Using fruit in brewing?

I am still all extract brewer and I was wondering how to make a beer with a slight fruit taste. Also I am only using a primary 6.5 carboy, so there will not be any secondary fermentation.


I was figuring on doing a wheat beer with some sort of fruit (cherry, rasberry etc.)


I cant find any info on the web or my lone book about doing this, what is some real world advice?

I've never done it, so I speak with no experience other than book knowledge. Fruit extract is a pretty safe way to go. There are plenty of recipes on this forum to draw from. Real fruit will likely taste better, but it's a bit more difficult in terms of preparation (sanitizing without setting the pectin, pulverizing, freezing, etc), and it can make a mess of your fermenter. I'll defer to the experts, who will surely post here soon for further info.

I've gotten in the habit of making a Raspberry Ale every fall for the holidays. I've used both extract and real fruit and in my opinion the extra work (and cost) in using real fruit is definitely worth it.

You can buy fresh raspberries in late summer just about anywhere but I like produce stores. They usually have the best prices. Grocery stores are usually higher. I like fresh but frozen will also work, if you miss the season.

I brew a very lightly hopped and pale colored ale as a "substrate." To make it pale I don't use steeping grains and I substitute rice solids for malt extract (I am an extract guy) for half of my fermentables.

I give the basic brew a week or two in the fermenter, then rack to a secondary and add my fruit. I pasteurize the fruit by putting it into a pot of water and bringing it to about 160F for ten or fifteen minutes. Then it goes into the secondary. I usually use between three and four pounds (call it 1.5 to 2 kilograms if you use metric). Even with four pounds the raspberry flavor has never been overwhelming. Using real fruit results in a lot more evolution of the flavor over time. Extracts seem to be much more stable in taste and also seem to have an artificial feel in their taste - hard to describe but that's how it felt to me.

Anyway, after a week or two in the secondary, I siphon the carboy out into a third stage to allow it to clear (it will be very cruddy at the end of the second stage). I give it yet another week or two to settle and clear, then bottle. It takes a good month or six weeks to really hit its stride but the results are great.

One more point - using extracts (normally just dumped into the bottling bucket along with your priming sugar) does not give you any kind of unusual coloring in your beer.

I've used basically the same procedure as SteveM.

One extra hint - if you get fresh fruit, freeze it. You'll get better extraction because the freezing process breaks down the cell walls of the fruit.

I just did basically the same thing a week ago with my wit. 2.5lbs of frozen raspberries and one pint of water. I brought it up to 180ºF, then let it cool down some. It was easy to get into the carboy with a sanitized funnel because it had pretty much liquefied. I used blackberry extract with an oatmeal stout and yes, it doesn't taste quite right. It's not awful, but I do detect an artificiality to it.

The only thing I'll add is if the fruit has large pits or seeds, remove them first. If you have to peel the fruit, try to remove as much of the pith as possible.

do you just dumb the boiled fruit in the secondary with the boiled water? ive been using extract with good results but I am always looking for a better way of doing things

I always real fruit, freeze it first to break the cell structure, then heat it to 150F for about 15 minutes to pasteurize (do not boil fruit), then add to the secondary. It works like magic!!

Brewpilot

What about 100% fruit juice - pasturized, but no other additives? Trader Joe's carries cranberry, pomegranite, cherry, and raspberry. These are not blends, but pure varietal juice (they do have some blends also). Most juices are 1.035-1.045, so they would not dilute a normal gravity brew too much.

for reference, see http://www.formatinternational.com/examples/fruit_juice_blending.htm

Doing some searches (at least for cherries) 1 lb fruit = approx 1 cup juice.

I plan to do some trials after my current lineup of brews (1-2 months) if nobody has experiences.

i racked a pale today over to a secondary loaded with 3.3 lbs fresh apricot puree from trader joes. puree'd it. pastureized it. cooled it. poured it into the carboy. racked the beer ontop. put the airlock in and gave it a few visceral shakes. it should turn out nice...

well IMHO...

If and when I do another fruit beer I want the berry flavor to be so subtle, you won't be able to tell whether or not it was real fruit or an extract anyways.

extract is a simple as you can get though.

Man-alive, I wish I had seen/been part of this discussion a few days ago....

Just did my first rasp. wheat and used "raspberry extract/flavoring" for fear of walking the "real fruit" plank.
But it sounds so easy to use the real stuff.

....oh well, gives me something to try differently to next time around, right!?!?!

Ah, the joy of homebrew!

If you can, make a 5 gallon beer base and then seperate it into one gallon batches and add the fruit. Unless you know you love that fruit in your beer, you might end up with 5 gallons of something you dislike.

-Cheese, the "Keep your fruit outta my beer" guy.