Dude

Recipes 

Ummm...ale yeast won't ferment at 40˚.

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On Tap: Lake Walk Pale Ale -- Eternity (Raspberry Stout) -- Nutrocker -- Donnybrook Dark
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Secondary: Summit IPA
Up Next: Smoked Porter -- Pub Ale -- Watermelon Wheat
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DubbelDach

Recipes 

Ha!!! Duhhh.....

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k1200rsvt

Recipes 

OP - Did you ever brew something? Did you have any luck matching Boston Beer works Watermelon Ale? Their Watermelon Ale is really good so a somewhat close recipe would be great. Thanks.

Superkabuto

Recipes 

The presence of alcohol in beer won't prevent contamination. Otherwise, contaminations would never happen. If you put fresh fruit in your beer, put it in a bag and weight the bag so the fruit doesn't come into contact with the air in your carboy.

If it were me, I'd just buy the flavored syrup. It's easier and less of a risk of contamination.

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powerfreak

Recipes 

I actually did a Watermelon Kolsch that came out quite nice.

I only used a small watermelon, one of the ones that are about basketball sized. I probably only had 4, maybe 5 pounds of watermelon and it worked well (sorry, didn't measure how much actual juice there was).

I juiced mine in a food processor, poured everything through a steel strainer, then strained it again through the fine screen in my big funnel straight into the secondary. I did not pasteurize, figuring the alcohol would kill anything nasty off. I was very careful when I cut up the melon into chunks, sanitizing the board, knife, processor parts and such. Other than that, I didn't worry too much.

Like DubbelDach mentioned, it kicked off a second active fermentation for a day or so and I ended up with a big layer of trub in the carboy; just like the picture posted.

I really wanted a Watermelon nose and flavor so I also added one dram of Watermelon Extract from LorannOils.com (https://www.lorannoils.com/c-6-super-strength-flavors-candy-oils.aspx). I'm a big fan of their products and 1 dram (aka 1 teaspoon) of their extract is usually enough for a 5 gallon batch, depending on how strong you want the flavor.

I actually racked to a tertiary for 3 days because of the wicked yeast cake in the secondary. It worked out well, but probably wasn't necessary. 10 days in primary, 10 in the secondary and 3 in the tertiary.

The amount of Watermelon and juicing vs extract or both is up to you and what you're going for. I knew I wanted everyone to say "hey, that's watermelon, but it's beer!", so I went for both. The one thing to keep in mind is that if you over do it, you can't go back. Under do it and you can add some flavor via extract at bottling.

We're enjoying this batch now and it's exactly how I wanted it... definite watermelon nose, some flavor, yet all beer. Pretty nifty if I do say so myself. My friends that have tried it think it's great and want more, so I may have to do another batch before summer's over.

Good luck! Don't worry too much and have fun. It'll still be beer!

badmajon

Recipes 

I know this is an old thread but I still don't see how adding to secondary would work, wouldn't it just ferment out (and ruin said flavor)? Or is it supposed to do that?