BeerBorg

When I first started brewing with my first Mr. Beer kit that my wife gave me for our anniversary last year, my dream was to make a pineapple wheat beer. I feel I have the knowledge, and the right hops that can help me do this.

Choosing a witbier to do this I feel will help the pineapple flavor shine. I don't plan to add spices to it, but I'm wondering if anyone here has done a pineapple beer using real fruit. Did you add to primary or rack onto secondary? How much pineapple did you use?

Definitely thinking a small Hallertau bittering addition, and then adding Belma in flavor and aroma additions. I want the yeast to produce the phenolics to make the beer seem spiced even though it hasn't been. What recommendations could you make as far as yeast goes? I can get Wyeast strains at the LHBS, but I can surely find equivalents of White Labs strains.

What say you, Borg?

Sounds interesting.

I'd tread with caution. Like any real fruit beer, you need to remember that all the sweetness from the pineapple is going to ferment out. If you want it to taste like actual pineapple it needs some residual sweetness. So back sweetening it with lactose would be an option, or mashing at a high temp to leave a full bodied wort might work. I don't think I'd try it in a dry beer, I don't think it will taste as you may be imagining. But maybe I'm not imagining what you are imagining LOL.

I say either add pasteurized p/apple juice to the carboy after primary fermentation is over. That, or add extract at bottling time. I agree with mashani, put it in at the beginning, there will be no sweetness left from it. Good luck with it.

My thought was to allow the beer ferment first, puree a whole pineapple (and pasteurize the puree) and rack the beer over puree in a secondary so it won't be totally lost. The Belma hops have a strong pineapple flavor and aroma so anything lost from the fruit can still be accentuated by the hops. Lactose is definitely a thought, and I was going to do a medium body mash at 152* so that it won't get too dry. This could be a trial-and-error brew for a bit, so I might find a few wrong ways to go about it before I find the right one.

adding the juice in secondary is going to a sugar feeding. I would use a pineapple essence, extract, or essential oil at bottling or kegging time to let the pineapple flavor shine.

For now, this is the recipe I've come up with, and I'm thinking of trying it without any fruit at all. Just hoping the Belma hops provide enough flavor that I won't need to add anything.

Recipe: Pineapple Wit
Brewer: Mr. Rufus Brewing Co.
Asst Brewer:
Style: Witbier
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 2.93 gal
Post Boil Volume: 2.60 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 2.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 3.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 55.6 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 2 33.3 %
8.0 oz Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 3 11.1 %
0.25 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 9.8 IBUs
0.10 oz Belma [10.40 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 5 5.2 IBUs
0.20 oz Belma [10.40 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 6 0.7 IBUs
1.0 pkg Belgian Witbier (Wyeast Labs #3944) [124 Yeast 7 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 6.75 qt of water at 162.8 F 152.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.32gal, 1.47gal) of 168.0 F water

Recipe looks good to me. Have not used Belma, got no thoughts on that one. Like hb said, adding it in a secondary will just kick of fermentation again and it would eat up the sugars. I did that once trying to create a Blackberry Wheat, the secondary fermented like crazy, lost most the blackberry flavor and all the sugars. Was not a good tasting batch for sure. I still like the extract idea if u can get it.

Yeah, my wife has a dram of LorrAnn's pineapple extract that she uses for candy making so if I don't like it without fruit or extract, I'll try adding a couple drops into a bottle and see how that works.

philm00x wrote:Yeah, my wife has a dram of LorrAnn's pineapple extract that she uses for candy making so if I don't like it without fruit or extract, I'll try adding a couple drops into a bottle and see how that works.

get a bottle of wheat beer and add it to that.

I would, but I don't have any with Belma in it. I want to gauge how strong the pineapple notes are from the hops themselves. It won't be the same flavor as FF or something.

Mashing in on this right now. The final recipe I decided on came out like this:

Recipe: Wit
Brewer: Mr. Rufus Brewing Co.
Asst Brewer:
Style: Witbier
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 2.93 gal
Post Boil Volume: 2.60 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 2.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 3.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 18.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2 lbs 4.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 50.0 %
2 lbs 4.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 2 50.0 %
0.25 oz Saaz [3.75 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 7.6 IBUs
0.20 oz Belma [10.40 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 4 10.3 IBUs
0.25 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 5 -
0.20 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 6 -
0.20 oz Belma [10.40 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 7 0.7 IBUs
1.0 pkg Belgian Witbier (Wyeast Labs #3944) [124 Yeast 8 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 6.75 qt of water at 162.8 F 152.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 1.78gal) of 168.0 F water

--------------

I'm adding sweet orange peel to enhance the pineapple flavor, along w/ coriander to offset the sweetness a little. Fresh pineapple into the boil at T-5. Also going to throw some in at secondary (so I'm actually going to rack this beer into another bucket after a week, which would be my first time doing so).

Just pitched the yeast. 1.047 OG, expected 1.049 so my outdoor setup is closer to 70 percent efficient instead of 72 I was used to indoors. All good. The wort smelled fantastic, with a lot of pineapple aroma from the fresh fruit. I also used my wort chiller for the first time on this batch of beer, and it was amazing how fast it works. 7 minutes from 180 to 90. Another 12 to 70 since I wasn't using ice water.

This sounds awesome. Please keep us posted!

Today I racked the beer onto a whole pineapple. I pasteurized the pineapple in some water, pineapple rum, and it's own juices. Tasted a small sample of the beer as it was before racking, and it had a real nice pineapple flavor but not very noticeable. I think it will be great when it's done fermenting in secondary.