Excerpt from Basic Brewing Radio

Dan Carey from New Glarus Brewing was on BBR 2 weeks ago and said he wasn't going to talk about fruit beers because they paid the bills and he'd worked long and hard on them and didn't want to share. So he talked about oak. The only thing he did say was that beer brewers could learn something from winemakers when it came to using fruit(paraphrase). What do you think he meant?

I have a guess, but I want to wait to not influence any ideas. I want to clone one of his fruit beers so I'm working on the ingredients/techniques.

I listened to that one too. Good stuff about oak.

No fruit in beer - man law!

His recommendations on oak were so far different from everything else that I have read and heard people talk about - combined with the fact that he has very little experience working on the homebrew scale - led me to basically dismiss everything that he said about using oak. IIRC, he was recommending using three or four times the oak that is typically recommended, and leaving the beer on it for a much longer period of time. I'm not saying that he's not a smart guy and a great brewer, but it makes me wonder if some things do not scale down that easily. He's coming from the perspective of a craft brewer who is then scaling down what he does to bring it to the homebrewer level, this isn't Jamil Z or John Palmer who's brewing 5 or 10 gallon batches like the rest of us.

I agree. I brewed an IPA with a lot of hops and only 5 honey mesquite chips (all about 3/4 inch cubes), and the wood taste was detectable and nice. Any more, and it would have been too much. However, the barrell use info was good. I don't think I'll ever get to a point where I can use a 55gal barrell. So, off to brew I go...

knipknup said:

I agree. I brewed an IPA with a lot of hops and only 5 honey mesquite chips (all about 3/4 inch cubes), and the wood taste was detectable and nice. Any more, and it would have been too much. However, the barrell use info was good. I don't think I'll ever get to a point where I can use a 55gal barrell. So, off to brew I go...

Click to expand...

Though, I haven't tried his oak beers, and he said his have a strong oak flavor. Must be very strong...

knipknup said:

I listened to that one too. Good stuff about oak.

No fruit in beer - man law!

Click to expand...

The 'good stuff about oak' guy seems to think its ok. Anyway, what I was getting at was what he said about fruit in beers not the oak stuff. I've read on another forum that someone heard at the brewery that they ferment the fruit seperately and then add it to the beer. What do you guys think about this? Anybody doing it?
On a side note, I agree with 'the_bird' that he did seem to be advising using too much oak. I am interested in what he said about fruit though, and will not discount everything he said. His beers seem highly rated @beeradvocate. I am in the process of trading w/a guy from Wisconsin for some so I can finally try them.

He's doing something different, it was a little annoying (even if understandable) that he wouldn't tell us what. Fermenting the fruit out separately, then blending, would seem to be a good strategy. It's so easy to overdo the fruit (the real issue), your only option to have real contol is to use an extract or to somehow blend.

the_bird said:

It's so easy to overdo the fruit (the real issue), your only option to have real contol is to use an extract or to somehow blend.

Click to expand...

From the tasting notes on beeradvocate it seems like he's overdoing do it -but for many it seems overdoing it is just right. Supposedly 1 pound of cherries goes into every 750mL bottle of Belgian Red. Of course the beers are probably mostly bought/reviewed by those that like that style. For my tastes I like; 1. non fruit beers 2. Balanced fruit beers 3. Beers that lean more towards fruit cider. For me there's a place for all three styles in my fridge. I realize I'm in the minority on this issue.

the_bird said:

He's doing something different, it was a little annoying (even if understandable) that he wouldn't tell us what. Fermenting the fruit out separately, then blending, would seem to be a good strategy.

Click to expand...

I agree, I was frustrated he didn't share. I can somewhat see where he's coming from though. I'm glad to hear you think it could be a good strategy. Never tried it though bird?

I bet he ferments the fruit separately and then blends them together. He talked specifically about how brewers could learn a lot from winemakers, and how winemakers blend to acheive a desired taste.

Regarding oak, remember he uses old barrels, not new chips; that's part of the reason why his numbers are off. And again, if you're using new ships in a big barrel, you've got to figure the efficiency will be a bit lower. Just a guess.

scott

When I was a kid, we had two jars with fermented fruit in them. We would put this stuff on our ice-cream. It was awesome stuff. Every few months, it would need re-plenished (when it was down to about 1/3 the jar left). The base was a bourbon flavor. We would just add a can of fruit and a cup of sugar. This would then ferment again and be ready within a week or so. It lasted for years.
I bet adding some of that jizz would make a fruit beer with some complexity...

I'm all for Manlaw, but you can't let a Miller Lite commercial dictate what goes in actual beer, I mean it's Miller Lite man! How much credibility do they have?

brewitall said:

I'm all for Manlaw, but you can't let a Miller Lite commercial dictate what goes in actual beer, I mean it's Miller Lite man! How much credibility do they have?

Click to expand...

QFT! (Quote for Truth)

Maybe its time for a little Husband/Wife Brewing mash-up? My wife makes wine and I do the beer