Fruit Beer Cranberry Wheat

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renwickme

New Member
Joined
May 30, 2011
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Location
Wisconsin Rapids
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
Nottingham
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
Unknown
Final Gravity
Unknown
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
Color
Red
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
7, room temp.
Tasting Notes
Smooth, clean aftertaste
I live in Central Wisconsin, a hot "bed" of the cranberry industry. *Some friends of ours work for Ocean Spray, so we get cranberries galore. *To utilize this abundance of fruit I use cranberries as an essential ingredient in my American wheat beer.

1. *Crack the grain.
2. *Steep the grain in a boiling pot of water (I use two kettles to avoid boil overs, see first attached photo).
3. *Add the malt, raise temperature to 160 degrees and boil & stir for 30 minutes. *
4. *Add .5 oz. of Tettnang hops to boiling wart and continue boiling & stirring for another 30 minutes.
5. *Add the remaining .5 oz. hops and stir.
6. *Take wort off burner and put the kettle into an ice water bath.
7. *Chop up a bag of cranberries and put them in a bowl (second attached photo). *Add at least 8 oz. of honey to the cranberries and stir.
8. *Put the cranberry/honey mixture in a cheesecloth (third attached photo). *Steep this in the cooling wort for twenty minutes.
9. *Once wort has cooled to room temperature, pour it into glass carboy and add three gallons of filtered or distiller water.
10. *Start yeast and pitch it into wort.
11. *Cap the wort and let it sit for 7 days in a dark, cool room. *
12. *Bottle it (add 1/4 tsp. corn sugar in each bottle) and let sit for at least another 7 days.
13. *Bottoms up!
 
jrobidoux said:
This sounds interesting! What kind of flavor do the cranberries impart when used like this?

Definitely a tartness if not a fruit flavor. Also adds a reddish hue to the color of the beer. Because cranberries aren't very sweet, I add honey to the brew. best comparison may be a Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic, with the fruitiness taken down a couple notches.
 
I'm going to modify this recipe some to use a pale ale extract, and add an extra bag of whole cranberries to a re-ferment for an effect like kriek... I hope.
 
I'd be interested to hear how the pale ale extract changes things. The pale ale/wheat combination seems to be popular right now.
 
To deggenbe, are you referring to the amount I spent on grain? Otherwise I am not sure what you are asking, sorry for my ignorance.
 
i must be blind, i don't see any list of ingredients... i look and look and look, i'm trying to not miss it, but i fail to see any list, heh.
i see the description on what you do with it.
I see 5 gallons, i see the yeast, in the instructions i can gather how much hops you use, but not sure on the grains.

did it used to be there but now its gone?
 
I ended up making six gallons of brew, but my secondary is five gallons. So I'll bottle about a gallon when the primary is done and put the rest in with whole berries and let them set awhile in the secondary. It'll make for an interesting comparison.
 
Ok got most of the batch in a secondary. I'm doing the berries along the lines of a kriek beer, though I did add some corn sugar to help. The cranberries were frozen but thawed to room temperature and washed before being added.

referment.jpg
 
Did you bottle yet? How did this turn out?

When Deggenbe asked about your grain bill, what he's asking is what grains you mashed and how much of each. I'm also curious about this.

Thanks.
 
This is all i see in the original Post. no recipe at all. is there a post elsewhere with the ingredients listed?


I live in Central Wisconsin, a hot "bed" of the cranberry industry. *Some friends of ours work for Ocean Spray, so we get cranberries galore. *To utilize this abundance of fruit I use cranberries as an essential ingredient in my American wheat beer.

1. *Crack the grain.
2. *Steep the grain in a boiling pot of water (I use two kettles to avoid boil overs, see first attached photo).
3. *Add the malt, raise temperature to 160 degrees and boil & stir for 30 minutes. *
4. *Add .5 oz. of Tettnang hops to boiling wart and continue boiling & stirring for another 30 minutes.
5. *Add the remaining .5 oz. hops and stir.
6. *Take wort off burner and put the kettle into an ice water bath.
7. *Chop up a bag of cranberries and put them in a bowl (second attached photo). *Add at least 8 oz. of honey to the cranberries and stir.
8. *Put the cranberry/honey mixture in a cheesecloth (third attached photo). *Steep this in the cooling wort for twenty minutes.
9. *Once wort has cooled to room temperature, pour it into glass carboy and add three gallons of filtered or distiller water.
10. *Start yeast and pitch it into wort.
11. *Cap the wort and let it sit for 7 days in a dark, cool room. *
12. *Bottle it (add 1/4 tsp. corn sugar in each bottle) and let sit for at least another 7 days.
13. *Bottoms up!
 
You're right, but we have to wait for the OP to get back. I got the impression he wasn't familiar with the phrase "grain bill" earlier.

At any rate, you can use ~50% wheat and ~50% pilsner malt and you should do just fine, there's not too much to an american wheat beer grain bill.
 
I was looking for some ideas on using cranberries. Sand Creek makes very nice ale using them. I will be making something today and thought I would boil the berries for 10 min or so and put them in the primary. Don't know if I should crush them or keep them whole.
 
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