anyone tried an apricot Kolsch?

A friend of mine wants me to brew something with apricots, and I've been wanting to do a Kolsch for some time. Anyone tried putting them together before? I think I might just add some apricot flavoring to half the batch at bottling time, unless someone can vouch for its yumminess.

I'm assuming you are from Arizona. Is your friend talking about the Arizona Peach beer from Four Peaks? You could brew a kolsch and add a can of Oregon Fruit Puree after primary fermentation is complete. Let the fruit ferment and taste the beer after a couple of weeks of conditioning. Determine whether you need more apricot flavor, if you do you can add some apricot concentrate at bottling time.

Iordz said:

I'm assuming you are from Arizona. Is your friend talking about the Arizona Peach beer from Four Peaks? You could brew a kolsch and add a can of Oregon Fruit Puree after primary fermentation is complete. Let the fruit ferment and taste the beer after a couple of weeks of conditioning. Determine whether you need more apricot flavor, if you do you can add some apricot concentrate at bottling time.

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I was going to just do the natural flavor concentrate. Those fruit purees are expensive, the krausen tends to overflow and they take too long to clear. I don't know, though, does the natural flavor concentrate not taste good by itself? If it doesn't, it might be worth it to get some real fruit in there. But I kinda wanna taste the Kolsch by itself, too.

That's why I would not make a Kolsch with fruit, I just like Kolsch too much to put fruit in it, plus it's a beer that takes a while to really mature. I have never used apricot, but I have tried cherries and raspberry, and for my money the Oregon Fruit purees are the best. You don't have to think about sanitation and, most importantly, it will give your beer a natural fruit flavor, which I think is missing with fruit extracts. The small fruit concentrates can leave your beer tasting artificial and one dimensional, but real fruit adds complexity. I'm sure you can make a fruit good beer only using fruit concentrate but if I was putting time and effort into a brew I would the best ingredients without any shortcuts or alternatives.

Pyramid Apricot Weizen Ale is fairly good.

I'm adding apricot flavoring to 1/3 of my kolsch batch tomorrow. I find the flavorings work very well as long as you use a light hand and treat it as a background note.