Fruit and Hefe

Brewed our first Hefe yesterday and everything went very well. I've been agonizing over what fruit the add to the secondary and was looking for input... rasberry, peach, strawberry, and a citrus blend (orange, lemon, lime peels) all sound appealing. Anyone have any experience with peach? This beer in the primary smells so good (love the banana) that I'm also considering just leaving it alone and adding fresh fruit at serving time to see what may go best with it.

Thanks in advance.

If it's your first Hefe then you might want to leave the fruit out. That way you can get an understanding of the yeast profile and the flavor that your recipe produced. Or I would go for raspberries about 6 pounds for five gallons. If you use the frozen ones I would heat them in a little water to 160F and hold them to temp for 10 minutes. That way they are sterile, the pectin won't set and they become an easily poured substance.

Im on a dry hop kick at the moment. I wonder what a Hefe would taste like dry hopped with a bit of Hallertau?

Jsin,

Yeah, rasberry seems to be the beer fruit of choice... something just tells me some peach (maybe puree) would do well in this beer though. Might split the batch and fruit half of it.

JB,

As far as the Hallertau, I used it for aroma and and, so far, I like it. How's the wheat, coriander, and orange (in your sig)?

JimmyBeam said:

Im on a dry hop kick at the moment. I wonder what a Hefe would taste like dry hopped with a bit of Hallertau?

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Everything tastes better dry hopped with Halertauer ( I have become a big fan of the German noble hops.)

What ever fruit you choose, remember to make sure the berries/pieces of fruit are larger then your racking tube. I used blueberries that were small because they are out of season here and they clogged my racking cane, forcing me to pour my beer into the bottling bucket through a strainer. Not a happy day in brewing for me...

Go ahead and split the brew half and half. Just in case something like this happens, you'll still have a good Weissbier waiting for you in a couple weeks.

Nate said:

JB,

As far as the Hallertau, I used it for aroma and and, so far, I like it. How's the wheat, coriander, and orange (in your sig)?

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meh.....

I accidently let the temp get up to 74 for a couple days. So its good if you like the smell of banana bread in your beer

next attempt will be dry hopped though

On fruit brews:

I think most wines and beers make sure to use non-acidic fruits. I think sweetness is needed to balance the natural acids. My strawberry ale came out tooo tart- think of it as a hard-lemonade, not beer. I wanted tart, but 7# of strawberrys in 5 gal of beer was too much. Plus I used a sour mash. Anyhow, citrus wines use only a couple lbs of fruit, and lots of sugar... 5 gallons of Mandarin Orange juice would make an undrinkable recipe. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, plums,peachs would be better. How about Cantalopes? if you are gonna have the beer burps anyhow...

Anybody got a recipe for malt-based Margaritas? is Tequila extract available?

yeah I used 8lbs of strawberry for an ale and it is an overpowering flavor, and not in a good way. This comes from a Strawberry LOVER.

I was in Alaska for the last 3 weeks and went to as many micros as I could. There is a very good Rasp Wheat at the Mooses Tooth that I had my share of the 3 times we went there.