Fruit Flavorings

I am thinking of doing something with a fruit flavoring. I have decided on using flavor extract at bottling.

My question is if I do an american wheat, what would be a good flavor to go with it? Obviously raspberry is popular, but has anyone tried orange, etc.

Thanks in advance.

I don't think I would ever use a fruit extract again, but blueberry wheats are good.

I used 6oz of a 8oz raspberry extract for my hefe and i wanted to stab myself in the face. It made it absolutely too sweet without much actual berry flavor. It's a good chick drink though. Search for some info on using real berries in the secondary or something, probably better results.

I also do not use extract flavoring either. They taste like soap to me.

I used apricot for a #9 clone, it still has a weird alcoholy-extract taste to it that I have heard takes a long long time to mellow....I am just going to use real fruit in the future.

You can try anything you like, I suspect most fruits would pair well with a hefe...just add a little at a time in the bottling bucket, stir, and taste. I added 1/2 the amount the recipe called for and it is still overpowering.

Try peach. AHS sells peach flavoring. I want to make a peach wheat but I haven't decided on real fruit or flavoring yet. You can be my guinea pig ha ha. The reason I just don't go real fruit is because strong peach flavor can be hard to get from peaches .

Citrus and beer just don't sound like a good combo to me. Unless its a spicy holiday brew like coriander and sweet orange peel.

I've used peach, cranberry, and pomegranate. All whole fruit.

COSTCO locally has a 4lb bag of frozen berry mix (blackberries, blueberries, marionberries). I've though of adding them to a batch on more than one occasion. I personally think blueberries and cherries would be some of the most versatile fruit. I would like to try them in a wheat and in something like a porter or stout.

I would like to make a cherry wheat sometime. I have had a good one made up in Michigan, cant remeber the name of it though, it was a lot better than the sam adams crap.

Tangerine and peach go well with wheat beers. Two examples locally are Sherwood's Peach Pit Wit and Kuhnhenn's Tangerine Wit... I belive both of which were made using whole fruits in the mash and a second addition after fermentation. Granted the fruit kills some of the nice spice associated with a Wit, it was rather plesent and a good change from berry wheats... FWIW, Kuhnhenn also makes a Banana Stout which is awsome and again, uses mashed banana in the mash.

Bell's also had a one time release of a Cherry Ale. Just a simple red ale infused with a massive amount of tart Michigan cherries. Good stuff!

As far as homebrewing... I haven't used fruit yet, but I would stick with steeping fruits after the boil or in secondary if you don't mind a cloudy brew.

i made a raspberry cream stout and a apple nut brown both turned out great, the raspberry took almost a month to clear out and not be so tart

I brewed 10 gallons of Chimay Blue clone last week and added a 49oz. can of apricot puree.... Planning to transfer to secondary this weekend so I'll report the results afterwards.

I'm surprised nobody as mentioned the AB thread going around and their new product "Spykes"..........

I made a strawberry IPA that should be pretty tasty.....it's in tetriary right now but it is a really cool color

coming through the siphon tube it was very clear with just a hint of red to it...in the tetriary it was a really cool deep red color

I tasted a bit of it and it's really pretty balanced

After this experiment if I fruit any more beers I definatly will use real fruit in the secondary

Craig5_12 said:

I'm surprised nobody as mentioned the AB thread going around and their new product "Spykes"..........

Click to expand...

Got a clone?

I ordered the American Wheat recipe from AHS and a 2oz bottle of raspberry extract. I'll let you know how it goes.

greenhornet said:

Got a clone?

Click to expand...

LOL, I wonder if we could find a way to ferment Hot Chocolate to 12% and still have it taste like cocoa.......

I added two cans of Oregon brand raspberrys, run through the blender before fermentation. The raspberry wheat turned out great , if I made it again I would cut back on the fruit to 1 1/2 cans. 5gal.

Last summer I made Strawberry Pale Ale using an extract. It was a major hit but I thought it had a fake aftertaste. I have also made a Raspberry Amber using 5 pounds of frozen fruit. The Raspberry over powered the Amber but Raspberry lovers loved it. I just made another batch of Strawberry Pale Ale with 5 pounds of froze strawberries. I purred the fruit and put it into the second. We should know how it turned out for the 4th of July.

How about a banana-clove hefeweizen. I bet that would be tasty!

feedthebear said:

Citrus and beer just don't sound like a good combo to me. Unless its a spicy holiday brew like coriander and sweet orange peel.

I've used peach, cranberry, and pomegranate. All whole fruit.

Click to expand...

You used pomegranate??? How did that come out? What was the color like? Also interested in cranberry, what style did you add the berries to?