How do I use fresh guava (and a couple other fresh fruits) for brewing?

[TrickyDick]

Hey,

So in my latest batch of beer, I decided to do a sour ale and have a secondary fermentation with fruit. I ended up brewing 13 gallons of wort 1.046 OG that I am doing the primary fermentation with ECY01. I plan to rack into secondary carboys (3) on top of three different fruits. I am not entirely sure how to prepare these fruits for fermentation.

Fruit #1 is 15 pounds of fresh picked blueberries. I had to freeze these since the berries are ready before the beer. From what I have been told, this is a good thing to do to fruit as it can kill some bugs, and helps to breakdown the cell walls so the yeast, and in my case, other bacteria, can get at the fermentables.

Fruit #2 is 15 pounds of fresh picked Florida Pink Guava. I understand that guava can be eaten like an apple, yet has nor core, but that the skin is edible, though there may be a rind. I have never brewed with guava before, and although have eaten in the past and enjoyed the flavor, this is not a fruit I use frequently, or even rarely - more like extremely rarely. So as a result, I am not really sure how to prepare it for the secondary fermentation process: washed ? YES , Frozen? probably also a YES, Quartered? Ground in meat grinder after being quartered? Pureed in a food processor after being quartered? They are pretty good sized guava, mostly between tennis ball and baseball size. maybe cutting into quarters, and then again into 1/8 or even cutting along the equator into 1/16? Not sure what to do with these guys...

Fruit #3 is fresh Rhubarb. Since it isn't a local fruit, Its harder to come by. I have about 3.5 pounds on hand, that I stuck into freezer. Planning on 15# of this as well. I'm planning to freeze it and slice into chunks. Not sure if I should give a brief spin in the food processor or not. Of course, I froze it before I could cut it up, which makes matters more difficult. Anyway wondering if there is a consensus.

It seems that pureeing the fruit in a food processor would give most access to the fruit products. It might end up lending pectins and causing haze though. I could Just chunk/muddle after washing and freezing, which seems the best option out of the gates, having never done this before. I could juice it in a fancy macerating juicer which would remove the pulpy parts (I'd be borrowing this equipment since I don't own one). I am sort of curious about the juicing, since it seems would perhaps contribute less planty flavors that pureeing might lend, and help remove the cellulose cell wall stuff which may be unferementable. I'm not really concerned about infecting the beer since its a sour beer to begin with. Ultimately I plan to bottle some of each type straight, and some blended portions for variety.

Anyways, any suggestions welcome.

Thanks!

TD

 

[jknapp12105]

Have you used fruit in the passes?

First I would just wash the fruit very well.

My experience using fruits takes roughly 1-2 months of infusion to be able to taste the fruit in the beer. As long as you wash the fruit thoroughly you have nothing to worry about, I mean it is going into alcohol after all. The only thing that's aggravating is the time of infusion. If you looking to get a quicker taste turnover I highly recommend extract. But with a fruit like blueberries it will be changing the SRM due to the color density in blueberries (which I like). Don't worry, it will turn out great! Just let it age!


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[jknapp12105]

Guava I would just cut into halves and let them rock and roll, but I would skin them first.

Never made any with rhubarb before.


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[TrickyDick]

Thanks for the info!

The blueberries will get washed. They are frozen now in ziplock bags.
The guava smells outrageously good. Tasted some last night and is nicely flavored and ripe. Some skins are soft probably from the shipping. I think I might use a scouring pad to clean the skins and wash really well, then quarter and freeze until I'm ready. Not sure I have the patience to peel 15 pounds of guava. The rhubarb I still need to source more, what I have now is the the grocery produce packaging and in the freezer.
As far as the infusion time, these fruits are going to be in the secondary for about 11 months I'm planning.

Thanks


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[oregonianredbird]

I'd love to know how your results were from using these fruits - especially the guava, as I have a couple of prolific trees in my yard right now. I'm planning to freeze ~15-20 pounds for a future sour, but haven't started anything yet. I might also do a guava by itself, a passion fruit or blueberry by itself, and then blend when I bottle.

 

[TrickyDick]

Ok.

If you want clean beer, you should pasteurize the fruit. If you want sour beer, I'd advise freezing it. This will for ice crystals and perforate the cell walls. Might also consider a free on the fruit of doing a clean beer. For the guava be sure to pick and freeze at peak ripeness.

There are probably other threads on how to pasteurize.

What I did I'll describe. I did a batch of simple sour ale primary ferm til complete then racked into three cArboys each with a different fruit: blueberries, rhubarb, pink guava.

I had all fresh fruit. All had been frozen first except the guava. The rhubarb I sliced into 1-1.5 inch pieces and added. The blueberries I did nothing to except freeze.

In retrospect I wonder if I should have done a mini punch down on the blueberries.

The guava was hot from Being in the mailbox for a day! Thanks USPS! Some fruit had soft spots and blemishes. Those I boiled briefly then cooled and ran through a food mill. Small fruits I quartered. Larger pieces got coArsely chopped. The purée from food mill and other pieces were then frozen I now realize.

I thawed and dumped into carboys before racking the sour beer.

In retrospect I think slicing larger guava into thick slices and quartering the rest would've been better. Why? Because the resultant fruit mass was hard to rack off the beer afterward and I lost some in that mass. The solid pieces in the other carboys were easy to rack from.

Could've used a large straining bag I suppose to contain the guava rather than just loose in the carboy.

Good luck


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