No fresh cranberries for cranberry ale!

[laurabeth]

Hey everyone,

Help a 20-something female brewer out! We are a rare breed around my area, so I am relying on you all. I am fairly new to the hobby, but I have been using HomeBrewTalk for a couple of months to answer questions about everything under the sun related to brewing.

Anyway, I just started a cranberry ale which is in primary fermentation right now, but after trying to buy cranberries realized that they are not easy to come by in the Spring (without the prices being jacked way up, at least), so I am looking for either an alternative flavor altogether or an alternative source of cranberry flavor.

Here is the recipe that I followed:
6 lbs Light malt extract
1 lb Crystal 40L
2 oz. roasted barley
2 oz. Cascade (60)
Dry Ale Yeast

Secondary with:
6 lbs. cranberries
1 c. corn sugar

Does anyone have any suggestions of a flavor that would complement the other flavors in the malt/barley/hops that I used? Or, do you think I could use cranberry juice instead, and if so would that alter the corn sugar content? I apologize if any of my questions seem very basic, but I am still learning the ropes and am eager to build some brewing brains, so any and all comments are very appreciated.

Thanks!
-L

 

[acidrain23]

Can you get them frozen? If not, how about other frozen berries? Raspberries in particular would be good.

Cranberry juice could work, but make sure it is unsweetened. Cranberry Juice COCKTAIL will probably be horrible, so avoid that.

Another possibility, if you can source them (Latino markets often carry them) would be Hibiscus blossoms, which around here anyway are sold in 1 lb bags of dried blossoms. They have a tart- cranberry like flavor.

 

[wrench]

I would be surprised if you can't find frozen cranberries somewhere. Then again, I live in MA which is the cranberry capitol. So maybe I'm just spoiled. It may be a stretch, but I would also check the major home brew suppliers for cranberry extract.

Nevermind, I was curious and did the search for you. Midwest has canned cranberries and cranberry extract.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/cranberry-vintner-s-harvest-fruit-bases.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/cranberry-extract-4-oz.html

 

[laurabeth]

I was considering raspberries, but I know that some fruits have enzymes in them that can mess with the composition of the beer and wasn't sure if that was one of them. Good call on using juice without added sugar—I wouldn't have thought of that. This will probably end up being a pretty experimental batch, as it seems most of my mine are, so maybe I'll try it with the juice and see what happens. Thank you!!

 

[laurabeth]

I would be surprised if you can't find frozen cranberries somewhere. Then again, I live in MA which is the cranberry capitol. So maybe I'm just spoiled. It may be a stretch, but I would also check the major home brew suppliers for cranberry extract.

Nevermind, I was curious and did the search for you. Midwest has canned cranberries and cranberry extract.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/cranberry-vintner-s-harvest-fruit-bases.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/cranberry-extract-4-oz.html

Oh, sweet! I could try that out. I'm from New Jersey, so I was also surprised that they are so hard to find because there are bogs galore around here.

 

[ACbrewer]

I used cranberry sauce once for a wine... you could look at that. Although it is cranberries and I think cornsyrup which would alow you to cut back on that sugar mentioned for the secondary.

For the record, the wine came out between blush and red (rose?) and was a pleasent tart flavor. Similar to a comercially available wine that I like, and thus I won't repeat - to much other beer/wine/mead to make and the commercial one wasn't very $. But still tasty, much better than a 'hey let me try this' deserved to be...

 

[natefrog255]

Can you make cranberry extract out of raw cranberries/vodka? I also have plenty cranberries as my father in law manages a large cranberry marsh in Wisconsin (another cranberry capital ). I usually just added a ton of raw cranberries after pitching the yeast to the primary but my last batch it really messed with the FG so I was thinking about trying to turn the raw cranberries into an extract.

 

[mac21]

Curious to see if you went with Cranberries or another fruit. I'm in Philly and found this post by searching for cranberries. Also, Philly homebrew club:
http://phillyhbc.org/
We meet every 3rd Fri at 7pm at Barry's!

 

[Rheedia]

Hi
I live in Brazil so I have no access to cranberry other than in the dried form.
Anyone has any experience or tips on using cranberry in the dried form.
Any clues if it could work? How much dried cranberry in a 5 gallon batch?
Thanks
Marcos

 

[Quaker]

I recommend 500g in 5 gallon. I've used other dried fruit successfully. Pay attention for oil on them. Often they are packaged with sunflower oil or other oil to keep them from sticking. That can harm head retention. You may try a hot water rinse to remove some.

If I can get juice from the same fruit, I like to use enough to cover the dried fruit in a pan or blender and purée together.

Hope this helps.

 

[z-bob]

Hi
I live in Brazil so I have no access to cranberry other than in the dried form.
Anyone has any experience or tips on using cranberry in the dried form.
Any clues if it could work? How much dried cranberry in a 5 gallon batch?
Thanks
Marcos

I would use dried hibiscus petals, often called "jamaica" or "roselle". It should be easy to find down there. Add them to the kettle, or boil them in water to make a strong tea and add that (both the tea and the boiled hibiscus) to the secondary.