Adding fruit to lambic

[Pierre Schutz]

Hello lambic brewers,
I'm originally from Belgium and miss my Kriek and framboise lambic. I recently bought a property in Wasi.gton State that has several producing cherry trees and planted a raspberry orchard.
In reading multiple articles on making lambic I was not able to find information on whether you include the cherry stones or for raspberries include the seeds and also if you need to pasteurize the fruit before adding it to the lambic.

 

[Beekeeper]

Prior discussion here indicates that the cherry pits often remain in the batch when using fresh fruits.

 

[Drewch]

Regarding the pits, Milk the Funk has a pretty in-depth discussion:

https://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Soured_Fruit_Beer
And also:

https://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Glycosides#Cyanogenic_Glycosides

 

[suprchunk]

No treatment except for freezing, which semi-macerates it I guess you can almost say.

Cherries I, personally, have frozen for a week or two (we had tons of worms I had to sort through and this helped expedite their exit from the fruit). Then dump my lambic on them when fruiting.

Raspberries I've always just bought frozen and dumped them in during fruiting.

In both instances, a word of caution: use a bigger vessel than you had been. The fruit takes up more space than it looks like it could, and you will release CO2, plus some more fermentation. Rack off later if you want to clear it in a more appropriate sized vessel. I just let it clear in the bottle. Unless I'm bottling for a show! Rare.

Both awesome fruits for Lambic. If you want Lou Pepe levels I believe it is 300g per liter. The regular versions are closer to 200g per liter. Nobody is telling you not to add more if you want. I certainly wouldn't mind trying that.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

 

[hottpeper13]

I have a 25 gal lambic barrel. I make a base beer 1/2 barley and wheat,fermented with 2565 trying to stay around 1.020 fg. We take out 18 gal every year and put it on 3 fruits,cherry , raspberry and a wildcard. We found out that you need to use 6.5 gal carboys and top up with 6 gal in order to get 48 bottles. This basicly happens in Nov because I can ferment at 60* outside the ferm chamber. This year we are changing to Ameretti Artisan with 4-5 star reviews for a real fruit flavor(put 7 oz in a saison ) and no waste. Mine are 3 years G to G so they take awhile.

 

[suprchunk]

I just moved and had to dump a 5+ year old base out of my LARGE to me barrel (2+bbls) last year. While it was disheartening, I took comfort in the fact that it picked up WAY too much character from the oak and red wine that were in it prior. While a good "whiskey" beer, it wasn't what I would blend into a gueuze, or mix with any fruit. My plans were always to have, either a solera-type thing, or at least 4-5 barrels so that I could be blending and brewing each year to make the next blend. Moving put a slowdown on that.

I do as hottpeper13 does, barley/wheat base with minimal IBU and throw it in my barrel. I use wood. When blending, or mixing with fruit, I'll throw it in another vessel that won't get any character or bugs from it; stainless conical (7g or 15g depending). I'll age it in those until ready to package making sure the majority of work is complete so I won't have bottle bombs, though I rarely do in the proper punted bottles that I collect from Jean and Armand over a number of years visiting their establishments. I have yet to have one of these bottles crack or break, let alone blow up.

I agree whole-heartedly with the "no waste" approach mentioned above. When you deal with something that took this long to get there, you certainly want to conserve as much of it as you can. I mention my barrel dumping as a cautionary tale to avoid making more than you can use in a reasonable timeframe. I had higher aspirations and life got in the way a bit, but I should have started smaller. I just wanted the most liquid to work with.

Sorry to go tangential. @hottpeper13 got me reminiscing about a ton of sour stock I used to own.