Experimental fruit beer.

BarnsleyBrewer · Post by **BarnsleyBrewer** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:05 pm

Any thoughts or ideas about fruit beers? I'll be ordering some stuff before the weekend and want to know if it's worth getting some dried fruit.
John

BarnsleyBrewer · Post by **BarnsleyBrewer** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:44 am

Surely somebody can help

arturobandini · Post by **arturobandini** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:54 am

Requires masses of fresh fruit and you're best off putting it into secondary to get it away from the initial fermentation which can wash out fruit flavours.

Carpking · Post by **Carpking** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:14 am

Having made country wines and knowing how long it takes for the fermenting fruit to start to taste good i would think artificial. Maybe contact a brewery that makes a fruit beer and ask what they use. Saltaire make a raspberry ale artificially, they are helpfull too. If you used fresh fruit i would consider a smaller brewlength to see if it works. If you try artificial i would add less for the first brew and step it up.
The one experience i have of it is my brother chucked about a 400g squeezy tub of rapberry syrup into a 40 pint fermenter with a pretty standard ale and 2-3 months later it is tasting pretty good.
Think syrup, jam, flavourings.....
Hope thats any use to you. Keep us posted anyway.

BarnsleyBrewer · Post by **BarnsleyBrewer** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:18 am

Carpking wrote:Having made country wines and knowing how long it takes for the fermenting fruit to start to taste good i would think artificial. Maybe contact a brewery that makes a fruit beer and ask what they use. Saltaire make a raspberry ale artificially, they are helpfull too. If you used fresh fruit i would consider a smaller brewlength to see if it works. If you try artificial i would add less for the first brew and step it up.
The one experience i have of it is my brother chucked about a 400g squeezy tub of rapberry syrup into a 40 pint fermenter with a pretty standard ale and 2-3 months later it is tasting pretty good.
Think syrup, jam, flavourings.....
Hope thats any use to you. Keep us posted anyway.

Thanks Carpking,
Might try the flavouring route, I'll have a look next time i'm in Morrisons!
Thanks
John

Carpking · Post by **Carpking** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:38 am

I cant remember what it was. A plastic squeezy tub. May have been hartleys or something. Hang on.... i'll e-mail him.....

It smelt great in the fv. Then disappeared at bottling stage so we thought hey ho, a good beer anyway. Then the flavour came through again.
Ah. It was Hartleys Raspberry syrup from Aldi but i guess you can get it anywhere.

BarnsleyBrewer · Post by **BarnsleyBrewer** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:03 pm

Thanks, i'll be nipping in ALDI soon!

John

arturobandini · Post by **arturobandini** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:45 pm

60g of real fruit per pint and you'll not go far wrong. Yeast character adds a lot to the belgian style beers as they all impart a slightly acidic tang to the beer.

BarnsleyBrewer · Post by **BarnsleyBrewer** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:56 pm

60g per pint is a lot of fruit and added expense, might try some essence of raspberry in the secondary!
John

arturobandini · Post by **arturobandini** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:42 pm

Exactly, fruit beers are expensive to produce unless you can source some cheap fruit. Let us know how you get on with the essences and syrups route.

floydmeddler · Post by **floydmeddler** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:50 pm

Use 2 tins of the extract and ditch the sugar. I make beer using orange zest and it turns out fantastic. About 50g of grated zest per 25L.

P.S... DITCH THE SUGAR!

NickK · Post by **NickK** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:32 am

Agreed sugar really isn't a good platform for the brew.

Great to hear that there's anot mad experimenter on the forum

Once you've started you'll find yourself wanting to alter the malt blend too

arturobandini · Post by **arturobandini** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 7:52 pm

floydmeddler wrote:Use 2 tins of the extract and ditch the sugar. I make beer using orange zest and it turns out fantastic. About 50g of grated zest per 25L.

P.S... DITCH THE SUGAR!

Personally I'd prefer to use sugar in a fruit beer if I was doing a malt mash. There would be plenty of body provided by the residual unfermentables in the extracted sugars and using Cane Sugar would dry the beer out a bit to bring the tart fruits to the fore. Malt extract would ramp up the maltiness a little too much for me in this particular style.

Edit* - This is assuming BB is going to do an all grain fruit beer and not an extract version as posted by Reaper many moons ago.

Cheshire-cheese · Post by **Cheshire-cheese** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 1:25 pm

Any more fruit beers on the go?
I'm tempted to try my hand at one. I always thought wheat was the thing for fruit beers but I may give pale malt a go.
So, from reading above, it would seem that later addition of fruit may be best.
Aged hops for bitterness with little aroma? Just leave them out in the kitchen for a few days?

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