Honey Apricot Ale - Help!

Hey everyone,

I was wondering about a certain recipe a cousin of mine wants to brew up this weekend... I'm having trouble finding a store that sells puree'd apricots aside from the baby food kind (which Ive read is NOT a good idea to use) so I was wondering if I could simply buy my own apricots and puree them myself. Is there anything in particular I should look out for? Should I go organic or simply buy whichever ones I find since they'll be boiled anyway?

Any direction would be greatly appreciated as the apricots are the only ingredient I still need to find!

INGREDIENTS
2.5-3 lbs. cracked 2-row Pale malt
5 lbs. Wildflower honey
6 lbs. Light DME
1 lb. apricot puree
1.5 oz. N. Brewer hop pellets 9.0% aa
.5 oz. Cascade hop pellets 6.8% aa
Re-pitched London Ale yeast from brewery

PREPARATION
Mash Pale malt in 150-170 degree H2O for 90 minutes. Strain. Add honey, apricot and DME to boiling pot w/ water. Add N. Brewer hops at start of rolling boil. 45-60 minutes later turn off heat, add Cascade hops. Cover. Sparge into fermenter with water to make 5 gallons. Cool/chill until 80 degrees. Pitch yeast.Ferment. Either use 3/4 - 1 cup of corn sugar for priming, or force carbonate.

SPECIFICS
Style Ale
Recipe Type Partial Mash
Batch Size 5 gallons
Original Gravity 1.098
Final Gravity 1.033
Boiling Time 60 minutes
Primary Fermentation Glass 4-5 days
Secondary Fermentation Glass 9-10 days
Other Specifics Due to the high gravity and honey, the first fermentation will last from 2-5 days. Allow 9-10 days for beer to clear before bottling.

COMMENTS
at 8.5-10% alcohol, there shouldn't be much convincing necessary! The ladies like the fruity character from mostly the honey, with a nice bitterness from the hops.


the website i grabbed it on is http://tastybrew.com

Are you making beer or braggot? That's a lot of honey! 1# of puree won't do squat. I used 2 cans (6.2#'s) in a 15 gallon batch and can't even taste it. Also, don't boil the honey or the puree. Add the puree to secondary and the honey at flameout.

Poobah58 said:

Are you making beer or braggot? That's a lot of honey! 1# of puree won't do squat. I used 2 cans (6.2#'s) in a 15 gallon batch and can't even taste it. Also, don't boil the honey or the puree. Add the puree to secondary and the honey at flameout.

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What poohbah58 says is true. I've made this exact recipe and it was awesome. I recommend adding the honey at flame out, ferment in primary at 68 for two weeks minimum and prepare a secondary, pour 1 can Oregon Apricot purée into the secondary and rack on top. Allow to ferment out and enjoy! For a 5 gallon batch you will get just enough apricot flavor to balance with the honey. Go easy on these, they will sneak up on you! Cheers.

VaBrewer said:

What poohbah58 says is true. I've made this exact recipe and it was awesome. I recommend adding the honey at flame out, ferment in primary at 68 for two weeks minimum and prepare a secondary, pour 1 can Oregon Apricot purée into the secondary and rack on top. Allow to ferment out and enjoy! For a 5 gallon batch you will get just enough apricot flavor to balance with the honey. Go easy on these, they will sneak up on you! Cheers.

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You'd recommend adding ALL the honey at flame out? Or some before and some later?

dr_sanch said:

You'd recommend adding ALL the honey at flame out? Or some before and some later?

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Secondary is OK but you have to be careful not to aerate the beer. Heat the honey in a microwave a bit (not too hot) and mix in while stirring gently. Try not to create foam.

You could do it either way. I added it all at flame out, but that was the first time I brewed it.
You could do half at flame out and half at high Krausen.

And just to confirm - you ARE using Liquid Honey, right?

Yes,

I used 5 lbs of wildflower honey. Set the jug in some hot water for 15-20 minutes and it will pour much easier.

VaBrewer said:

Yes,

I used 5 lbs of wildflower honey. Set the jug in some hot water for 15-20 minutes and it will pour much easier.

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How long would it take to pasteurize at flame out?

Ok, I've realized its going to be impossible to find Apricot Puree so I need to substitute with either fresh apricots or dried apricots (that haven't been dried with sulfur dioxide)... How many pounds of this stuff do you think I'll need to replace the puree?

last month i did an apricot ale. took 8 cans of halved apricots in light syrup, washed and drained purred into secondary lost lil more than half a gallon so compensate for that. i also kegged it and added a 4 oz bottle of liquor based apricot flavoring. the flavoring gives it the genuine taste filling in what was fermented away from the fruit while using the fruit will add an incredible amount to its aroma. Its been a kick around anyones thats tryed it. im also going to add a couple ounces of honey malt next batch to get a lil more sweetness out of it since my us-05 takes it all the way down to 1.008!

Pasteurize the honey for 10 minutes. Apricot purée isn't too hard to find : http://www.midwestsupplies.com/apricot-vintner-s-harvest-fruit-puree.html
This is the 3 lb can I used.

VaBrewer said:

Pasteurize the honey for 10 minutes. Apricot purée isn't too hard to find : http://www.midwestsupplies.com/apricot-vintner-s-harvest-fruit-puree.html
This is the 3 lb can I used.

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Thanks for the link but I didn't have time to order anything online due to me having to brew today... I ended up using about a pound of fresh apricots (pureed myself) and added at flame-out ... Before transferring to the secondary I'm going to give it a taste test and decide how many fresh apricots/puree I'll be adding to the secondary in a few days...

dr_sanch said:

How long would it take to pasteurize at flame out?

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No need to pasteurize honey.

Im about to try and make my own apricot puree and add it to an IPA i brewed yesterday. How did yours end up turning out. Any tips on the whole process?

I don't know about the OP, but I thought $19.00 was a lot of money for a can of apricots. (Oregon) I went to Walley world, and they had preservative free 1/2 Apricots in pear juice for less than $1.75 per can, and each can had a net weight of 18oz. I put mine in the food processor, simmered them in a zip bag with the water at 160F for 20 plus minutes. I then racked the ale on top, gave it a good stir, and waited two weeks before putting in tertiary. I now realize this schedule was a poor choice. The next time I do a fruit beer, I will stir the trub (& fruit puree) every two or three days to get all the fermentation done. When I was racking to tertiary and the liquid level was lowering, there were gas bubbles coming out of the trub, and I didn't think anything about it. I let it clear with gelatin, added my priming sugar, apricot flavor, and two weeks later I have gushers. It certainly does have apricot aroma, but at two weeks after bottling the Lactose I used to sweeten it, taste wise, is non existent. It does taste like apricots a little, but according to what I have heard, the flavor will come up in time. Next time, I 'll back sweeten with splenda first.