Hefe 5 Fruit Experiement

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Spludge

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Brewed up 5 gallons of EdWorts Bavarian Hefe about ten days ago and getting ready to have a little fun with it. Going to split it into 5 Carlo Rossi jugs to try various fruits. Wanted to go over my process and see what you guys thought...

1st Gal
1 pd. Banana

2nd Gal
Lemon Zest, not sure how much yet... 2 lemons?

3rd Gal
Raspberry or Blackberry, 1/2pd

4th Gal
Apricot, 3/4 pd sound good? Also, do you remove the skin?

5th Gal
Naked

My plan with the fruits is to steep them with a small amount of water at roughly 160 for around ten minutes. After that dump straight into rossi jug and rack onto.
Secondary for around five days.
Tertiary for maybe a day or two.

Whaddaya think? This is my first go with fruit additions so I am very open to advice.
Looking forward to sharing the results...:ban::mug:
 
Hey I'm going to be trying the same thing with a pale ale. I've got blueberry(home grown), blackberry(home grown), lemon/lime/orange zest, peach(neighbor grown), and mango on the list. I was also thinking cherry.

Let us know how it turns out.

P.S. don't worry about the apricot skin.
 
Great experiment! Blackberry Hefe is something I was thinking about trying as my back yard is littered with the things. Please keep us posted. (and please try the blackberries instead of the raspberry) :mug:
 
Blackberries it is!
Doing this tomorrow, hopefully have some pics to post
 
I racked 1 Qt of Blackberry juice onto a blonde ale. It was pure juice no sugar added. Home grown blackberries just juiced in a juicer and pulp removed. Let it sit for 2 weeks and bottled.

It would of been alot better had I omitted the blackberries.
It made the beer real bitter and reminded me of the Keystone commercials with the bitter beer face.
They also give the beer not so beer color.
 
I was wondering about this last night. I ate a few blackberries and when my face puckered up I started thinking how that would work out in a beer...
 
Went ahead with the experiment today.
Spoke with a friend today who had similar problems with blackberries so decided on raspberries. Plus my brother makes a pretty good beer with them, sry KevinP. I will try it eventually.

Ended up with...
1 pd Banana
3/4 pd Apricot
1/2 pd Raspberries
2 zested lemons
naked

Figured it would be interesting to try lemon zest vs. lemon slice at pour.
2 lemons didn't provide much zest but I figured it is better than too much. May try more next time.

My procedure with the three fruits was to add a little water and 'sauté' with a little heat, but not too much. Did this for about ten minutes each and used a sanitized potato masher to 'puree' them.

Here are a few pics. Not quite to the beer porn level but figured I'd show em anyways.

Ready for beer...
IMG00045-1.jpg


Ready to extract those succulent flavors!
IMG00048-1.jpg


Swamp cooler with thermometer. I will put a blanket over to increase insulation.
IMG00052-1.jpg


Crappy pic inside. I had to line the top with shirts so the lid doesn't rest on the foil tops of the containers. I eventually want to use some foam tape or something to raise the top a little.
IMG00053-1.jpg


Going to let them sit 5-7 days and tertiary those with additions for one day or just rack off and then bottle.
Can't wait to taste test, I will update with some results
 
No worries here mate. Its still a great experiment!
I would think the trick with the blackberries would be to only use the very ripe, super sweet juicy ones as those are not really bitter. And maybe not as much as a quart in 5 gallons? Just thinking aloud now....

I also have a peach tree and a plum tree out back that I have my eye on.....
 
I was eyeing the peaches when I was picking up my fruits as well.
May use peaches in the next and I like the idea of picking out the big ripe blackberries. Wouldn't take many to do a one gallon batch so it wouldn't be too laborious.
 
Great experiment! I love to see stuff like this and the 5 yeast experiment. Can't wait to see how your comparisons turn out!

:mug:
 
So a week in the fruit then bottle. Then what, 1-2 weeks to carbonate? I eagerly await your results!

Thats the plan, I usually get the itch by the end of week one and crack one open:D

I like the 5 yeast experiment also. I hope to try it sometime in the future. I also want to brew a Pale and test dry hopping with different hop varieties...

It was a miserable experience draining all these Rossi jugs so I want to make it worthwhile.:cross:
 
I've been doing something similar, although I'm not as bold. A few months back I reserved a gallon of EdWort's Pale Ale and poured over a full pound of raspberries in the secondary. It was supposed to be something like a McMenamin's Ruby, and turned out ATROCIOUS. The problem was with the recipe though; the procedure worked out okay. In theory at least. . . I added so much fruit, and left so little headroom, that the bung blew off!

I reserved a gallon of my last batch of Belgian Wit to pour over cranberries this time. I left more headroom, and have added a lot less fruit, so hopefully no explosion, but we'll see.

Let us know which is your favorite!
__________________
Primary: Sarcasm & Dry Wit (Belgian Wit)
Secondary: Cranberry Wit Prototype
Conditioning: Sarcasm & Dry Wit (Belgian Wit)
Planning: A Bass Ale Clone (Suggestions?)
Drinking: A Magic Hat sampler pack while I wait. . .
 
I used the foil because I don't have the right size bungs for the Rossi jugs yet. I will get some eventually but many people on HBT will argue foil is as good as an airlock. I have used foil many times making starters and haven't had an issue. I do still want airlocks eventually for peace of mind.

A Wit with subtle cranberry notes actually sounds pretty good. Let me know how that works out. I'm like you though, not wanting to waste a whole 5 gallons with bad additions, 1 gal is the way to go. Why was it so bad, just way too much fruit?
 
Yeah. It was a raspberry spritzer, basically, without any sweetness. WAY too much raspberry, and far too little beer.
 
Do you bottle carbonate those 1 gallon batches? If so how much sugar/water mix do you add to each gallon? I'm making my first Hefe i'm thinking of adding some orange or other citrus to. Not much, just a hint of flavor.
 
Yes, I am going to bottle them on Wednsday. I am going to use the carbonation tablets for these instead of trying to split my sugar water into the five batches. It will make things a little easier and reduce the risk of contamination.
 
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