Brewing with fruit - advice?

Sorry to bombard!

Do people do much brewing of 'normal' beers with fruit.

I've got an allotment which produces loads of fruit; I've got half a freezer full of the stuff. One of the more interesting fruits is the whitecurrant which has a nice fresh citrus type flavour, without being massively overbearing (it's a cousin of the blackcurrant, but whereas the blackcurrant when jammed is very strong, the whitecurrant isn't).

My thought is that the whitecurrant batch I'm considering will be refreshingly citrusy but still taste of beer (as opposed to the strawberry/rasberry ale things you can buy in pubs, which are nice for a pint if you can ignore the diabetes).

The plan is to boil the fruit as if jamming (to reduce), and then add to the mix immediately prior to yeast addition, assuming the temperature is correct.

Any advice/experiences?

Thank you very much!

My advice to make a Belgian Wit with your whitecurrent.. and name it

Wit vruchtenbier

which is Dutch for White fruit beer.

Belgian White Beers are nice beers to compliment with citrus fruits, often made with corriander and orange peel.

I'd add the fruit to secondary.

ak_hop said:

I'd add the fruit to secondary.

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Why? Less loss of taste?

Yes, only time I use a secondary is with fruit beers.

Oh yea, I'd go secondary as well. It's nice that you have it frozen - that will break down the cell walls and allow more flavor. I then heat it in a pan to 170 and hold for 15 min to pasteurize, then I mash it and add it to the secondary before racking the beer on top of it.

http://byo.com/stories/article/indices/38-ingredients/683-fruit-brew-part-2-techniques

This may help.

ak_hop said:

Yes, only time I use a secondary is with fruit beers.

Click to expand...

Same here

Also, I would wait until you're at FG before racking onto the fruit. If you're going for more fruit flavor and aroma, you don't want too much additional fermentation from the sugars in the fruit