Pale Ale (coopers )

[redbeard]

since no ones posting much tonight, & i have this *burning* question in my brain ...

did a coopers pale ale k&k with 0.5kg dextrose 1.0kg dme late feb with 2 apples & 2 pears that were boiled in 1l of water. put it all together & fermented it out. racked it for cc for couple weeks & kegged it last night. while its definitely drinkable, the apple/pear flavour is barely visible. at most the pear has some aftertaste. the fruit was from local harris farm so not exactly 'quality'. did i just choose poorly or should i have done something else ? (yes i did check some recipes on google & here). am i expecting too much ?

 

[Backlane Brewery]

since no ones posting much tonight, & i have this *burning* question in my brain ...

did a coopers pale ale k&k with 0.5kg dextrose 1.0kg dme late feb with 2 apples & 2 pears that were boiled in 1l of water. put it all together & fermented it out. racked it for cc for couple weeks & kegged it last night. while its definitely drinkable, the apple/pear flavour is barely visible. at most the pear has some aftertaste. the fruit was from local harris farm so not exactly 'quality'. did i just choose poorly or should i have done something else ? (yes i did check some recipes on google & here). am i expecting too much ?

[post="50090"][/post]​

As someone who is happy to try putting new/odd things in brews- Coke, Pasito, chilli, salt- I am curious about this! :excl:
Where did you get the idea for adding fruit to a pale? Did you chop the fruit? Did you use pectinase to break it down? How long was it in the wort for? How did you get it out, with a strainer? Or did you leave it all in? You mention a recipe you found- can you post a link to it? SG & FG?

BLB, with much interest

 

[Jovial_Monk]

You will find white-fleshed fruits like pears and peaches give but a mild flavor and that soon fades.

Jovial Monk

 

[chiller]

You will find white-fleshed fruits like pears and peaches give but a mild flavor and that soon fades.

Jovial Monk

[post="50123"][/post]​

Hopefully JM, just like this thread.

Steve

 

[Ross]

You will find white-fleshed fruits like pears and peaches give but a mild flavor and that soon fades.

Jovial Monk

[post="50123"][/post]​

Hopefully JM, just like this thread.

Steve

[post="50128"][/post]​

Steve/chiller

As my father taught me & it's stood me in good stead... "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything"...

No further comment....

 

[pint of lager]

Redbeard, as Backlane Brewery said, what was your actual procedure for adding the fruit? If you pulped or juiced them, this would give you better flavour extraction compared to just dicing or throwing them in whole.

Don't forget, by boiling the fruit, you are adding boiled fruit flavours, rather than fresh fruit flavours. Think of stewed apple flavour compared to fresh apple flavour.

Adding 2 apples and 2 pears would give about 0.08 of an apple and 0.08 of a pear to each litre. Not much flavour contribution.

Pectin is a component in fruit that causes fruits to set when jam making and also creates haze problems in wines. In fruit wine making, 24 hours prior to pitching the yeast, an aniti pectin enzyme is pitched. This anti pectin enzyme is called pectinex or pectinase.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

I guess chiller doesn't like fruit in beer?

JM

 

[PostModern]

I once made an ale with 5Kg of apples peeled, chopped and boiled along with DME and hops for about 60% of the fermentables. Made quite a nice apple ale. I don't think a couple of pieces of fruit is enough.

 

[redbeard]

ok, chopped both apples & pears into small slices. brought 1L or so of water to the boil, added slices. turned the heat off & covered with lid. let sit till cool. added the lot to the wort before adding the water. had read about using pectinase but didnt have any. left the fruit in until racking. from memory, just scooped out the yeat cake & what was left of the slices after racking. cc'd for 3 weeks.

one of the recipes i was inspired by was from Apricot in Pale Ale. thanks backlane i didnt really fancy apricot pale ale & figured apples & pears would be worth a try

ok, so more fruit and either some pectinase & pulp them or juice them.

thanks for the feedback / suggestions

hope your feeling better chiller

 

[pint of lager]

Pear and apple are certainly appropriate flavours to compliment a fruit beer.

You are after a balance of the beer flavours and the fruit flavours and starting a bit low is certainly better than starting too high.

Most beers would benefit from the rheinheitsgbot being applied rigorously. But there certainly is a place for vanilla, chili, fruit, spices etc in some specialty beers.

An apple honey wheat with maybe some cinamon could be a goer.

Your procedure sounds fine.

Another way would be to use plain juice. Avoid the juice in the cold cabinet in the supermarket, this is usually treated with some sort of preservative which will mean it may stop your yeast. Use the juice from the unrefridgerated section of the supermarket, the stuff labeled "no preservatives added."

If hazes start being an issue, then look towards using some pectinex in the juice 24 hours prior to adding to the brew.

When adding any sort of pulp, watch out for blocked taps.

 

[Kai]

Using juice is a good idea. Depending on the fruit you use and how much you use, you can introduce some funky flavours from reactions with the solid/waste portions that get thrown in with whole fruit.

But, that's probably not necessarily going to be a problem. Juice is, however, more convenient.