Apricot Ale

So I bought a Light Beer mix and I am going to add Apricots to the mix. I am going to make 5 gal. Should I use dried Apricots or Fresh Apricots? Should I boil them before adding them to the secondary? What should I worry about when they are fermenting? Is the fermentation process the same? (I.e. one week primary, one week secondary, 2 week bottling) or is it different?

Thanks

I am also looking at an apricot beer. I read somewhere someone used 1 lb of fresh apricots and pured them then cooked them down at 180 degrees for 20 minutes thn added them to his secondary. Which lead me to wonder. If you buy an apricot jelly or spread is that already "strile" from pasturization and can you just use that?

Last week I used some dry apricots. Need to ensure they don't have any sulphur on them as it can stall the yeast. I got mine from Whole Food Market

I used 3 ozs per gallon, which is the equivalent of about 1 lb of fresh apricots per gallon.

Many people say you can just add fruit to secondary, but I get concerned about wild yeast, so I pasteurize it by heating it in some water to 150 F and letting it sit for 10 minutes or more. I chopped the apricots up. To pasteurize you need to be at 140 F for 20 minutes, or 160 F for 5 seconds. Heating too high will set the pectins in the fruit and give you a hazy beer that you will never be able to clear.

I've got 5 bottles in my fridge you can have.

Calder said:

Last week I used some dry apricots. Need to ensure they don't have any sulphur on them as it can stall the yeast. I got mine from Whole Food Market

I used 3 ozs per gallon, which is the equivalent of about 1 lb of fresh apricots per gallon.

Many people say you can just add fruit to secondary, but I get concerned about wild yeast, so I pasteurize it by heating it in some water to 150 F and letting it sit for 10 minutes or more. I chopped the apricots up. To pasteurize you need to be at 140 F for 20 minutes, or 160 F for 5 seconds. Heating too high will set the pectins in the fruit and give you a hazy beer that you will never be able to clear.

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Thanks for the info! We will see if it works!

Calder said:

Last week I used some dry apricots. Need to ensure they don't have any sulphur on them as it can stall the yeast. I got mine from Whole Food Market

I used 3 ozs per gallon, which is the equivalent of about 1 lb of fresh apricots per gallon.

Many people say you can just add fruit to secondary, but I get concerned about wild yeast, so I pasteurize it by heating it in some water to 150 F and letting it sit for 10 minutes or more. I chopped the apricots up. To pasteurize you need to be at 140 F for 20 minutes, or 160 F for 5 seconds. Heating too high will set the pectins in the fruit and give you a hazy beer that you will never be able to clear.

Click to expand...

Why are you worried about wild yeast in a secondary? I used pasteurized canned apricots and rack beer on top of it. Less stress more mess (in the bucket) and let it sit 3 weeks before bottling/ legging and another 10 days (do it on a Wednesday ) before tasting

Calder said:

Last week I used some dry apricots. Need to ensure they don't have any sulphur on them as it can stall the yeast. I got mine from Whole Food Market

I used 3 ozs per gallon, which is the equivalent of about 1 lb of fresh apricots per gallon.
clear.

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how well did the flavor of apricots come out? local brewery great south bay has a blonde ambition ale which is fermented with apricots and have a very distinct flavor that i have on my to do list.

DurtyChemist said:

Why are you worried about wild yeast in a secondary? I used pasteurized canned apricots and rack beer on top of it. Less stress more mess (in the bucket) and let it sit 3 weeks before bottling/ legging and another 10 days (do it on a Wednesday ) before tasting

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What's your point? You added pasteurized apricots straight from the can. All I did was pasteurize mine, since they were not from a sanitized can.

Johnnyhitch1 said:

how well did the flavor of apricots come out? local brewery great south bay has a blonde ambition ale which is fermented with apricots and have a very distinct flavor that i have on my to do list.

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It is going to be a while until I will be able to tell. I only added them last week. It's a fruit Lambic, I plan to have the beer on the fruit for at least 6 months.

Calder said:

What's your point? You added pasteurized apricots straight from the can. All I did was pasteurize mine, since they were not from a sanitized can.



It is going to be a while until I will be able to tell. I only added them last week. It's a fruit Lambic, I plan to have the beer on the fruit for at least 6 months.

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my mistake i thought it was for an ale.

DurtyChemist said:

Why are you worried about wild yeast in a secondary? I used pasteurized canned apricots and rack beer on top of it. Less stress more mess (in the bucket) and let it sit 3 weeks before bottling/ legging and another 10 days (do it on a Wednesday ) before tasting

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Can you give me the procedures you followed when using the apricot purée? Including the time period for primary, secondary, and bottling.

Thanks

How is the brew going...

Toggels said:

How is the brew going...

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I put the apricots in today! Then two weeks from now, I bottle!

jknapp12105 said:

I put the apricots in today! Then two weeks from now, I bottle!

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primary or secondary? and how much puree did you add?
i have a blonde that i just brewed up i want to add apricots to

Johnnyhitch1 said:

primary or secondary? and how much puree did you add?
i have a blonde that i just brewed up i want to add apricots to

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Secondary and let it sit for two weeks. I bought 10 15 oz for 5 gal. apricots in a can. Since they are covered in syrup in the can, pour the apricots in a strainer and run a lot of water on top of the apricots to make sure all the syrup is off and put in the refrigerator to dry off for a couple of hours. After they are dry, put them on the stove and cook them down for about 2 or 3 min just to get them hot and kill anything that cools possibly be on them. Then after you cook them down, put in your secondary fermenter then tack your beer on top of it. I let it sit for two weeks in the secondary and had a great apricot flavor without having to use any artificial apricot flavoring.

Wow thats alot of apricots. I actually picked up 5 15 oz cans of apricots in light pear juice so i shouldnt have that syrup problem. Mayb i SHOULD throw some more in...will report back. How long was your primary?

Johnnyhitch1 said:

Wow thats alot of apricots. I actually picked up 5 15 oz cans of apricots in light pear juice so i shouldnt have that syrup problem. Mayb i SHOULD throw some more in...will report back. How long was your primary?

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One week. A little trial and error. It's my first fruit batch so we will see how it turns out.

jknapp12105 said:

One week. A little trial and error. It's my first fruit batch so we will see how it turns out.

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thx for your input
i think im gonna rack onto the fruit in a hop bag after 2 weeks let it clean up a lil bit before all that fruit, we shall compare notes!

racked on (8) 15 oz cans of apricots drained pureed and pausterized @150 for 15 min
man did my kitchen smell great but what a PITA that was cooling and racking onto them specially when i had to rack my coconut brown onto toasted coconut after...
will check back in a week!

Johnnyhitch1 said:

racked on (8) 15 oz cans of apricots drained pureed and pausterized @150 for 15 min
man did my kitchen smell great but what a PITA that was cooling and racking onto them specially when i had to rack my coconut brown onto toasted coconut after...
will check back in a week!

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How exactly do you go about cooling the fruit after you've pasteurized it?

Also, I am getting a kit from NB for an Apricot Blonde that uses Vintner's Harvest Apricot Puree that you add after about 3 days in the Primary and then add Apricot Extract at bottling. Would I be OK with just using the ingredients in the kit or should I try some canned apricots to add to the secondary?

MMJfan said:

How exactly do you go about cooling the fruit after you've pasteurized it?

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It was the first thing i did once it hit 150* put a lid on it and let it sit spinning occasionally (lid on). i then racked off yeast and sanatized BB for transfer back...by this time is was about 110 so i then funneled the mixture and airated the puree letting sit for another 10 minutes, down to 90. gravity fed racked blonde back onto the fruit

MMJfan said:

Also, I am getting a kit from NB for an Apricot Blonde that uses Vintner's Harvest Apricot Puree that you add after about 3 days in the Primary and then add Apricot Extract at bottling. Would I be OK with just using the ingredients in the kit or should I try some canned apricots to add to the secondary?

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i do have a 4oz bottle of extract JUST IN CASE i dont have the aroma from the fruit i know the 5 pounds will give enough flavor (yes 5 pounds =) ) so u might want to add half of the extract on bottling. i find it to be very "artificial" and takes a while to age out.

*the puree your getting should already be sanitized and ready to rack on top off or adding to primary*

Good luck this has been the most fun batch to date!!

Large krausen cake up top, surprised about how quick this is fermenting again.
Does anyone know how to measure the sugars i just added with the fruit to get an appropriate FG and ABV.

My puree from dried fruit and nectar added .012. Yours were packed in sugar syrup so I'm not sure. I figured mine at about 2.5 pounds.

For my apricot ale, I pureed 4 18 oz cans of apricot halves in pear juice, no preservatives. After reading many posts, I thought 4 cans would be enough. When I went to tertiary my ale, it was relatively sour. I had learned to expect that just recently from other posts. I added one ounce of apricot flavor per gallon, and I used 8 ounces of lactose, and thought that would be just right... I cracked one open today, and it was a gusher. And fairly sour. I don't know, i'm thinking I should have agitated the wort much better during secondary to better fermentation and maybe even waited another week before tertiary. I have no idea why it was a gusher, it has been in the fridge for two days. I am hoping the apricot flavor will build in the near future, and improve my "wife's" beer sooner than later. I hope I get the fruit beer thing figured out soon as I don't want to spend time and money on a product I don't want to drink.