Pineapple Amber Ale - has anyone made one before?

[btrots87]

Hi guys,

I recently got back from a Europe trip and when I was in Spain I went to a craft beer pub called Birra y Blues and tried their pineapple amber ale. It was fantastic and I would really like to have an attempt at my own version. They have a web page with a description of the beer and translating it gives something along these lines:

"With three barley malts and an English hop, this is an amber ale style beer. To our amber we bring pineapple grilled in a wood oven getting caramelized fructose sugars to confer particular aromas."

The IBU's are only about 13 and the ABV about 6% (although I think I would make mine around 4.5 - 5%). When I was drinking it had a really nice pineapple aroma and taste that wasn't overpowering, it was just there in the background but still obvious.

I'm still doing extracts (for now) but I was thinking something along these lines

2.25kg ldme
1kg roasted pineapple chunks?
200g caraaroma
200g crystal 60
40g EKG for 40min
US05
20L batch

I plan on roasting the pineapple in the oven for maybe 10-15min at 160C and then adding to the boil in the last few minutes before chilling. Has anyone used pineapple before and have any tips or advice? Should I puree the roasted pineapple or leave it in chunks, how much should I use, how much extra alcohol will the pineapple sugars add? Any help would be great.

 

[manticle]

Not used pineapple in a brew but getting that roasted caramel crust on the fruit won't happen if you puree it. You want the surface to be quite free of moisture.

 

[btrots87]

Do you think even if I roast first and then puree it that I will lose the caramel flavors? Only reason behind the puree idea was I figure I might get better pineapple flavor extracted into the brew, but I do want it to have the roasted pineapple flavor that I like in the original. Maybe I should leave in chunks and just use more?

 

[seehuusen]

That is a pretty cool idea, id probably just put the pinaple slices on the webber and use wood chunks instead of briquettes. Id think caramilization would be good, and flavor similar. Wouldnt mind trying that myself, maybe smoke it a little too.

 

[btrots87]

I like the idea of the weber as a wood oven, it's a shame I don't have one. I'm not sure about smoking it though, I'd be worried the smoke would overpower everything.

 

[indica86]

Just use Azacca hops.

 

[kunfaced]

If you have a dehydrator, use it to dry the outsides of your pineapple pieces. If not, dry all of you pieces on paper towel and put them in the oven at low temp (100-120c). The aim is to get the surfaces as dry as possible, without taking all of the moisture inside. If you end up with dehydrated pineapple you aren't going to caramelise much. Get some palm sugar and give the chunks of pineapple a dry rub with it. Use a wok or flat pan on high heat and caramelise the shit out of the pineapple. Let it cool and then pulverize it.

 

[btrots87]

Thanks for the ideas guys, does anyone have any idea how much pineapple to use? Any clue how much alcohol it might add? I know it seems no one has much experience with pineapple before but maybe an estimate based off other fruit?

 

[jimmy86]

According to google pineapple has 10g of sugar per 100g of fruit. So assuming all 10 g of sugar in the fruit is fermentable 1kg of fruit would add 100g of fermentable sugars to the wort.

But once it gets caramalised I don't know if fructose sugars are still as fermentable. We need mhb to step in here. That man knows his stuff.

Or I could be wrong... Very wrong

 

[btrots87]

Thanks Jimmy, so according to that estimate I would only be adding about 0.2% to 0.3% ABV to the finished beer from the pineapple addition. Not enough to worry about making any changes.

 

[slcmorro]

Use Kohatu hops. They're extremely pineapple-y.

 

[jimmy86]

No worries mate, from my understanding due to the solid content of fruit verses juice is where the shortfall of sugars are.
So the small amount of abv increase seems right.

 

[pajs]

Would the bromelin in pineapple do anything strange to a beer? Or denatured by cooking? It can certainly sort out proteins.

 

[technobabble66]

^^ that was my concern, but the high heat of the caramelisation process should denature the enzymes.

 

[btrots87]

Yeah the other reason for wanting to roast the pineapple was to denature the protease enzymes. I can't imagine that they would have a positive effect on yeast health.

 

[btrots87]

So I put this down today, recipe as per the first post. I roasted about a kilo of pineapple in the oven after dusting with a bit of brown sugar. Hopefully get some nice caramel flavor. Added the pineapple with a few minutes left in the boil and just threw it all in the fermenter.

I'll taste it in a few days and if there isn't enough pineapple flavor I'll today up another kilo and throw that in the fermenter too.

 

[btrots87]

Update, drinking one now. Average is probably the best word I can think of to describe it. I wouldn't say it tastes bad, and it definitely tastes like pineapple, but it's not a fresh pineapple flavor.

I'll drink it, but it's definitely not one of my finest brewing moments. I do think that the grain/extract bill has potential with the right hops though.

 

[spog]

Perhaps next time add the pineapple into the fermentor but caramelise some of the wort before hand,maybe 2 litres into a pot ,heat and stir for 1/2 hour then add to the fermentor with the rest of the wort and drop the pineapple on top.?
Years ago I did a similar brew but used pealed and diced peaches with a Pilsner malt base,it was very tasty and dangerous because it was so drinkable .