question about fruit addition

[jhuff0120]

I am currently brewing a light ale that I was going to add apricots to the secondary when I transfer. Turns out I am horrible at planning and apricots are not in eason and not at my local store. I have two option that I was hoping for some help with.

1. My local homebrew store has concentrated apricot flavoridng in a jar. When do I add this and is it better/worse than real fruit?

2. I was thinking if using Cherries instead. Any recomendations on how many cherries to use for a 5 gallon batch? Preparation suggestions for the cherries before adding to the secondary?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Kaz]

I've never used the fruit extracts, but every commercial beer that I've had that used them tastes like they used extracts...kind of a candy taste...if you do use the extract, I would say go light with it and if when you drink a few and its too light, add some in the glass.

 

[AKnewbrews]

Most stores, whether its in the health food section or the dried bulk goods section has partially dried apricots. They aren't dried to a crisp or dehydrated. Maybe a possibility?

Also, there may possibly be frozen apricots, similar to what you would find if you were to make strawberry puree from frozen strawberries. These would have more of a liquid to it.

I would stay away from anything canned due to preservatives and corn syrup.

 

[PolishStout]

I have a book of clone brew recipes at home and one of the recipes is Magic Hat's #9. it uses apricot extract in the secondary. I can't remember how much, so I'll have to post it tomorrow. it should give you some idea of how much to use

 

[jhuff0120]

Thanks for the help. Frozen fruit never occurred to me.

 

[dami860]

I just did an apricot beer and used dried apricots. I simmered @ 155 for about 15 mins and added to the secondary. Only issue I ran into was it seemed to rehydrate a lot more and I only ended up with about 3.5-4 gallons going into my keg.

 

[jhuff0120]

Going to use dried apricots. I was thinking I would puree them then freeze for a day or two before adding to secondary. Will leave in secondary for a week then bottle. Does this sound reasonable?

This is my first fruit beer so I appreciate any feed back.

 

[JLem]

Going to use dried apricots. I was thinking I would puree them then freeze for a day or two before adding to secondary. Will leave in secondary for a week then bottle. Does this sound reasonable?

This is my first fruit beer so I appreciate any feed back.

I would be careful of any preservatives such as sulfur dioxide . I'm not actually how the sulfur dioxide would impact the beer - but I would see if you can find dried fruit without it.

 

[PolishStout]

sorry it took awhile for me to get back.

for the record, that Magic Hat #9 recipe I have says to add 3oz apricot beer extract to secondary.

 

[vinoterp]

Does anyone know how dogfish head adds apricots to their Aprihop ale or what their recipe calls for? I'd be interested in trying to recreate this beer down the road when I get more experience in this homebrew thing.

 

[PolishStout]

I would try looking up the brew on their website. they have a short information video for just about every beer they make. they'll probably mention how they add it