adding fresh fruit juice

[bramptonbrewer]

Has anyone here ever tried to mix with fresh fruit juice in the keg. These raddlers that are being sold today say they are a 50/50 blend and some are pretty good.

 

[bramptonbrewer]

Really! No one here has ever done this?

 

[Dewrag]

Putting juice in the keg may spark additional fermentation and/or contamination. Adding juices to wort prior to fermentation has definitely been done many, many times. If you add "juice" to the keg, are you planning on drinking it right away or letting it age?

 

[bramptonbrewer]

I would be drinking it right away. As far as fermentation goes, once it's in the keezer, it will be way to cold for the yeast to be active.

 

[rupert130]

I would be drinking it right away. As far as fermentation goes, once it's in the keezer, it will be way to cold for the yeast to be active.

They'll still work, just way slower. If you wanted it to remain stable, consider filtering, pasteurizing, or possibly campden tablets to inhibit any yeast activity.

 

[LazyLab]

I've added pomegranate juice to an IPA before. Taste really good but the flavor dies out with in a few weeks. Abita says they use strawberry juice in their strawberry lager but they have the luxury of being able to filter. What you are basically talking about though is just cocktailing your beer. Pour a pint and keep a container of the juice you want in the kegerator and add a splash or two to the pint. Or fill a separate keg and carbonate the juice and cocktail it that way.

 

[bramptonbrewer]

Good point, I could use Campden tablets. I know it would bring the abv down too. I have been drinking a few commercial beers lately that are 50/50 blends and they are pretty refreshing. The fruit flavor is very strong. I can't imagine it would have been added to the brew at any other point.

 

[jwelch1103]

A Radler traditionally is a 50/50 mix of a Pils, Helles, or a similar lager with lemon soda. If you keg your beer it might be best to just draw a half glass of beer and top it off with some cold Sprite, or 7-Up.

 

[nzeman20]

I recently brewed a Pomegranate/Blueberry Wheat for SWMBO which turned out great. I added juice to the secondary and let it ferment out but then added additional juice straight to the keg with the beer and let it carbonate together at 42*F. It was a little sweet for me so I moved the keg to room temperature for about 10 days. (My thought was to reawaken the yeast and let them eat some of the sugar from the juice). Now it tastes great and my wife loves it. I do agree though that the fruit flavor does die off slightly over time.

 

[Yesfan]

Will the 50/50 mix make the overall drink a little too sweet? I noticed with the strawberry blonde recipe I did, I mashed at 150 to keep it a bit on the dry side since I was adding fruit for the secondary.


The reason why I ask is I'm thinking about making a german alt, and using part of that for some (hopefully) tasty radlers. I had a bottle of Stiegel last night that contained "fruit soda" in it. It was really tasty, so I thought about either getting some sparkling lemonade (either regular or pink) or just go with the typical country time lemonade mix (again, either regular or pink). This will not be added to the keg, but just to the glass, then topped off with beer. Suggestions?