GF fruit beer

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mcbethenstein

mcbethenstein

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Hi all, I'm new to this forum and fairly new to brewing. We got a kit at Christmas and quickly expanded. I'm a long time fibromyalgia sufferer and cancer survivor, and recently decided to try the GF lifestyle to see if it will improve my symptoms.... Now for the important stuff. I am looking to make a fabulous GF fruit beer. I am not big into the taste of "plain" beer, and prior to this really only liked wheats and fruity stuff. Ex. Berry Weiss and wild blue. I am hoping to come up with something so overpoweringly fruity that you can't tell it's GF. I need guidance. I live near northern brewer in Milwaukee, and have access to a few other LHBS. What I think I can get from northern is a 6 lb white sorghum syrup and 1 lb. Rice syrup solids. I've done an extract/dme batch before. I assume the process would be the same. What do you think? Tell me all the little tricks. My intention is to brew a base, then add a whole bunch of blueberry purée to the secondary. Hop suggestions? I'm not big on hoppiness. Yeast suggestion? I assume I will go with a dry yeast. Should I add DAP? How much? Any one make something similar? Thanks for all the help.

P.s. I have a cider in the bottles, but it's still way to new to drink yet. Needs about 3 more months of mellowing time. So hopefully this can fill my void.
 
If you're more into fruit than beer, you should check out the mead forum. Although, that isn't going to help you with the 3 month void.
 
Well, I haven't made a fruit beer yet, but the way I would approach it is to find a recipe and convert it to GF.

For example, if you can find a clone recipe for a beer that you like, post up the clone recipe and we can help you convert it.

A lot of the fruit beers I've seen are basically wheat beer recipes with fruit added, so if I were doing it, I'd do something like:

6 lbs Sorghum Extract
1 lbs Rice Extract
1 oz Hersbrucker, 60 minutes (this could be substituted for a different hop, you'd just want to aim for the same IBU)

With only a bittering addition, your fruit should be the dominant flavor.

I would think that either a wheat yeast (brewferm blanche?) or a neutral yeast like US-05 should do the trick.
 
ive made a bunch of fruit or flavored beers.

most of them have been strawberry, because thats what im partial to.
ive done 3 batches of strawberry blonde (all came out slightly different), 1 ginger brew, and a hazel nut brew


the challenge in fruit beers ive found is that the hops and the sugars we use can be VERY overpowering when it comes to GF beer.

so the first obstacle is to come up with a base recipe that will provide us with the potency we want but not put the fruit flavors on the back burner.

personally i CANNOT STAND the taste of sorghum in about 98% of all the GF beers ive tried. i dont like the metallic citrusy aftertaste it gives off, that might explain the 4 7# jugs i still have yet to use. its just to over powering IMO.

remember that different yeasts impart different flavors, if you really like heffe's, then you might want to find a way to isolate a whit yeast and cultivate it to be GF.

we have some tips tricks and methods floating around the gf section here.

for a good base i, personally, have found the following to work well:

4# millet, toasted to a nice caramel color (this is where a lot of variation occurs, replication of malt toasts gets hard at a home scale). after you toast it let it waft for at least a week in a brown bag, THIS IS CRITICAL. steep at 150F for 1 hour ( i use a grain bag so when the steep is over i just pull the bag from the brew pot, like a giant tea-bag.

the millet soaks a lot of water up. but first i add in my sugar and maltodextrin, my brew paddle is a rubber spatula, its short. so i can make sure i can stir the wort and scrape the bottom so i dont scorch the sugar. when you add the maltodextrin, if your already boiling you WILL BOIL OVER. so thats why i add it when im coming up to temp.

i add 7# of tapioca extract (breiss)
~1# clover honey
10-14oz maltodextrin (yes this is a S..T ton, but i like it, leaves a residual sweetness, add to brewpot slowly while stirring to avoid malto-balls forming like dumplings)

bring h20 up to 4 gal and bring to a boil

hopps:
i use a total of 1.5-2oz czech saaz. 4.0%aa
i break it up like 1 oz at 60, .25 at 30min and .25 at 30min. but this is all personal decisions. do as you will just remember, over hopping will cover fruit flavor.

@ 15min i add my wort chiller, double the recommended amount of yeast nutrient, irish moss

cool to pitching temps and add yeast and pectic enzyme. ive used safale, coopers, and fermentis yeasts, but my favorite final product came from the use of a home isolated heffe yeast.

i also racked over 4# of diced fresh strawberries that i blanched quickly right before adding to to primary

my final volume for my primary is about 6.5 gal. there WILL BE A lot of trub and fruit mess left in the primary. youll lose about a gal when racking to secondary. then youll lose about a half gal when racking to bottle.

if you put the work into isolating a heffe yeast. try to brew the same day as you bottle. you can use the yeast cake you just racked off of to start your next brew.
 
DirtbagHB said:
ive made a bunch of fruit or flavored beers.

most of them have been strawberry, because thats what im partial to.
ive done 3 batches of strawberry blonde (all came out slightly different), 1 ginger brew, and a hazel nut brew


the challenge in fruit beers ive found is that the hops and the sugars we use can be VERY overpowering when it comes to GF beer.

so the first obstacle is to come up with a base recipe that will provide us with the potency we want but not put the fruit flavors on the back burner.

personally i CANNOT STAND the taste of sorghum in about 98% of all the GF beers ive tried. i dont like the metallic citrusy aftertaste it gives off, that might explain the 4 7# jugs i still have yet to use. its just to over powering IMO.

remember that different yeasts impart different flavors, if you really like heffe's, then you might want to find a way to isolate a whit yeast and cultivate it to be GF.

we have some tips tricks and methods floating around the gf section here.

for a good base i, personally, have found the following to work well:

4# millet, toasted to a nice caramel color (this is where a lot of variation occurs, replication of malt toasts gets hard at a home scale). after you toast it let it waft for at least a week in a brown bag, THIS IS CRITICAL. steep at 150F for 1 hour ( i use a grain bag so when the steep is over i just pull the bag from the brew pot, like a giant tea-bag.

the millet soaks a lot of water up. but first i add in my sugar and maltodextrin, my brew paddle is a rubber spatula, its short. so i can make sure i can stir the wort and scrape the bottom so i dont scorch the sugar. when you add the maltodextrin, if your already boiling you WILL BOIL OVER. so thats why i add it when im coming up to temp.

i add 7# of tapioca extract (breiss)
~1# clover honey
10-14oz maltodextrin (yes this is a S..T ton, but i like it, leaves a residual sweetness, add to brewpot slowly while stirring to avoid malto-balls forming like dumplings)

bring h20 up to 4 gal and bring to a boil

hopps:
i use a total of 1.5-2oz czech saaz. 4.0%aa
i break it up like 1 oz at 60, .25 at 30min and .25 at 30min. but this is all personal decisions. do as you will just remember, over hopping will cover fruit flavor.

@ 15min i add my wort chiller, double the recommended amount of yeast nutrient, irish moss

cool to pitching temps and add yeast and pectic enzyme. ive used safale, coopers, and fermentis yeasts, but my favorite final product came from the use of a home isolated heffe yeast.

i also racked over 4# of diced fresh strawberries that i blanched quickly right before adding to to primary

my final volume for my primary is about 6.5 gal. there WILL BE A lot of trub and fruit mess left in the primary. youll lose about a gal when racking to secondary. then youll lose about a half gal when racking to bottle.

if you put the work into isolating a heffe yeast. try to brew the same day as you bottle. you can use the yeast cake you just racked off of to start your next brew.
Click to expand...

Quick question, have you done the fruit in primary on all of the (fruit) brews you've done?
 
That's my question too? I've seen in non-GF threads that adding fruit in the primary causes off-flavors. Or at least increases the chances of off flavors.
 
no, i did it in secondary the first time cuz i read about the off flavors, then i had to wash out the carboy..PIA. but i read some where that the off flavors came from the seeds. so in to primary, ive diced the berries and tossed em in and ive also pureed and strained out the seeds, i didnt notice a difference.
 
i also dont know how they are treating the fruit prior to addition. you run the risk of infection if you add it to the primary with out treating. so i do a quick blanche. add the berries to just enough boiling water to cover them. then toss the whole mess into the cold water in the fermenter waiting for warm wort.... beer with me ive had a few
 
My strawberry hefeweizen came out pretty well. You can read mine and my GFs comments on that page.

I added to secondary, but only because it was easier. I would not hesitate to add to primary. Not sure what off flavors it could possibly cause, but I wouldnt worry too much about it. I freeze instead of Dirtbag's blanch method because a) I keep the fruit in the freezer anyway before use and b) it breaks down the fruit so that you dont need to chop it up, it becomes mush.

If you want a beer that is insanely fruity, you might look instead into graff instead, its basically cider-beer. Or...just cider. That's definitely GF. Fruit wines might interest you too, I have made a few.
 
DKershner said:
My strawberry hefeweizen came out pretty well. You can read mine and my GFs comments on that page.

I added to secondary, but only because it was easier. I would not hesitate to add to primary. Not sure what off flavors it could possibly cause, but I wouldnt worry too much about it. I freeze instead of Dirtbag's blanch method because a) I keep the fruit in the freezer anyway before use and b) it breaks down the fruit so that you dont need to chop it up, it becomes mush.

If you want a beer that is insanely fruity, you might look instead into graff instead, its basically cider-beer. Or...just cider. That's definitely GF. Fruit wines might interest you too, I have made a few.
Click to expand...


I don't think you'd really be looking at 'off flavors' from putting fruit in primary, I've just heard that the fruit flavor doesn't come through as strong (volatiles and aromatics being scrubbed out with the CO2, more of the sugars being broken down, etc etc). But, you know, that's just stuff I've heard from guys on the internet, right? :D

You could try making banana beer, I know I read about it somewhere online (I think the dude was doing a millet and banana beer, something about the enzymes that ripen the bananas being the right ones to convert the grain in a mash...)
 
Ok, here's what I have available to me. Let's come up with a great and easy recipe. Please keep in mind that I'm crazy enough to attempt to make this beer and a sweet stout for my man on the same day, and I'm breastfeeding a 7 month old... I know. I'm crazy.
So I went to sendik's and got a bunch of bob's red mill GF stuff. Some for baking, but some I thought could be used for beer. I got (for baking) brown rice flour, sorghum flour, and tapioca starch (this is different than the tapioca solids I've seen mentioned right?). Potentially for use in brewing cornmeal (coarse ground), steel cut GF oats, and millet. Each bag is 28 oz. I still plan on using the sorghum syrup and the 1# bag rice syrup solids. I plan on 1 oz. Hersbrucker hops @ 60 min and either the danstar Munich or brewferm Blanche yeasts. I am open to suggestions, but was hoping to brew tomorrow/Saturday, so I don't have a lot of time for malting or roasting my own grains at all... So basically if you think it will work I'll steep/partial mash and use the dried rice syrup solids and the liquid sorghum.
 
I did a blood orange hefe around this time last year and it came out nice. Blood oranges should be in your area since they are in mine. I get them from Whole Foods.
 
I'm so impatient. Here's what I'm thinking. Tell me if you think it will work.
Steep at 145-150 for 45-60 min
1# millet
1# coarse cornmeal or flaked maize
1# GF oats
Strain/ sparge and bring volume to 3 gal
Add 3 lbs white sorghum syrup
1# rice syrup solids
8 oz bag maltodextrine
Bring to boil
Add 1 oz hersbrucker hops @ 60 min
Super moss at 10 min
Chill
Transfer to fermenter bring to 5 gal volume. pitch yeast. Add DAP. Ferment out. Rack to secondary over 3 lbs of blueberry purée.

Do I need to crack the millet, or can I use it as is?
 
beware using flour..BEWARE. in readings and experiment. i did a damn good job at making glue, but that was about it.

id crack the millet.

id also toast the grain for some yummy nutty flavors
 
I really have no intentions of using flour, just thought I'd double check. Can I toast the millet on a baking sheet? Time/temp recommendations? And do those #'s look good?
 
I use a baking sheet when I toast my grains. I start my oven at the lowest setting and increase 25 degrees every 30 minutes or so until I get the color I want. Rinse the grains first.

Usually when I roast my grains I let them waft for a week or 2 but I think if you are doing a light "toast" you would be fine to use them the next day.
 
Cool, I think I'll toast the millet and GF oats. I don't think I'll worry about toasting the corn meal.
 
dorklord said:
I don't think you'd really be looking at 'off flavors' from putting fruit in primary, I've just heard that the fruit flavor doesn't come through as strong (volatiles and aromatics being scrubbed out with the CO2, more of the sugars being broken down, etc etc). But, you know, that's just stuff I've heard from guys on the internet, right? :D

You could try making banana beer, I know I read about it somewhere online (I think the dude was doing a millet and banana beer, something about the enzymes that ripen the bananas being the right ones to convert the grain in a mash...)
Click to expand...

Well, it'd be something to test, adding fruit pre-ferment and post-initial-ferment. I dont think there would be much of a difference though.

I thought noontime was using bananas to increase head retention, I thought sweet potatoes was the enzyme producer...so confusing.
 
So brew day went smoothly. I started at 10 am and just finished here at 4:30. Brewed the GF base first, and as that was boiling I was mashing the sweet stout. The only casualty was my hydrometer that I smashed while I was washing out the brew pot to get the stout on the stove. I did run and get a new one while the stout was boiling... I had a helper watch it;)
We only started all grain with our last batch and yesterday I got the false bottom for our mash tun (5 gal rubbermaid), so I'm super impressed with the efficiency I got on the stout. After the boil I was only at 4.5 gal, but the starting gravity was up over 1.060, so I topped off to 5 gal and got a 1.057. (the target was 1.054)
On a side note I did get a migraine mid brew day. I was stirring the stout and it came on quick, so I'm wondering if that's a gluten detox symptom or if I'm that sensitive to handling gluten. Come to think of it I did get a migraine on another brew day too! I did my best to wash my hands in-between beers and didn't use the same utensils on them. that's why I brewed the GF first... Didn't want gluten residue on anything.

The GF fruit beer base went as follows:
Steeped 1# coarse ground cornmeal, 1# GF toasted oats & 1# millet for 1 hour in 2 gal spring water. started the hour at 170, finished at 142. ( I toasted the millet and oats last night starting at 175 and ending at 325. I raised the temp 25 deg every 20 min. This am cracked grains in a bag with a rolling pin)
Sparged grains with 1 gal of 160-170 deg water. Added maltodextrine, rice syrup solids and 3 lbs sorghum syrup. It seemed pretty light and I was concerned about not hitting a high enough starting gravity so I poured in another 1# of sorghum. Started boil and added 1 oz 2.4% AA hersbrucker hops (60 min). At 10 min I added 1/4 tsp super moss and 1 tsp DAP and my chiller. Cooled and topped to 5 gal. OG 1.048. Pitched 1 packet danstar Munich yeast.

I have extremely high hopes for this. I might even try to bottle 3 or 4 when I rack to secondary to see how this comes out without the fruit. It smelled AMAZING. I'll let everyone know how it comes out. I even photo-documented the whole process to show to friends and co-workers. If it's good I'll have to post my photo story.

I also learned the trick to brewing with a baby in the house... Start early in the day when they are still happy and hope for good long naps!
 
DKershner said:
Well, it'd be something to test, adding fruit pre-ferment and post-initial-ferment. I dont think there would be much of a difference though.

I thought noontime was using bananas to increase head retention, I thought sweet potatoes was the enzyme producer...so confusing.
Click to expand...

It wasn't someone on this forum...I don't remember just where it was, but the guy was basing his idea on some kind of african beer that was made with unmalted millet and bananas.
 
Off topic kinda. I know a guy who gets severe migranes when he has gluten, so there's a chance it could be related. I still have to pass off some beer to him come to think of it.
Off topic 2: Start up a brewing blog like everyone else, handy to share and at the same time, keep track of your brewing recipes and notes. (Assuming that you note better than I do when I wait a week then post and forget what my OG was.)

I'm considering cherry or raspberry as a flavoring but it'll be a while before I have time and space so I'd like to know how the results are in a month or two.
 
What might I expect for a finishing gravity on a GF beer? I want to know when I should rack to secondary.
 
1010 - 1014 sort of thing.

Basically I wait for it to have the same reading two days in a row, then I leave it for a few days. Although you should be right to transfer it to your secondary when it's stopped.
 
mcbethenstein said:
What might I expect for a finishing gravity on a GF beer? I want to know when I should rack to secondary.
Click to expand...

It depends on OG and sugars used. In general, reduce your OG by about .25 to get a good idea.

As in, if your beer starts out at 1.080. 80 x .25 = 20, so 1.020. The more maltodextrin you use, the higher the .25 will be. The more corn sugar or beet sugar you use, the lower the .25 will be.
 
I transferred today. Gravity was at 1.017 before it went into the carboy. 1.023 after being added to the blueberries. I'm pretty certain that it wasn't completely fermented out, but I plan on at least 2 weeks in the secondary. Looking good so far. I did put about 1/2 gal into a 3qt glass jug with an airlock to see how the base mix turns out without the blueberries.
 
mcbethenstein said:
I transferred today. Gravity was at 1.017 before it went into the carboy. 1.023 after being added to the blueberries. I'm pretty certain that it wasn't completely fermented out, but I plan on at least 2 weeks in the secondary. Looking good so far. I did put about 1/2 gal into a 3qt glass jug with an airlock to see how the base mix turns out without the blueberries.
Click to expand...

Would be great if you could update us at the end with the full recipe/tasting notes etc. Interested in brewing a beer with fruit.
 
Blueberry Explosion Ale and Gluten Free base brew in the small glass carboy. Sweet Stout in the background. Looks and smells awesome so far.

3512-all-back-home-happy-pantry.jpg
 
It's bottled and looking good! I ended up moving it to a tertiary on Friday and filtering and adding gelatin. It tasted pretty hot, but I think that was from excessive tannins still in suspension. Last night it looked pretty clear and tastes like it has a ton of promise. I thought on Friday it was going to be too wine like, but yesterday it tasted like fresh blueberries. I think the base definitely has Weiss character to it. I got 6 bottles of that w/o the blueberry. I'll post a pic once it's carbed up and we crack one open
 

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