To Puree or not to Puree?

Hello all,

I am gearing up to do my first fruit beer, a strawberry blonde ale. I have searched the forums for info on fruit preperation and haven't found the answer I am looking for. Should I puree the the fruit in the wifes new Margarita mixer or add them whole?

I am planning on using the mini-mash version of the Texas Blonde Ale from AHS and between 8 and 10 pounds of frozen strawberries. 4-5 pounds in primary and then 4-5 pounds in secondary, then a third transfer for clearing.

Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated

No need to puree, leaving them in there for a week or two will definitely get the flavor out. I just chopped mine into quarters. BTW 8-10 lbs will be ALOT of strawberries. You will likely lose a lot of beer to the strawberry mess at the bottom of primary and secondary. Standard is 3-5lbs. I've done both a strawberry blonde and a blueberry blonde with that Texas blonde recipe and both came out great.

I wash & halve the strawberries, put them in a clean, sanitized tupperware container and freeze them, and then add them en masse to secondary and rack on top.

I've done pureed and I don't like the results as much. With pureed the flavor isn't quite the same (it tastes more like tomato to me), and it certainly doesn't clear as well. Despite racking several times and filtering at each step with cheesecloth, I always end up with bits of pureed strawberry in the bottles when I go that route.

mosquitocontrol said:

No need to puree, leaving them in there for a week or two will definitely get the flavor out. I just chopped mine into quarters. BTW 8-10 lbs will be ALOT of strawberries. You will likely lose a lot of beer to the strawberry mess at the bottom of primary and secondary. Standard is 3-5lbs. I've done both a strawberry blonde and a blueberry blonde with that Texas blonde recipe and both came out great.

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Gotcha! Whole it is and I will reduce the total strawberry addition to 3lbs in primary and 3lbs in secondary, only because I bought 2 X 3lb bags

Thanks a ton!

weirdboy said:

I wash & halve the strawberries, put them in a clean, sanitized tupperware container and freeze them, and then add them en masse to secondary and rack on top.

I've done pureed and I don't like the results as much. With pureed the flavor isn't quite the same (it tastes more like tomato to me), and it certainly doesn't clear as well. Despite racking several times and filtering at each step with cheesecloth, I always end up with bits of pureed strawberry in the bottles when I go that route.

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Yeah, I was wondering about the clarity and how much sediment would be leftover from the puree. Thanks for the heads up!

yea i just made a grapefruit beer and pureed the fruit, figuring it sink. theres a huge mess on top of the beer, and im guessing there will be pulp in the keg, which kinda blows ha ha

no_borders said:

yea i just made a grapefruit beer and pureed the fruit, figuring it sink. theres a huge mess on top of the beer, and im guessing there will be pulp in the keg, which kinda blows ha ha

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Grapefruit? Now that sounds good too, lol

I just started drinking on a Belgian White that I did in March and I added a splash of OJ to the glass before pouring the beer in and I think I have found my new love, lol

What do you guys think about peaches? I was actually going to post this has a question myself this week. I brewed a blonde and am going to rack half of it over frozen peaches, I too was considering pulverizing them, my reasoning being that mascerating it would pretty much render it purely to "peach sugar" which the yeast would happily gobble up.

The yeast are going to gobble up the sugars either way.

To me there are differences in mouthfeel, flavor, and clarity that are determined by whether you puree or not. It's those differences you should be worried about.

Wrecked said:

Grapefruit? Now that sounds good too, lol

I just started drinking on a Belgian White that I did in March and I added a splash of OJ to the glass before pouring the beer in and I think I have found my new love, lol

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the grapefruit deffinetly sounded good on paper haha. but i think i over hopped the pale ale, its not bad, just very different than i had originally imagined

Forgive the Noob... but does adding fruit change the amount of sugar that you need to add when bottling? I have a Hefeweizen in the fermentor now and will probably add some oranges when I move it to the secondary.

Thanks,

Chap said:

Forgive the Noob... but does adding fruit change the amount of sugar that you need to add when bottling? I have a Hefeweizen in the fermentor now and will probably add some oranges when I move it to the secondary.

Thanks,

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My understanding is no, as long as the beer has reached full fermentation. Any of the guru's feel free to correct me.

I was also under the impression that the SG goes up .010 for every pound of fruit added, which is the reason a blow-off tube may be needed.

How about Mango? I really love them and I really love beer so why not combine.

Yes, adding fruit adds more fermentable sugars. How much depends on the fruit you add and how much of it. You will get a "referementation" if you add fruit in secondary. It's important to plan for this. You'll want some extra headspace in your secondary, and probably a blow-off tube. I wouldn't advise an airlock because you can get chunks of fruit churning that can clog it up, resulting in a fruity beer explosion.

brewagentjay said:

How about Mango? I really love them and I really love beer so why not combine.

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you can literally ad anything to beer, but as palmer says, just because you can, doesnt mean you should. ive made chili beer so hot its impossible to drink, and the grapefruit i added to a pale ale just doesnt fit with all the hops and is kind of weird, fruit beers are really harder than they sound. i didnt believe it at first, but ive been strugglin with them right along ha ha

IMO fruits are far, far better in meads (which are amazing, almost every one I've ever had).

brewagentjay said:

How about Mango? I really love them and I really love beer so why not combine.

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Try this test: puree a really small amount of mango and put it into the same style you would consider to be your base brew for what you have in mind.

Yes, yes, it will be sweeter and all because it is unfermented, but look past that and test the flavors together. If you like them, give it a shot. If it makes you want to spit out something that tastes gawd-awful, thank yourself for taking the time to spare a whole batch.