Wanna try and do an Apricot Cream Ale. Any thoughts or advice?

[seasum]

I've seen a lot more on Apricot Hefeweizen beers, but I was thinking this could taste really great. I've never done the fruit thing and I am pretty new to this, so I was just going to use an existing cream ale recipe and add maybe 3 to 4 pounds of apricot puree.

I definitely want the apricot to stand out quite a bit, and I've heard the extracts can give a lot of aroma, but less flavor, and the fruit itself can do the opposite, so would it be crazy to do both?

I'd just add this in secondary. Thanks for any help.

 

[schweaty]

From my experience with fruit I'd suggest just putting the apricots in your secondary and taste a sample each day after the 5th or 6th day. Once you get the desired result you are looking for then rack into a keg or bottle. Get the apricots from your local grocery store, frozen if possible or get fresh and freeze them. When I did my fruit beer, Belgian Blonde w/Cherries, I used 4 lbs of frozen cherries and it was more than dominant in the Blonde beer. It was so overpowering I couldn't even taste any of the phenolic character from the yeast. If you can keep your secondary at refrigeration temps that would be ideal. Just make sure that fermentation has completely finished and give the yeast some extra time to clean up the "green" beer.

 

[ArcaneXor]

I am thinking that the fruit would clash with the typical cream ale "corn" flavor. A clean American Wheat, American Lager or German Blonde-type ale sound like a better base beer to me.

 

[Poobah58]

Try using some Palisade hops. Has some apricot flavor to it from what I read.

 

[seasum]

I was thinking about that with the corn too. I really can't decide if I think it'd clash, or be awesome. Blonde would be fine too, though. I'll probably go with that.

Why should I freeze the fruit? I've seen this somewhere else, and I plan to look. If I do freeze it, should I put it in whole or puree it?

 

[strangevictory]

I brewed an apricot ale last summer and it turned out pretty darn good. I cheated however and used extract, recommended by my local home brew shop. It didn't contain any sugar and I added it during kegging. The apricot flavor was spot on and fortunately it lacked any sort of artificial flavoring.

Good luck and keep us informed on your results!

 

[ntbritton]

How did it turn out? What did you end up doing?

 

[jacobg83]

I made a peach wheat awhile back. I bought 3 pounds of fresh peaches, sliced them thin, and baked for 30 minutes to soften them up. I put them in a hop bag and threw in for 15 min left in boil. Came out really good. I've had success with frozen fruit also. That's the first time I went the fresh route.