Pomegranate and Blueberry Beer - Best Practice?

[HarborTownBrewing]

Each year the spouse gives me a general beer concept for something she'd like to drink for her birthday, and my job is to have it ready for her party with family and friends. Usually the first time I try it is at the party, so hey...no pressure or anything. Historically, the beers have all been a hit and well enjoyed.

This year's task: Pomegranate and Blueberry beer - I'm thinking of going with a Cream ale or Saison as a base recipe. I'm not concerned about the malt/hop part...I'm more concerned about the fruit addition.

So, any thoughts as to the best ways to add these two fruit components? I'm looking for input on what has worked for you, if you've tried this. I'm not sure there is a "right" way, but maybe a few ways that have produced favorable results.

Since I'm assuming the pomegranate and blueberry will dry it out a bit, I'm thinking of using a little Honey malt to give the beer a bit of sweetness. I don't want this to come out dry from the added sugars of the fruit, but I also don't want it sweet.

Anyways, any thoughts or input is appreciated.

 

[ArcLight]

I've made several fruit beers (BlueBerry, Raspberry, Cherry, Boysenberry).

The #1 question I have for you is "What is the source of your fruit"?
Canned puree?
Fresh?
Canned whole?

If its canned, and puree, you are golden, proceed below.

If it's canned and whole, I open the can (cover with plastic wrap and leave the lid on loose), then freeze it, to rupture the cell walls, then defrost and proceed below. Be warned that some will leak out. You must open the can to prevent it from rupturing. After its frozen for a day, defrost in a pot of warm water and puree in the blender.
This will add Oxygen, while not ideal, is ok as the yeast will use it. Proceed below

Fresh fruit - far more problematic. Fresh fruit is covered with wild yeast, spores, mold, bacteria. The Pomegranate may be ok, as you can just add the seed kernals to a blender and puree it and proceed below. The blue berries I would wash in soapy water, rinse well, Puree it, heat it up to 160 (it will cause a Pectin Haze) for 5 minutes, cool it and add it below.


1. I ferment the beer for a week, then rack to a better bottle, and add the fruit.

2. The fermentation will restart, and the fruit pulp will settle to the bottom. After a week I take a sanitized spoon and gently stir up the bottom to redistribute the fruit sludge and expose unfermented fruit to the yeast. Don't stir hard as at this step you don't want to add O2.

3. Let sit 2 more weeks, and since these may be milder fruits sitting 3 or 4 weeks is ok too.

4. When you rack there will be a sludge at the bottom, you don't want to bring a lot of it over to your bottles or keg. You will lose a fair amount of beer to the sludge. You could try racking some of the sludgy beer to a plastic bottle, add a packet or two of sugar and screw on the cap. Maybe it will make a sludgy beer. Maybe it will be bitter and nasty.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

@arclight

Thank you for the detailed info. In my research on this I found a post you had written some time ago related to this subject, but this breaks it down a bit more for me.

I anticipated some additional fermentation when adding the fruit, but the timeline you laid out has me concerned. I need to have this ready by July 3, and my next brew day isn't until May 29. Basically that gives the beer just a tad over two weeks in the carboy, which may not be enough for a beer with added fruit. Hmmm.

Here is my Hail Mary: any experience using a Pomegranate or Blueberry extract? For instance, this one (http://www.olivenation.com/Pomegran...xtract_a2s_2&gclid=CMjW9_6xwcUCFQkuaQodQ6QARQ), which says it is sugar free - think it would provide the flavor without additional fermentation time needed? I could add it at bottling perhaps.

 

[m1k3]

I made a pomegranate wheat that was a big hit.

If you want to make it fast... keep the gravity down... and use juice not fruit.

Also, the fact my was a wheat beer meant that it didn't have to be clear.

I added the juice as soon as primary fermentation started to slow... usually 3-4 days in. And the beer was done in 10-12 days.

https://plus.google.com/photos/109505539931745584533/albums/5808120480807550353

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

If you want to make it fast... keep the gravity down... and use juice not fruit.

Also, the fact my was a wheat beer meant that it didn't have to be clear.

I added the juice as soon as primary fermentation started to slow... usually 3-4 days in. And the beer was done in 10-12 days.

https://plus.google.com/photos/109505539931745584533/albums/5808120480807550353

Good idea on the gravity. I've gotten into this...habit (?) of making all my beers 6%+ because hey - I want to get my money's worth when I'm drinking

Do you have any input regarding the amount of juice you added and how perceivable the flavor was?

 

[ArcLight]

I anticipated some additional fermentation when adding the fruit, but the timeline you laid out has me concerned. ... Snip ...

The longer the beer sits on the fruit, the more fruit flavor you will get. I seem to remember that the Blueberry was a bit on the weak side. i don't remember how long i let it sit, maybe one week?
When I did a batch with raspberry and let it sit for several weeks it had a fantastic fresh raspberry flavor and aroma.

If you are time crunched I would ferment the beer for 5 days, then rack to a secondary and mix in the fruit. You don't want the fruit in from day one because the CO2 bubbling will blow off a some of the aromatics. I suppose you could even jump the fruit into the primary after 3 days, when most of the fermentation is done.


I'm not a fan of the fruit extracts, the ones I've tried I didn't like. But maybe they are better now than they were in teh past.


BUT - I have an alternative for you.
It's not cheap, but you can buy cans of Bluebery juice or Pomengranite juice (like from Trader Joes). Make sure there are no preservatives. Just pour it into the fermentor.
You can even bottle with it, just measure the sugar content.

 

[m1k3]

Do you have any input regarding the amount of juice you added and how perceivable the flavor was?

I think I used about a gallon for a 10 gallon batch.

In the photos, I see that I split the 10 gallons into 3 fermenters and then only added the pomegranate juice to two of them. The theory was that I could blend back the base beer if it was overpowering.

Many times wheat beers are done in open fermentation so I wasn't scared of the extra headroom (and no blowoff). I still pitched one packet of dry yeast into 3 gallons... with the higher pitching rate, I got a faster turn around time.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I have a mini--follow-up.

I made a Saison this past Saturday, OG 1.055. Everything went well, and pitched 3711. I was excited to use this yeast, as it supposedly works well in warm temps and I don't have temp controls. Well, turns out we got a cold spell and my condo has been 65-70 the last week...figures. Anyways...the airlock has pretty much stopped bubbling after a very aggressive first few days.

I bought 4 cans of Pomegranate Blueberry juice frozen concentrate, which I'm going to toss into the fermenter today. I'll be able to bottle this in two weeks, just in time for the wife's bday party.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Another follow-up.

After I added the Pom/Blueberry juice, that would have taken my OG up to about 1.066 with all the sugars. Bottled last night, and the FG was 1.004, so this will be about an 8% Saison...not exactly a warm weather sipper on the patio, but hey I won't complain.

Tasted interesting...a little funky maybe, but in a good way. We'll see what a couple weeks in the bottle does to it.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

UPDATE: Final update, I think. I took a bunch of these bottles to the wife's bday party for everyone to indulge in. I didn't try any up until the point where we all said cheers and took a sip, so I was a little nervous to how it would taste - especially with the slight "funky" flavor I had noted before during bottling.

Turns out, this tasted really good. It sort of had an apple cider flavor, but you could taste the fruit from the pomegranate and blueberry. It was pretty complex, so I wouldn't say I could identify the individual fruits, but the level of fruits was appropriate and I wouldn't add any more to it.

I used 4 cans of juice concentrate, and it worked well for the 5 gallon batch.

 

[AQUILAS]

If I may ask, how did you figure how high adding the fruit juice would increase your OG?

I brewed a wheat beer yesterday with an OG of 1.050 and I plan to rack it to a secondary with passion frui is pulp. I can't seem to find pure passion fruit juice or extract around here, only actual passion fruit. I was talking to an owner at one of my local homebrew shops and he said that since I was only pulling out the pulp and not tossing in the whole fruit, I wouldn't need to pasteurize or soak in vodka. I may go this route unless I'm told otherwise.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

If I may ask, how did you figure how high adding the fruit juice would increase your OG?

It's been a while since I did it, so I can't recall my exact math, but I found a substitute from another post.

First, I found the sugar contents from my fruit by looking at the can it came in - this was simple, obviously, whereas if you add fresh fruit or pulp it will be more difficult to get the quantity right I'd imagine.

Then, I figured out how many pounds of sugar it was by converting the Grams to Lbs.

Here is the calculation I found in another post:

you check the volume of your wort (5 gal) and the OG (1.050) so the total sugar in the initial wort is 250 points. Sugar by the pound has 46 points (or points per pound gallon). Thus adding 1lb of sugar into the wort at any stage would be as if you had 296 (250+46) for the OG, not 250. 296/5gallons = about 59. or 1.059. Since it is 100% fermentable, if the FG is supposed to be 1.012, the FG should still be 1.012. anyhow it will add about 9 points to the OG, but zero to the FG.

So in my case, assuming I added about .25 lbs of sugar from the juice, and assuming my OG was 1.050, it would have boosted my OG 11.75 points to 1.06175.

As for the sanitation part, I have no idea for that, but it sounds like a great recipe!