She wants a Pilsner and a Strawberry Beer

[Tahoose]

So I'm a pretty lucky guy and even though SWMBO has the occasional beer she is dead set fed up of me even mentioning the words brewing or beer.

However she seems to have a taste for pilsners, now I haven't really enjoyed any of the Aussie made pilsners (recommendations anyone?) but I'll be aiming to brew some thing like the Czech pilsners, a hard task I know....

She also wants me to look at trying to make a fruit flavoured beer, strawberry or mango something like that.

So for now whenever I'm going through one of the 20,000 topics on the forums I'll just say I'm researching for "her pilsner" solid plan me thinks

Also for me thinking what sort of requests everybody else gets aside from mates who want vb, Carlton draught or the normal cider/ginger beer for SWMBO?

 

[pilgrimspiss]

My Mrs loves a mildly hopped wheat beer. Throw some fresh grated orange peel in the boil and a small amount of Nelson Sauvin or galaxy and then another handful of orange zest in the fermentor plus your coriander. I filter it once cold crashed instead of leaving it cloudy. I aim for about 4.5%. The girls seem to skull it back. A handful of crushed fresh mint leaves in the fermentor gives it a sweet twist on the tastebuds too.

 

[BPH87]

Hit BenKen25 up for his Mango Hefeweizen recipe it's awesome!

And a Boh Pils would be a good one for her and you

 

[Mardoo]

My wife wants me to make her a peach lambic. Right. Sure honey. I'm going to have a stab at a lightly tart peach beer. May even go a peach mead. Meads are great for most of the ladies.

 

[newguy]

Strawberry is a difficult fruit to work with as it's so mild in flavour that it would take an unreasonable amount of fruit to get the flavour right, but at the same time it would get so thin/watered down as to be not enjoyable.

Mango, however, is a nice fruit to work with. I did a mango wheat some years ago (I think I used something like 15 small mangoes in ~20l). The wife loved it, and the wives at my homebrew club selected it as their favourite at a club function that year too.

 

[Tahoose]

Thanks BHP87 for the heads up will do that. Was reading an article called "the history and brewing techniques of pilsner urquell" so I'm hoping to follow that roughly in terms of mash temps times ect and see what I can come up with

New guy do you think that the tinned diced mango would be an acceptable substitute for fresh mangos?

 

[fletcher]

raspberry, in my taste experiences, makes a nice beer addition (haven't made my own yet but will this summer). just had a mate make a killer raspberry wheat and another make a raspberry pale ale that both turned out amazing. i'd recommend that. the wheat had a nice tartness to it, and the pale ale was kegged while the raspberries were still quite sweet. i'd recommend that for an easy fruit.

 

[newguy]

Depends on how they taste (never tasted tinned mangoes myself). Probably fine, but look for something that doesn't have any sugar added, nor anything else. One of my early efforts included a generic raspberry drink instead of raspberries, in a chocolate stout. The drink was full of god knows what, and the finished product smelled like mustard. Tipped it all out.

 

[BPH87]

Mate frozen mango is the go and cheaper than fresh. Cheeks or cubes available at Coles or woollies for approx $10/kg

 

[NewtownClown]

Strawberry is a very elusive aroma and very subtle flavour. The closest to success I've had with strawberry was in a very light blonde (american) with a kilo of fruit added after high krausen. Even then it was extremely subtle with practically zero color. I have had the same issue with plums in a porter and on the third attempt I used plum jam - winner.

 

[Phoney]

+1 for raspberry.

Rack a hefe to secondary, on top of 1kg frozen of raspberries in a mesh bag weighed down with some SS cutlery. Leave it for another week, then crash chill & keg. The colour and the tartness completely leeches out of the fruit into the beer. While it's delicious, it's not what I would call a session beer though.

 

[Tahoose]

Thanks for the tips, I'm sure this falls into the specialty/1 off category.

I need more time to brew me thinks...

 

[TimT]

I have had the same issue with plums in a porter

NewtownClown - do porters ever carry aromas very well? Wonder if plums would work better in saisons or other lighter ales, which have less malty richness.

Certainly my mead book sings the praises of plums in mead partly because of the aromas. (I don't typically think of them as a very aromatic fruit - more in the sweet-tart taste - but they'd certainly add a fragrance in the right drink).

 

[yum beer]

I have used fresh cherries in a wheat last xmas, it was a little underwhelming...only used about 400gm of cherries, boiled and added to secondary for 5 days. 23 litre batch half without cherries half with.
The taste was there but only just and a hint of pink colour, I reckon 1 kilo would have been a good amount.

 

[fletcher]

sorry to hijack, but has anyone ever used kiwifruit? not sure how or if it could work - haven't seen much online about it apart from it containing a certain something that makes it no good

 

[NewtownClown]

Plum aroma is elusive. A mate raved about a plum porter he tried in the UK - Titanic Plum Porter I think. He said the aroma was apparent as they poured the pint
Of course the malt aroma is going to make it harder to detect other aromas. Aroma flavours that pair well with the style come through nicely - vanilla comes to mind as does cherries (Black Forest Porter -yum). But Plum aroma doesn't quite hit it. I tried prunes, prune juice, preserved plums, etc. The jam hit the right notes, but I did use it in combination with Special B and a bit of Dark Candi Syrup which I think helped accentuate the dark, stone fruit, flavour/aroma

 

[NewtownClown]

sorry to hijack, but has anyone ever used kiwifruit? not sure how or if it could work - haven't seen much online about it apart from it containing a certain something that makes it no good

I think Dogfish Head once did a Kiwi Pale Ale
Again, elusive aroma and flavour. I'd imagine it would take a tonne of fruit, specifically 2-3 kilos per 20 litres. Probably nice in a wheat or kolsch.
Kiwi have only slight acidity, low in pectins (i believe), perhaps, like paw-paw (papaya) they have protein munching enzymes that will kill head.

 

[TimT]

Fletcher - haven't used kiwi fruit, but have used fejoias in a wine we made last year. Froze the fejoias to help break the cell wall - mashed them to get out the juices, soaked them in water - added heaps more water and sugar for the yeast to have a party, and some strong tea to add tannins. Made a crude but drinkable wine with a delicious dancing fejoia fragrance. I think a similar technique could be used with great success on kiwi fruit - freeze to break cell walls, mash to get juice out, soak in water, add beer wort (or wine must).

A similar principle probably holds for almost all fruit wines and beers - the only technique I question is the freezing, as I wonder if that destroys some of the important taste and smell character of the fruit.

 

[NewtownClown]

I find flavour and aroma increases with freezing fruit (a slow freeze not snap frozen) especially when it thaws. I pulled two frozen bananas from the freezer yesterday for banana bread and the kitchen still has a slight ripe banana aroma lingering.
Perhaps the water in the fruit separates as it crystallises and freezes, diluting the aroma/flavour? Or maybe the crystals rupturing the cell walls accentuates the flavour/aroma?

 

[jimmy86]

I think Dogfish Head once did a Kiwi Pale Ale
Again, elusive aroma and flavour. I'd imagine it would take a tonne of fruit, specifically 2-3 kilos per 20 litres. Probably nice in a wheat or kolsch.
Kiwi have only slight acidity, low in pectins (i believe), perhaps, like paw-paw (papaya) they have protein munching enzymes that will kill head.

It was a Kiwit in his book extreme brewing. I have it at home if the recipe is needed.