Brewing with Guava Paste

I have a question to you guys here, I am from South Florida (Cuban) and decided that I want to brew an IPA with a cuban flavor to it. Ill be doing a Guava IPA but my question is, should I use Fresh Guava or can I use Guava paste and/or Guava extract? I want to know what's the brewing process and or ingredient addition process should be like.

Should I add my guava in the boil, primary or secondary? I want the guava to hit you in the face like a sack of sweet bricks! Thanks in advance.

Im also Cuban, but live in Massachusetts (from Puerto Rico). I love Guava and so for my second brew tried making a guava beer with an old kit I had. It was horrible, but because of my fault, so I plan to eventually with more brews under my belt to try it again. What I did is buy a can of Goya Guava Paste, I mixed it with water and boiled it for a bit to make it easier to work with, then I poured it into the secondary carboy. I think that next time ill add it at flame out in the boil, as the paste has a ton of sugar and it set off another somewhat big fermentation. Next time ill also be more careful of what beer to use Guava in, as it has such a strong flavor.

Im intent on making an awesome "Guayabirra"!

Guava paste has a lot of refined sugar in it and you'd have to buy several pounds of it. I think you'd be happier with guava juice or fresh guava. Fresh guava would be the best. Add it to the secondary or after initial fermentation is complete. Remove the skin and try to keep the seeds out. Some seeds and fruit skins can give bitter flavors, I don't know about guava.

Eugenio said:

Im also Cuban, but live in Massachusetts (from Puerto Rico). I love Guava and so for my second brew tried making a guava beer with an old kit I had. It was horrible, but because of my fault, so I plan to eventually with more brews under my belt to try it again. What I did is buy a can of Goya Guava Paste, I mixed it with water and boiled it for a bit to make it easier to work with, then I poured it into the secondary carboy. I think that next time ill add it at flame out in the boil, as the paste has a ton of sugar and it set off another somewhat big fermentation. Next time ill also be more careful of what beer to use Guava in, as it has such a strong flavor.

Im intent on making an awesome "Guayabirra"!

Click to expand...

I didnt think adding it to the secondary would be a good idea because the beer has already fermented and like you said would set off a second fermentation. That happened to me with my black cherry stout. I added the concentrate directly to the secondary and it started fermentation again. I thought my beer was infected. lol. I want a strong guava flavor in my beer.

Beernik said:

Guava paste has a lot of refined sugar in it and you'd have to buy several pounds of it. I think you'd be happier with guava juice or fresh guava. Fresh guava would be the best. Add it to the secondary or after initial fermentation is complete. Remove the skin and try to keep the seeds out. Some seeds and fruit skins can give bitter flavors, I don't know about guava.

Click to expand...

Im thinking of buying several pounds of the guava paste because its so cheap. Im thinking of adding it with my grain. I know it will ferment much quicker with all the sugar it already has in it. I want the guava to hit you in the face.

Secondary is better for keeping the flavor. You get a second fermentation, it's less vigorous. You want the less vigorous fermentation.

If you add fruit at the beginning of primary fermentation, the large quantity of CO2 being pushed out the airlock carries a lot of the flavor and aeromatics out with it. If you put it in the mash, you'll lose even more in the boil.

The only time make I an exception to using it in the secondary is when making wine or using something really fibrous, like pumpkin or banana. That's when you want it in the mash or to pulp it in a mesh bag.

Keep us posted. I'll be interested to hear how this turns out.

So I brewed this yesterday :

6.00lbs Maris Otter
4lbs White Wheat Malt
1lb Vienna Malt
1lb Light Brown Sugar
Mashed @ 161 for 45 minutes

3lbs Guava Paste @ Boil


0.25 Cascade Hops at 60 Minutes
0.25 Super Alpha 60 minutes
0.25 Cascade Hops 40 minutes
0.25 Super Alpha 20 minutes
0.50 Centennial 5 minutes
Wyeast 1007 w/starter

The smell of Guava was deliciously noticeable. Now this is what happened. I couldnt strain the wort because the guava paste made it very difficult to strain. So I put it in my primary to allow gravity to settle the guava.

My OG was somewhere around 1.09 because of the guava.

This morning I went to check the carbuoy and there was no bubbling. I found this strange because all of my other beers were bubbling the following morning after brewing. Any ideas of whats going on? Im hoping I dont have to toss this batch but it seems like I am going to have to.

anyone?

Could your guava paste have sorbates/nitrates/preservatives that could inhibit fermentation?

I made a Guava Imperial IPA this past summer that turned out great. I used canned guava that I found at my local Asian market(The only ingredients were guava and syrup).

1 lb of pureed guava at flameout and 4 lbs of puree in the secondary. I dry hopped after second fermentation and used mosiac and citra. I would recommend dropping to 2-3 lbs of guava in the secondary, as the guava was overpowering the hops.

Oh yeah, drink it young as the flavor and aroma really faded quickly. Cheers!

Subscribed. Guava is one of my favorite fruits (I am also Puerto Rican). I cook with it and guava paste every so often. The last thing I made were hickory-smoked baby back ribs with a homemade guava barbecue sauce.

Guava in beer? Sign me up. This makes me wonder how a beer (golden ale or something similar) would turn out with Guanabanas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop).

"The flavour has been described as a combination of strawberry and pineapple, with sour citrus flavour notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavour reminiscent of coconut or banana."

mando_dando said:

My OG was somewhere around 1.09 because of the guava.

This morning I went to check the carbuoy and there was no bubbling. I found this strange because all of my other beers were bubbling the following morning after brewing. Any ideas of whats going on? Im hoping I dont have to toss this batch but it seems like I am going to have to.

Click to expand...

How much yeast did you pitch? Did you make a starter? With an OG of 1.09, you will have needed to pitch around 320 billion cells. It's too early to make any true observations, but if you underpitched, then you're in a lag phase. Don't throw it away, just wait.

BeerGrylls said:

How much yeast did you pitch? Did you make a starter? With an OG of 1.09, you will have needed to pitch around 320 billion cells. It's too early to make any true observations, but if you underpitched, then you're in a lag phase. Don't throw it away, just wait.

Click to expand...

I pitched 100 Billion. I guess thats where I went wrong

mando_dando said:

I pitched 100 Billion. I guess thats where I went wrong

Click to expand...

Yeah .. it's not optimal, but just wait. It'll do its thing.

Update:

It started to bubble yesterday and I was happier than a pig in crap. I just got home to check on it and when i open up the beer bag to look inside the smell of fart shot out like a bat out of hell. It smelled so bad. What do I do guys?

mando_dando said:

Update:

It started to bubble yesterday and I was happier than a pig in crap. I just got home to check on it and when i open up the beer bag to look inside the smell of fart shot out like a bat out of hell. It smelled so bad. What do I do guys?

Click to expand...

Haha, nothing! Just wait! Patience my man, or as wet say around here, RDWHAHB relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.

Lol. The wife isn't happy with having the house smell like fart! Lmao. Oh well. She is going to have to hang in there

Any update on how this beer turned out and what else you would do differently? I'm really interested in infusing the Guava with an IPA like Shorts Freedom of 78'. Also if you like guava in beer, try that Freedom of 78'. Man it's fantastic!