I want to infuse heavy apple flavor

[dirtybasementbrew]

My wife has been on a Redds Apple Ale kick, I know don't judge me because of SWMBO! I just brewed a batch and had a temp scare (twmp jump thread) not sure how the brew will turn out so I figured I would make her happy and mak an apple flavor. What is the best way for over the top apple flavor?

 

[Beernik]

Epic Brewing does a sour apple Saison. They use an apple concentrate.

It's one of my all time favorite beers.

 

[dozer5454]

I would have to agree with the concentrate. I believe you could press a ton or so of apples but that might be a bit of a pain.

 

[dirtybasementbrew]

I never used a concentrate could someone tell me the technique. Sterilizing, adding etc...

 

[JimRausch]

I never used a concentrate could someone tell me the technique. Sterilizing, adding etc...

I've used 4 oz. of Cherry concentrate in two different batches of 'Mocha Cherry Stout'(5G batches). The bottles of concentrate from LHBS or online retailers are sterile, so all you have to do is add them at some point. A few differences there if you search the forum. Most probably add it a week or so before bottling/kegging. Some add at bottling time. Others recommend you take samples of the beer and spike with various amounts of the concentrate to find out what dose YOU want to use. You might want to try that technique to see if 4oz. will be enough for your SWMBO or if she might prefer more.

 

[AznDrgn]

I have done apfelwine a few times and to get more of the apple flavor and to back sweeten a bit I used frozen apple juice concentrate from the grocery store mixed into the bottling bucket.

 

[Ridire]

Stupid question: if you add juice concentrate at bottling, don't you risk bottle bombs? Won't some of the juice sugars ferment?

 

[AznDrgn]

Stupid question: if you add juice concentrate at bottling, don't you risk bottle bombs? Won't some of the juice sugars ferment?

Not a stupid question at all, and the short answer is yes. The long answer is it depends on how much you use. I use the apple juice instead of the priming sugar and if I am back sweetening I will pasteurize the bottles after a few days.

 

[Ridire]

Not a stupid question at all, and the short answer is yes. The long answer is it depends on how much you use. I use the apple juice instead of the priming sugar and if I am back sweetening I will pasteurize the bottles after a few days.

Ah, I didn't think about doing something to kill the yeast to stop the fermentation.

I am still very new to this stuff and have only made fairly straight forward beers.

I have been contemplating doing a strawberry blonde by just taking my normal blonde ale and adding 3-4 lbs. of fresh strawberries after fermentation is complete and leaving them in there for 3-4 weeks. Do I need to do something more so that I do not ferment out all of the strawberry taste?

EDIT: sorry for the hijack.

 

[dirtybasementbrew]

No hijacking, kidding. That's the thread is for I have a lot to learn as well!!!! Lol

 

[dirtybasementbrew]

Not a stupid question at all, and the short answer is yes. The long answer is it depends on how much you use. I use the apple juice instead of the priming sugar and if I am back sweetening I will pasteurize the bottles after a few days.

So what is the formula for using a concentrate for priming? Is it the weight of the concentrate or do I need to check can label for sugar amounts? Than how long do you condition without loosing the fruit flavors?

 

[dozer5454]

As for concentrates, I have used KW Knewsen (I think that's how it's spelled) cherry concentrate in my secondary when I did a chocolate cherry stout. The cherry flavor did not go away by any means. You may be able to take your batch and split it between a few secondaries with different apple concentrate amounts. The one you/SWMBO like best can be scaled up to the 5/10 gallon level.


As for the strawberry blond. Just do a search on this site. I found a great one that I tweaked. I added 8lbs of frozen strawberries to the primary after fermentation, then transferred to secondary for clearing. It smells amazing and tastes even better.

 

[dirtybasementbrew]

As for concentrates, I have used KW Knewsen (I think that's how it's spelled) cherry concentrate in my secondary when I did a chocolate cherry stout. The cherry flavor did not go away by any means. You may be able to take your batch and split it between a few secondaries with different apple concentrate amounts. The one you/SWMBO like best can be scaled up to the 5/10 gallon level.

As for the strawberry blond. Just do a search on this site. I found a great one that I tweaked. I added 8lbs of frozen strawberries to the primary after fermentation, then transferred to secondary for clearing. It smells amazing and tastes even better.

How about spices, I have always added them to end of the boil but not this time. Can I add them to secondary as well or at bottling? Nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, etc

 

[dozer5454]

You and add vanilla to the secondary with no problems. Just sample your beer after about 10 days. You don't want the vanilla to overpower the beer, which it can. As for the other spices, I'm not sure as I haven't used them in a beer. I'm going to do a pumpkin beer for Thanksgiving. I will see how it turns out.

 

[webdevsoup]

I know this thread is a little old (2 weeks). Don't do any dry spices to secondary (ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, etc). They will simply form a layer at the bottom of your beer. I have tried 2 different times to do spices in Secondary, to no avail.

 

[dirtybasementbrew]

I know this thread is a little old (2 weeks). Don't do any dry spices to secondary (ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, etc). They will simply form a layer at the bottom of your beer. I have tried 2 different times to do spices in Secondary, to no avail.

I kinda chalked this one up as a learning lesson. I left the brew go as it was and bottled on Tuesday. Turned out to b a quite tasty IPA. I didn't add anything to it at all. I'm actually putting my grain bill together right now for a holiday brew experiment. Cheers and thank you for the input!