Dryed Apricots

I made a Apricot IPA this weekend. I used one pound of purried Appricots that I added with 10 minutes left in the boil. The smell from the fruit was good and strong.

Once fermentation is done I want to moved it to a secondary and add another 1.5 lbs of dried apricots and let it sit for a few weeks. i am hoping to impart more fruit flavors.

My question is this, how should I prep the fruit? I was thinking of pureeing the apricots in a blender with some greygoose vodka to kill any bugs in them. I was going to let that sit in glass jar over night, put it in the carboy and rack on top of it. Has anyone tried this?

-Sumo

That sounds great, man!!! I think your method sounds solid and well planned. What did you hop it with to complement the apricot flavors? I have a peach tree out back that puts out great fruit! I was thinking of making an American Peach Wit, with 5# 2-row, 3#malted wheat, and 2# unmalted cracked wheat cooked well, and add the puree'd fruit at 30 mins, aand 15mins with whirlfloc tab to draw some of the sediment down, and use 1oz. Hallertauer at 60 mins, and 0.25oz. Glacier at 15 mins. Mash yada yada you know the routine. I'd like to see your recipe! I'd probably make a starter 2 days in advance (2.5 liter) of 1056 or the wyeast Forbidden fruit... Which by the way is a very nice yeast strain IMO!

Should work fine if you have a strong blender. Another alternative would be to grind them, then soak.

Well, the thing is I wasa in a competiton. An Iron Brewer. We were given magnum, sazz, and armerillo hops.

We had a choice of base malts. American 2 row and marris otter. for specialty grains we had Dark crystal, Crystal 20, and wheat malt. There was a few other be I dont remember.

The secret ingridients were dried fruit. Apricots, raisins (green, red) prunes, cranberries, and cherries.

So i went with

10.5 lbs american 2 row
8oz of wheat and crystal 20
.4 oz of dark crystal

.75 of magnum at 60
.75 arm at 30
.75 arm at 20
.75 arm at 10
Purried apricots at 10

Mashed at 149 for 60 single infusion

It had a nice clean bitter flavor. The wort was sweet and the apricots shined through.

I had 30 minutes to put a recipe together and 4 hours to brew and pitch yeast. It was the best I could come up with. Well my partner and I came up with it. We will see. If people are interested I'll keep updating this thread and let you onow how it turned out.

Hey, how did this turn out? I'm looking at doing the same and will have dried apricot at my disposal, but not fresh/canned.

Thanks for your feedback, cheers!

ColoniusFunk said:

Hey, how did this turn out? I'm looking at doing the same and will have dried apricot at my disposal, but not fresh/canned.

Thanks for your feedback, cheers!

Click to expand...

The beer came out great. I never did dry hop it with more apricots. The smell and flavor really came through. I should make this again, it was a nice spring ale. It did lose the flavor over time though, and I think me blowing CO2 out the keg to pour it room temp helped to kill the flavor. I didn't have refridgeration at the time. All my kegs were room temp.

When I handed people the glass of beer they would sniff the glass and thier eyes would light up, and a with a huge grin they would proclaim, "I can smell the apricots, its smells awesome!"'

Most importantly they drank more then a few rounds of it when there were other beers available.

The beer took a while to clear out. I fermented around 70 degree's it was all room temp. I was going to dump the beer at one point because it was cloudy and had a nasty bitter off flavor. You have to understand I only rack clean beer from the boil kettle. I chill it with a immersion chiller to 65 and let it sit till it all drops. Then I rack the clear beer on top and I leave all the gunk in the kettle.

The beer was very cloudy when it was transfered to the fermentor and sat for 3 weeks in primary. I moved it to a secondary for another 2 weeks. Oh my it was worth it. I drink a few pints while tranfering it to my keg. If you look at the link below you can see all the sediment that dropped out. I know you can drop it out faster by chilling it. However I feel the 3 weeks in the primary really let the flavor in.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.108807963213.97313.582083213&l=fe02155054

-Sumo

How much apricots did you use?

3lbs of apricots were harmed in the making of this beer..

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Apricot Iron Brewer recipe
Brewer: Sumo
Asst Brewer: Anthony Lopez a.k.a. the Bass Man
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.58 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 6.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 51.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 89.36 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4.26 %
8.0 oz Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.26 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2.13 %
21.26 gm Magnum [12.10 %] (60 min) Hops 33.9 IBU
14.17 gm Amarillo Gold [7.50 %] (30 min) Hops 7.1 IBU
14.17 gm Amarillo Gold [7.50 %] (20 min) Hops 4.7 IBU
28.35 gm Amarillo Gold [7.50 %] (10 min) Hops 5.6 IBU
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 11.75 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 14.69 qt of water at 163.7 F 152.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 8.23 qt of water at 200.7 F 168.0 F

Sumo said:

3lbs of apricots were harmed in the making of this beer..

Click to expand...

I've managed to get lost (no surprise) on the apricot additions through this thread.

It seems you initially said you added 1 lb of dried apricots at 10 minutes left in the boil. Then you intended to add 1.5 lbs to the secondary, but did not. So I was left with the impression you used 1 lb., but the quote says 3 lbs. Where did I get lost? Thanks!