Pomegranite Kolsch

So... I've been brewing a lot of Edwort's Kolsch and I've been thinking that it would make an excellent platform for a light fruit addition. Has anyone out there tried pomegranite in a brew?

What are some of your experiences when adding fruit? This would be my first time.

I am part of a veggie co-op and just got some poms, my first thought was to brew with them. I fear the flavor may get washed out and just turn tart. Had same problem with a strawberry I made. How many poms are you thinking? I thought about 4lbs of just fruit (seed) once ferm is done.

That's my fear, but I'm also afraid of overpowering the rest of the beer. What I'm looking for is just a subtle pom flavor to go along with that yummy subtle fruitiness already present from the yeast profile. I was only going to add the seeds of two fruit to a 5.5 gallon batch at first unless someone had some experience. And yes, the plan was to do it once the initial fermentation is largely complete, although I had also considered just adding juice when I pitch the yeast too.

I haven't tried pomegranate but here are some notes from Mosher's Radical Brewing book (It's got a table with descriptions of 20-odd fruits that could be used in brewing): "Pomegranate: Delicate acidic fruit with some tannic character. Best in mead, cider".

No experience with this, but it seems like a great subtle flavor for a kolsch. Please post your results if you try it (tempted to do a small batch myself now).

I made a pomegranate saison a few months ago. Turned out very drinkable. I used a fruit beer base with Wyeast Belgian Saison (3724). I and everyone who drank it commendted they had never had a pomegranate beer before and what a great flavor it was. The funny thing was that half of the people who drank it said they could barely taste the pomegranate, the other half said it was a bit too much pomegranate.

I added the pom juice in secondary.

Off topic, well sort of. Afghanistan just completed it's second large export of produce in over 40 years. The sent poms to Kuwait. I just sent two soldiers to cover the event and they brought back a BOX of poms. All I could think about was throwing some dextrose in a bottle and juicing the hell out of those things and dropping some yeast on top.

I WILL have some sort of pom beer when I get back to the US.

Maybe this is off topic as well but I could see a pom mead kind of thing working out very well. It is a flavor really meant for mead or almost a kriek kind of thing.

I don't have any experience in mead. What makes pomegranite so well suited for mead, and less so for the Kolsch application?

@Joe: I'd guess it's something like this...

If poms can be high in tannins (as Mosher writes), then the extra sweetness of the mead would likely balance the bitterness and astringency nicely.

Kolsch tends to be more bitter than mead, so the tannins wouldn't be as easily balance out (unless the recipe was modified to take this into account).

I have used Pom molasses in hefes very successfully.

Demfer said:

I have used Pom molasses in hefes very successfully.

Click to expand...

Home made? Also, how much are you using to get what effect? Have you found it necessary to adjust your hefe recipes in any way to bring the fruit out?

My wife uses pom molasses in some persian dishes she makes. It is available in ethnic food markets - comes in a glass bottle about the size of bottle of ketchup. I thought about trying this but the flavor is pretty tart - not a lot of sweetness like pom juice.

The sweetness of pom juice would likely ferment out anyways... So perhaps the pom molasses gives a better indication of the flavor that's imparted by pomegranates?