I like to take a gallon out of the 5 gal. batch and experiment with it . I would like to add about pint of cranberry juice out of the jar . It should be already sanitized right ? Or do I need to boil it ? I was thinking after the secondary take a gallon and add the cranberry and some more sugar . How does this sound to some of you ? Gene
small batch
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Check the contents - should be just juice and, at most, some ascorbic acid. Anything like a preservative (sorbate, for example) is there to inhibit yeast, so it may slow your fermentation down.
You don't want to boil it, but to be safe you may want to heat it to about 160 to pateurize it.
Experiments are fun, but I'll give you a heads-up: much of the flavor we associate with things like honey, or molasses, or cranberry juice, is tied to the sugars that make it sweet. Once the yeast has its way with the sugar, you may be surprised by what is left. Molasses, for example, tastes like the ground-up bark of the molasses tree after fermentation. Woody and bitter, and not good (IMO). I would expect that cranberry juice would add some bitter and sour to the beer, which may not be all bad. Just don't be expecting a juicy beer.
Cheers!
You don't want to boil it, but to be safe you may want to heat it to about 160 to pateurize it.
Experiments are fun, but I'll give you a heads-up: much of the flavor we associate with things like honey, or molasses, or cranberry juice, is tied to the sugars that make it sweet. Once the yeast has its way with the sugar, you may be surprised by what is left. Molasses, for example, tastes like the ground-up bark of the molasses tree after fermentation. Woody and bitter, and not good (IMO). I would expect that cranberry juice would add some bitter and sour to the beer, which may not be all bad. Just don't be expecting a juicy beer.
Cheers!
I would think it's sanitary right from the jug. Otherwise it might not last long by itself. But I may not be the right person to ask. And I also wonder about ingredients in it that may not be good for your beer. Not sure how preservatives come into play there.
TopherM
Well-Known Member
Like FRAZIER said, cranberries do not taste like cranberry juice. Cranberry juice is always a small part cranberries and a large part sugars. Put it in a beer, it is going to ferment, leaving very very little cranberry taste, and the cranberry taste it does leave will be tart and bitter.
Do you bottle or keg? If you want to leave the sweet cranberry flavor in there, you really need to use it as part of a backsweetening type technique where you either cold crash it in the keg before adding or pastuerize it post carbing.
Do you bottle or keg? If you want to leave the sweet cranberry flavor in there, you really need to use it as part of a backsweetening type technique where you either cold crash it in the keg before adding or pastuerize it post carbing.
