Fruit Beer Mango Caribbean Cream Ale

Mango season just passed so I got to make one of my favorite summer brews with some delicious home grown fruit. I recently won a local comp with this brew and everyone loved it so I figured I'd share the recipe. Give it a try your sure to enjoy it. Between the Maris Otter, late kettle additions of Citra/Amarillo, ~6% ABV, and mango this is anything but your average cream ale. The base beer without the mango addition is amazing as well. Enjoy!


Grain Bill - 2 step mash. 15min @ 135f, 90min @ 150f


8# Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter
2# Flaked Corn
1# Flaked Rice(I use Minute white rice)


Boil -

Whirlfloc/Irish moss @ 10min
1oz Citra @ 8min
1oz Amarillo @ 8min


Fermentation -

After 10-14 days rack beer into secondary on top of 6# mango puree. This will kick up another fermentation lasting about another week. Allow secondary fermentation to finish and another few days for fruit to settle before begging/bottling.

*Note - I puree the mango chunks in a blender with a few shots of 3 Olives Mango Vodka to sanitize the fruit. Regular vodka probably works fine but I feel better using a mango vodka in case any flavor carries over. Plus my gf drinks the stuff

Wow, that just sounds tasty. Got any pictures of it? I will be giving this a shot sometime in the near future.

Thanks. It's not a professional looking picture but I think it's one of the best I have of this beer....

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1439916487.273142.jpg

Well I'm sold. Never done a 2 step mash though.

treacheroustexan said:

Well I'm sold. Never done a 2 step mash though.

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It's really not necessary but I find the 15min protein rest makes an incredibly drastic difference in clarity. I also brew on a Braumeister or keggle so step mashes are easy to run. If your using a cooler I'd probably skip it for convenience. Essentially it comes down to how much you care about aesthetics and how much work it takes you to run a step mash.

This recipe looks pretty good and I might need to give it a try soon. I did an apricot saison earlier this year and found the fresh mango flavor subsided a lot after fermentation. I actually had to get some natural mango extract flavoring to add it back in. Did you get nice apricot flavor in the beer?

I also read it helps to freeze the apricots overnight and thaw to break down the cell walls before use.

Thanks again for the recipe!

SP_Spiff said:

This recipe looks pretty good and I might need to give it a try soon. I did an apricot saison earlier this year and found the fresh mango flavor subsided a lot after fermentation. I actually had to get some natural mango extract flavoring to add it back in. Did you get nice apricot flavor in the beer?



I also read it helps to freeze the apricots overnight and thaw to break down the cell walls before use.



Thanks again for the recipe!

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Very welcome!

I don't use any apricots just mango that I freeze and thaw before its puréed with vodka. The flavor carries over quite well even after the fruit ferments out though. The flavor also still tastes like mango and doesn't get the tart wine like notes I've noticed with other fruits.

The recipe looks delicious...just a question though why a 90 minute mash after the 15 minute protein rest? Does that mean for a regular cooler mash tun you would go with a 105 minute mash? Or would 60 be fine?

Wow my reply was confusing. My bad. I meant mango instead of apricot. I split my saison into 5G of apricot saison (oregon puree) and 5G of mango saison (2-3lbs). For some reason I had apricot on the brain when replying. I will try this recipe with the 6lbs of mango.

I do find it interesting there are no bittering hops..just 8m addition? Beersmith is showing this to be about 17 IBU but you are showing 21. The other numbers are spot on.

Could you just do a 60 minute mash at 150F? I have a cooler for a mashtun and you mentioned keeping it simple if you can't do step mashes.

As for pureeing........How long do you leave the fruit in the vodka? Can you just do chunks of mango that's been soaked in vodka for a day or two? Maybe freeze the chunks overnight? (like I've done with a strawberry blonde)

Sammy86 said:

The recipe looks delicious...just a question though why a 90 minute mash after the 15 minute protein rest? Does that mean for a regular cooler mash tun you would go with a 105 minute mash? Or would 60 be fine?

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The longer mash is to help dry the beer out. For a single infusion mash just do 90 min at 150f and you'll be fine.

SP_Spiff said:

Wow my reply was confusing. My bad. I meant mango instead of apricot. I split my saison into 5G of apricot saison (oregon puree) and 5G of mango saison (2-3lbs). For some reason I had apricot on the brain when replying. I will try this recipe with the 6lbs of mango.



I do find it interesting there are no bittering hops..just 8m addition? Beersmith is showing this to be about 17 IBU but you are showing 21. The other numbers are spot on.

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No bittering the late kettle additions give enough IBU to balance things nicely and let the hop flavor shine. Not sure why your only getting 17 IBU though my Beersmith says 21.2. Maybe it's the AA of your hops? My Citra is 12% and Amarillo is 8.5%.

KeyWestBrewing said:

The longer mash is to help dry the beer out. For a single infusion mash just do 90 min at 150f and you'll be fine.

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Excellent, this one is going on the brew list!

Yesfan said:

Could you just do a 60 minute mash at 150F? I have a cooler for a mashtun and you mentioned keeping it simple if you can't do step mashes.

As for pureeing........How long do you leave the fruit in the vodka? Can you just do chunks of mango that's been soaked in vodka for a day or two? Maybe freeze the chunks overnight? (like I've done with a strawberry blonde)

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90min mash is important. Just do 90 at 150f to keep things simple. For the purée I add the vodka and let the blender run for a minute or so. I don't see why your method for the fruit wouldn't work. I've never done it that way though.

Do you do a cereal mash or just toss the instant rice in the mash? This looks mighty good.

Zekk said:

Do you do a cereal mash or just toss the instant rice in the mash? This looks mighty good.

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Im pretty sure it's flaked so I've always tossed it right in.

Am I just being stupid? I don't see what yeast you're using in this. Was also going to ask what temps you're fermenting this at in primary and secondary? I understood that cream ales are usually supposed to be made at lagering temps. Sounds nice though. Love me some mango.

I am assuming 8# the "#" means lb, am I right? that's 6 lb of mangos or mango puree? doesn't the beer turn sour coz of excess mango?

I recently had a very tasty IPA with Mango-Guava and Tangerine zest from 4 Hands Brewing in St. Louis. I wanted to make my own version, but didn't know how to use Mango. I'm going to try your method but add the other fruit and see what happens.
Thanks for posting.

KeyWestBrewing said:

*Note - I puree the mango chunks in a blender with a few shots of 3 Olives Mango Vodka to sanitize the fruit. Regular vodka probably works fine but I feel better using a mango vodka in case any flavor carries over. Plus my gf drinks the stuff

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How did this turn out? I'm looking to make my own Mango Ale after having one in St. Croix. It was wonderful!!!

Don't worry about the vodka as by the time the mango chunks were added the pH was too low to allow mold/bacteria to grow. However, maybe add a bit of pectin of using mango fruit.