Looking for Saranac Pomegranate Wheat Clone

I visited the Saranac Brewery a few weeks ago and sampled all of the beers and soft drinks they had. Their winner seems to be this "Pomegranate Wheat".

I'd like to clone it. I live in Canada and we can't get that beer here. Anyone know of something that comes close to it?

http://www.saranac.com/beers/beerdescription.cfm?id=13FDBCA0-C4FE-A977-E9F68068A796B65C

never had it and as it is fairly new I believe there probably isn't a "clone" just yet. You'll probably have to experiment.

I'd say get a good fruit/wheat beer recipe (probably more like an american wheat?) and then use either pomegranate juice or syrup for the fruit flavor. You can find the juice in supermarkets (in the U.S. anyways) and the syrup (which may be better as it is concentrated) in "ethnic" markets that sell middle eastern food products.

Good luck.

edit... oh and where in Canada? As Saranac is Upstate NY I am surprised It would not be in Ontario or Quebec at least?

Actually, I'm from Montreal, Quebec. I haven't seen any Saranac beer Imported here yet. I haven't made a wheat beer yet, but I'll give it a try with an American Wheat. I wonder how much Pomegranate juice I should add to a 5 gallon batch? I'm guessing it would be added after the boil?

well, if you like it alot you can drive down to VT and get some there. I am not for certain they have it in Newport or other towns up on the border but I have seen it down here in St. Johnsbury (about an hour from the border).

As to a formulating your recipe, sorry, I don't really have any experience with fruit beers. Look at some of the fruit beers in the recipe DB here and search on the web then just substitute the pomegranate juice for whatever flavoring being used.

As to what kind of wheat beer it depends how it tasted. If you could taste the type of fruity esters associated with german or belgian yeasts (citrus, bubble gum, etc.) than shoot for one of those types. If it was pretty clean tasting and predominately the pomegranate than shoot for an american wheat.

I can tell you that the best Black Cherry Ale I ever had, I made with a 75% barley 25% Wheat ratio. At flame-out I added 3 quarts of pure (no added sugar or preservatives) Black Cherry Juice from a natural food store. The result was a real high quality beer without a sweet or overly fruity taste.

It most certainly isn't a belgian, and I'd hesitate to even call it a good american wheat. I've had it an have been thouroughly unimpressed. It is pretty one dimensional, and the pom flavor is barely there at all. Not to mention there is some kind of strange off-flavor in the finish. I don't have a developed enough palate to describe what it is. Maybe someone else can jump in here. I'm sure anything that we make as homebrewers will be better than the commercial version.

I think a problem that you might run in to is that pomegranates are fairly tart, and can completely overpower any of the hop or grain flavors in the beer. I think this must have been the same problem that the Saranac guys had. Their solution was to cut down on the pomegranate significantly so the other elements of the beer could be noticed. The problem with that is they used a very boring base beer to begin with, and relied on the pom to give it it's character.

So maybe approach it with a raspberry wheat recipe in mind, and that way the tartness is taken into account in the recipe already. Maybe substitute pound for pound raspberrys with the pomegranates, and see how that works. I've never had a good beer made with fruit extracts, but I guess it can't hurt to try that either.

sorry for the keyboard diarrhea

mike

I've not had it, but in a recent watermelon wheat that I did, I added 2 cups of watermelon juice to 5 gallons and it was just subtle enough to not overwhelm it. When I do it again I will not change a thing.

So....for pomegranate, I think it will take the same kind of experimentation. I'd buy a couple of bottles of that 100% pomegranate juice you find in the grocery store and start with a half cup, taste, decide from there.

The key here though--brew a good wheat recipe first.