ShareBrewing
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Has anyone experimented with the best way of adding cooked apples to beer?
I'm making a honey-apple brown ale that I really want to have some culinary fun with. It's usually 14-16 gal batches at a time so I usually have 3 carboys to experiment with (one being a control, of course). This is a 4 gal portion which will be topped off with wild flower honey and 1/2 gal of honey crisp apple cider (pasteurized, no preservatives).
Honey Apple Brown Ale (4.0 gal portion)
OG 1.058 IBU 28.7
22.2 SRM
35.2% US 2-row (Briess)
23.4% Vienna malt (Avangard)
11.0%. Munich 9L (Avangard)
11.0% Cara-Red (Weyermann)
9.7% Flaked Oats (Briess)
3.4%. CaraMunich 47L (Weyermann)
3.4 %. Chocolate Wheat (Weyermann)
First Wort - East Kent Goldings 8.0 IBU
60 min - EKG 13.8 IBU
15 min - EKG 6.8 IBU
WLP002 - English Ale yeast
0.5 lbs Honey (wildflower) @ 75% attenuation
1/2 gal Honey crisp apple cider @ 75% attenuation
??? Cooked apples (secondary)
Mash at 150F for an hour.
It's obvious that it'd be best in secondary but what would be the optimal cooking method (baking vs. caramelized in pan)? Was thinking of doing about 2 pounds. The English yeast will help to leave some residual sweetness and that is also why the cider and honey are added so late in primary. This will help the beer's body be unaffected by a sugar addition and enhance the flavors.
I have also experimented with graffs (ale fermented with apple cider) and even with 2 gal wort to 3 gal of cider, the wort becomes so diluted the final product really just seems like a cider. Almost no beer flavor. I've done a few batches of that and it seems to be similar results. Light body, some sweetness from the cider but not much.
Has anyone ever tried any of these things? Any knowledge bomb you could drop would be awesome. Cheers!
I'm making a honey-apple brown ale that I really want to have some culinary fun with. It's usually 14-16 gal batches at a time so I usually have 3 carboys to experiment with (one being a control, of course). This is a 4 gal portion which will be topped off with wild flower honey and 1/2 gal of honey crisp apple cider (pasteurized, no preservatives).
Honey Apple Brown Ale (4.0 gal portion)
OG 1.058 IBU 28.7
22.2 SRM
35.2% US 2-row (Briess)
23.4% Vienna malt (Avangard)
11.0%. Munich 9L (Avangard)
11.0% Cara-Red (Weyermann)
9.7% Flaked Oats (Briess)
3.4%. CaraMunich 47L (Weyermann)
3.4 %. Chocolate Wheat (Weyermann)
First Wort - East Kent Goldings 8.0 IBU
60 min - EKG 13.8 IBU
15 min - EKG 6.8 IBU
WLP002 - English Ale yeast
0.5 lbs Honey (wildflower) @ 75% attenuation
1/2 gal Honey crisp apple cider @ 75% attenuation
??? Cooked apples (secondary)
Mash at 150F for an hour.
It's obvious that it'd be best in secondary but what would be the optimal cooking method (baking vs. caramelized in pan)? Was thinking of doing about 2 pounds. The English yeast will help to leave some residual sweetness and that is also why the cider and honey are added so late in primary. This will help the beer's body be unaffected by a sugar addition and enhance the flavors.
I have also experimented with graffs (ale fermented with apple cider) and even with 2 gal wort to 3 gal of cider, the wort becomes so diluted the final product really just seems like a cider. Almost no beer flavor. I've done a few batches of that and it seems to be similar results. Light body, some sweetness from the cider but not much.
Has anyone ever tried any of these things? Any knowledge bomb you could drop would be awesome. Cheers!