Fruit wheat beers

[D34THSPAWN]

One of our local breweries does an apricot wheat beer that is super popular, I'm looking to brew something lighter for the summer that is fruity too, I was thinking something along the lines of this but I'm not a huge fan of apricot, so I wanted to pick the borg's brain on this one, and if anyone has any favorite recipes or tips on brewing with fruit they are more than welcome! I was thinking of sticking with a wheat base but keeping it light 4-5% good session/lawnmower/grilling beer that you can easily drink more than one of without it being too cloying/sweet but enough fruit flavor to taste.

Anyway! Thanks in advance!

[mashani]

I've never met an apricot beer I've liked.

The only fruit I personally like in beer is tart cherries, or lemon/lime/orange rind.

I like them in wheat beers, in sours and darker Belgian styles, and in stouts.

Any other fruit flavors I like to get from the yeast or hops. IE when I make Patersbiers (Belgian lawnmower beer) or blonde Belgians, they often will have apple/pear/citrus and even plum flavors, but none of it comes from the real fruit, it's all developed by the yeast and fermentation temps I push the yeast to. I might use a fruity hop to enhance it.

The thing you have to realize with real fruit is that all the sugar will ferment out. So it doesn't really taste like the fruit. It tastes like the fruit without any sugar. The residual malt sweetness might balance that and give you the fruit flavors, or it might not. I like the flavor of cherries and citrus without the sugar and only a touch of malt sweetness. But I don't like the flavors of anything else I've tried so much like that.

So it's hard to say, it really all depends on your tastes.

[RickBeer]

The thing you have to realize with real fruit is that all the sugar will ferment out. So it doesn't really taste like the fruit. It tastes like the fruit without any sugar.

This ^^^^.

Took me time to learn that. Wife likes Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. Made Mr. Beer Cherry Wheat (prior to them tweaking the recipe) and it was a cidery blech with no cherry taste. Made old Mr. Beer Firecracker Ale and the cinnamon and cherries didn't come through as I hoped. Made several batches of St. Valentine's Cherries in Honey and it is ok. Raspberry Lager - old Mr. Beer recipe - was very good, raspberries came through. New one better. Raspberries with High Country Canadian Draft (old refill) was my attempt at the St. Valentine's with Raspberries - and the raspberry flavor came through better than the cherries did.

Then made Sticky Wicket with peanut butter extract and realized that adding fruit to these beers is a waste of effort - you want to add the extract flavoring at bottling time to get the flavor. Once I make the last St. Valentine's I'm done with real fruit.

[D34THSPAWN]

Thanks for the tips, yeah I have noticed that the sugar ferments out of the fruit and leaves the tartness behind. Did not work so well with raspberries! I have heard bad things about the extracts though, anyone have any feedback on using the extract flavoring?

[nighthawk]

Well, my next batch is a kit from Adventures in Homebrewing with cherry extract, so I will let you know how it turns out. The SWMBO also likes Sammy Cherry Wheat, so it's as much for her as for me. Again, I will let you know how it turns out.

[The_Professor]

Last year I made a Watermelon Wheat that turned out really nice.

My idea of a fruit beer would generally be an American wheat base (50/50 wheat barley, clean yeast) with low hopping to let the fruit flavor shine.

I added 2 watermelons pureed in a blender to secondary. One thing to consider is somehow straining/filtering the fruit bits out well. Lots of fruit to secondary is what I would do with any fruit beer.

A nice fruit beer is a good change of pace.

.

[D34THSPAWN]

Thinking of doing both BlackBerry puree in secondary for a week or so and then adding flavoring to taste when bottling to get the best of both worlds! Got a solid wheat beer base at about 15 ibu for the recipe and we should be all set!

[braukasper]

what you have to watch with flavorings at bottling time is to make sure it is an extract. Extract and flavorings are two different beasts. What I use at kegging/bottling is an essential oil. Check at your LHBS for what works best with what you are brewing.

[D34THSPAWN]

This is a blackberry extract, Brewers best is the brand and it has good reviews, people don't recommend using the whole bottle though it seems to lend a chemical taste so I figure the actual fruit and part of a bottle of the extract to taste, I will watch out though thanks

[braukasper]

I have used Brewers Best. It works well. I have even used it at work for some dessert applications. I tend to use essential oils the most. Those are readily available through our vendors at work.

[D34THSPAWN]

decided to go with blackberry puree and flavoring to taste, gonna toss the puree into a secondary fermenter for a week or two and then use the flavoring to taste at bottling

[T8rSalad]

Spawn: i am doing something very similar to yours for my daughter...in another thread I was asking for assistance how to do fresh blackberries, puree-ing them sanitarily, and adding to the fermenter 14-17 days after fermenting in LBK. Once the puree is added, should we bottle several days after that? Or should we transfer original wheat (2 cans of WWW w/ booster) batch to secondary LBK then add the puree for 3-5 days then bottle?

Please let me know how yours went or is going as I just did brew my WWW this morning for this recipe. TIA

Salud & good fortunes!

T8r

[jivex5k]

Spawn: i am doing something very similar to yours for my daughter...in another thread I was asking for assistance how to do fresh blackberries, puree-ing them sanitarily, and adding to the fermenter 14-17 days after fermenting in LBK. Once the puree is added, should we bottle several days after that? Or should we transfer original wheat (2 cans of WWW w/ booster) batch to secondary LBK then add the puree for 3-5 days then bottle?

Please let me know how yours went or is going as I just did brew my WWW this morning for this recipe. TIA

Salud & good fortunes!

T8r

I know you didn't ask me but I'll tell you what I did with raspberries on my berliner, which has a 50% wheat grain bill anyways.
I had frozen berries so I thawed them, then refroze them, then thawed them again. The thinking behind this was freezing the berries is supposed to break down the cell walls, I figured the commercial freezing process specifically would try and avoid this so I thawed them first. It's also supposed to inhibit bacterial growth.

Then I scooped them into a 5 gallon carboy and transferred my beer onto them with an auto-siphon. The beer was finished with the primary fermentation, it had a steady FG for two days. When I put it on the raspberries it began another fermentation for a day and then died down.

I left it there for a week, periodically tasting it, after a week the color was really coming through and the flavor was solid. I got it as cold as possible and transferred it to my bottling bucket. Tried to keep out as much gunk as possible but there's always a bit that gets in. Bottled using my auto-siphon and a bottling wand. It clogged a bit initially but was fine after I cleared it once.

Interestingly, all the raspberry chunks that were left were floating. They poured out like mush, and an overnight soak in PBW cleaned up the carboy fine. There was some raspberry residual on the sides that the pbw eliminated with no scrubbing or anything.

I'd say throwing the berries into your primary fermenter would be fine, just more trub to deal with on bottling day. If you are using a bottling bucket it definitely wouldn't matter much, but if you are bottling from the spigot on the LBK you ferment in I'd probably transfer it.

[T8rSalad]

Jivex5K: I appreciate any and all comments and advice especially from those that have experienced what we are trying to accomplish...trial & error by experience, that is how we learn positives and negatives. Thanks for responding as I greatly appreciate it myself. Though I have been brewing now for over 3 years, I brew in a narrow range of recipes, what I like, liked, hated and what needs improvement even if it is just a tinker here or there. I have mastered MB HME's since i purchased a fricking Titanic load of them when they were on sale everywhere.

I will definitely transfer to a 2ndary even if it is just to bottle...I am doing it in a 2.5 gal lbk batch size anyhoos so doing a transfer at bottling time will make it a cleaner bottle day.

[D34THSPAWN]

I haven't done mine yet, probably in the next week or two. I am purchasing the blackberry puree here: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/oreg ... puree.html

It is 3.1 pounds of puree so 22 bucks isn't too bad this will boost the beer almost half a % ABV if it all ferments out properly. Since it is already sterile I don't have to worry about pureeing them myself or anything like that, just open the can and pour. I figured a week in secondary with the fruit would be enough, and that sounds like it will be!

Let me know how yours turns out T8r since mine will be closely following yours.