Apricot Puree (Vitner's Harvest) Tartness

[heyblinkin]

I really enjoy apricot ales. Magic Hat #9 was one of the first craft beers I started drinking in college, and the flavor has stuck with me. I brewed a simple Pale Ale a month ago and decided to try and secondary on top of 3lbs of Vitner's Harvest Apricot Puree. I went to keg it today, after 3 weeks in primary and 1 week in the secondary with the puree, and the taste is almost un-drinkably tart. I control my fermentation and I am confident in my sanitation. The beer tasted great before the secondary so I believe the culprit is the puree.

My questions is, will this tartness go down with age? and has anyone had success with using apricots, and what are some of the best methods for getting apricot flavor in your beer (without using the extract). I am still am interested in brewing an apricot beer, but need to improve on what I have in my keg right now.

 

[eastoak]

pyramid brewing has an apricot beer that is very popular. a former lead brewer there is a friend of mine and he told me their secret ingredient is peach puree. they call it apricot for marketing reasons, they thought calling it peach would not sell as well. who knows why your beer is tart.

 

[heyblinkin]

Interesting. I may give the peach puree a try. It has to be better than the apricot.

 

[mooshimanx]

Apricot has a very similar flavor to Peach, its just significantly stronger. You may just need less than 3 lbs. of puree if you're looking for a mild flavor.

 

[Schumed]

pyramid brewing has an apricot beer that is very popular. a former lead brewer there is a friend of mine and he told me their secret ingredient is peach puree. they call it apricot for marketing reasons, they thought calling it peach would not sell as well. who knows why your beer is tart.

Interesting ....I've always have read that if you want peach flavor used apricots.....I tried making a peach wheat with 5lbs of peach purée in the secondary and hardly got any peach flavor or aroma from it

 

[cblack85]

that's interesting. I just had a similar situation with the Vintners Harvest peach puree. I brewed a standard American Wheat recipe for the base (one that I have brewed several times before), and am confident in my sanitation procedures. When I kegged the beer yesterday it had a VERY tart aroma. I am hoping that with a little time in the keg the tartness will die down.

Did the tartness in your beer ever mellow out?

 

[heyblinkin]

Nope. I let it sit for almost six weeks and then dumped it to make way for another beer.

 

[rcs226]

If you are looking for a good place to start with an apricot beer you should try northern brewer's apricot blonde. I think it's part of the master brewer series by breakwater??? Regardless, it's we're I started and I agree with what you said about the tartness. This is going to break your heart since you dumped it, but the tartness started to fade for me. I brewed it on march 16, and it's really coming together now. Of course I have been sampling it all along and my buddies hit it hard last weekend, so there is little left. I definitely will brew it again and I'm not a big fruit beer fan.

If you do decide to make it I would not use the entire bottle of extract as the recipe suggests. I think I used 1.5 oz of the 4 oz bottle and left it at that.

 

[chuckstout]

pyramid brewing has an apricot beer that is very popular. a former lead brewer there is a friend of mine and he told me their secret ingredient is peach puree. they call it apricot for marketing reasons, they thought calling it peach would not sell as well. who knows why your beer is tart.

I thought they used extract, same with magic hat 9

 

[powermd]

I just found this thread and I'd like to echo the comments about tartness from Vinter's Harvest apricot puree.

I did an apricot wheat, and then an apricot ale recently and both came out tart to the point of being unpleasant. I only used 1 can for 6 gallons in each case, fermentations were carefully temp controlled, and sanitation was never in question.

I kept 12 bottles of the wheat and dumped the rest, and kegged the ale. I'll give these four weeks to mature, but I'm pretty disappointed. I added 4 oz of Brewer's Best apricot extract to each, but the tart taste had been present prior to the extract addition.