dump the fruit into primary and leave it for another week or so. That way if you end up with quite a bit of small loose fruit you can secondary and crash chill to really get the last small bits out.
I then rack to secondary and chill that down for a few days or even a week to really drop out as much of the fruit pulp as you can.
4. Never really thought of that to be honest. I just generally defrost them with some boiling water and mash them a little with a potato masher to break them up but I don't think it is essential. You could just as easily dump them in frozen, especially with these mixed berries. I have before...
5. No! A well made fruit beer can be a great beer, another ingredient adding another dimension.

Thanks Bconnery. I have some pilsner, but not wheat. Actually I've never brewed with wheat. Would Bestmalz (German) Wheat Pale - Weizen from grain and grape do the trick? Would I still use the 10% caramalt? Thanks also for the racking advice - sounds much simpler the way you've described it. Thank you!

 

[bconnery]

Thanks Bconnery. I have some pilsner, but not wheat. Actually I've never brewed with wheat. Would Bestmalz (German) Wheat Pale - Weizen from grain and grape do the trick? Would I still use the 10% caramalt? Thanks also for the racking advice - sounds much simpler the way you've described it. Thank you!

I didn't really pay attention to the 9L bit... Probably could drop the berries back then, or go for the tartness anyway
I'd say that pale wheat would work, but Grain and Grape should have just plain wheat from Weyermann or even Joe White or an Aussie maltster.
I wouldn't use the caramalt in that scenario, but you could also just use your recipe. I'd drop it back a little from 10% personally, maybe 5...

 

[thedragon]

I didn't really pay attention to the 9L bit... Probably could drop the berries back then, or go for the tartness anyway
I'd say that pale wheat would work, but Grain and Grape should have just plain wheat from Weyermann or even Joe White or an Aussie maltster.
I wouldn't use the caramalt in that scenario, but you could also just use your recipe. I'd drop it back a little from 10% personally, maybe 5...

I thought that i'd keep it to 9 litres for two reasons: 1) convenience - I'll use Nick_JD's stove top method and 2) if I mess it up, I'll only waste a small batch. I didn't make it to G&G today so I'll put it down tomorrow using 95% pils and 5% caramalt. In 2 weeks when racking to secondary, I'll put down another 9L using 50% wheat.

I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the advice - it's is much appreciated.

 

[Dazza88]

If I racked onto fruit I would mash high to counter the sugar thinning out the brew too much. I believe freezing then blending helps break down cell walls bettet

 

[thedragon]

If I racked onto fruit I would mash high to counter the sugar thinning out the brew too much. I believe freezing then blending helps break down cell walls bettet

Daz, when you say mash high, do you mean that I should mash in at a higher temp? As I BIAB, I normally mash in at 70. Are you suggesting that I mash in higher? Maybe 75? Still for 60 mins? What does the higher temp do?

 

[Dazza88]

What, the mash is 70 after the grain is added or before? I would do it so you are on 68 ish after grain is in so yeah, maybe get water to 73.
My last attempt at a beer with fruit was too dry and thin. Guess I mashed the grain around 64 iirc.

 

[RobSee]

Hi Guys,

I tried making a Passionfruit wheat beer, since I have a great passionfruit vine at vine at my place.

It went:

Morgans Golden Sheaf 1.7kg
Light Dry Malt 0.5kg
Dextrose 0.3kg
Fermentis WB06

I let it finish fermenting for at least a week in the primary, and then added the pulp of about 8 passionfruit. I think it was 8, because I cut half my left thumb off while slicing up the passionfruit.

This started fermenting strongly again, but not for long.

Bulk primed to a secondary, bottled and gave it a chance to condition (3 weeks)

Result - not good - passionfruit overpowers the experience and sickly sweet cidery aftertaste. I'm currently attempting to find people to give it to, otherwise it is down the sink, so I can reuse the bottles. It is a shame too - since I made some sweet labels for the bottle caps...

Needless to say, I won't be attempting to add anything bar Malt, Hops, Yeast and H2O from here on in...

 

[machalel]

RobSee - I would recommend storing it away and come back to it in a month.

I have an Amber Ale that I added blood-plums to in a secondary for 2 weeks. After another 2 weeks bottle conditioning, it was sour and fruity and weird (not in a good way). I then left it for about a month and now it's actually quite nice! The sourness and sweetness have both mellowed, and it's very drinkable now.

 

[breakbeer]

Hi Guys,

I tried making a Passionfruit wheat beer, since I have a great passionfruit vine at vine at my place.

It went:

Morgans Golden Sheaf 1.7kg
Light Dry Malt 0.5kg
Dextrose 0.3kg
Fermentis WB06

I let it finish fermenting for at least a week in the primary, and then added the pulp of about 8 passionfruit. I think it was 8, because I cut half my left thumb off while slicing up the passionfruit.

This started fermenting strongly again, but not for long.

Bulk primed to a secondary, bottled and gave it a chance to condition (3 weeks)

Result - not good - passionfruit overpowers the experience and sickly sweet cidery aftertaste. I'm currently attempting to find people to give it to, otherwise it is down the sink, so I can reuse the bottles. It is a shame too - since I made some sweet labels for the bottle caps...

Needless to say, I won't be attempting to add anything bar Malt, Hops, Yeast and H2O from here on in...

Did a Passionfruit Blonde a couple of years ago and it turned out great, took it to a bbq and everyone loved it.

I only used the fruit from two passionfruits, added to the wort at flame out & only let it steep for 5 minutes before straining it into the fermenter. I read somewhere that the pips can give the beer a bad taste, even if steeped for too long. also remember using Amarillo hops, which complemented it really well.