What fruit flavor do you add? And how?

[ALCA]

I'm honestly not much of a fruity beer drinker, but if i were to tweak the flavor of my beer, I would probably want to add some type of fruit flavoring like a citrus taste or a lime tast, etc. I was wondering what you guys use in your beer to add a citrus, lime, lemon, etc. taste and how and when do you add it? Do you use the actual juices, do you zest it, etc?

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[BarleyWater]

I use citrusy hops for a citrus flavor in my beers.

 

[DeathBrewer]

i use belgian or wheat yeasts for fruity flavors

 

[devaspawn]

I hear amarillo hops are good for Citrusy flavors.

 

[ALCA]

Thanks guys. I think the citrus route is the one I would take. I'll look for the citusy hops at the beer store tonight

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

If you actually want fruit flavor, zest will give you a pretty mild, background flavor, fruit will give a slightly more pronounced flavor (but will change due to fermentation - no sugar in the fruit), and extracts will give you a definitive fruit flavor closer to what you might expect, but can also have an artificial vibe to it.

 

[niquejim]

I used (fresh off the tree) mangos in a sour Belgian and it was deelish

It's in my recipes

I've used guava and cherries in seperate wheat beers with the guava being the better of the two.

 

[polarbearbrewing]

how bout peaches and ginger?
peaches added last 15 minutes of boil to pasteurize and an once or two of grated ginger in secondary...this should balance with a well-hopped beer

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Thanks guys. I think the citrus route is the one I would take. I'll look for the citusy hops at the beer store tonight

In my Citrus Wheat I use Cascades, and dried Curacao orange peel which I found at my LHBS. I use both bitter and sweet orange peel. A quarter ounce of each in the boil for 10 minutes works great for just a hint of orange, but you could up that to 1/2 ounce each for a more obvious flavor.

 

[mynamestanner]

To get the best fruit flavor you need to add it to the secondary. I made an american wheat with the shavings of 1 orange added in the secondary and it came out great. Just a nice refreshing summer beer.

 

[niquejim]

how bout peaches and ginger?
peaches added last 15 minutes of boil to pasteurize and an once or two of grated ginger in secondary...this should balance with a well-hopped beer

Never boil the fruit, it will set the pectin which will cause nasty haze in final product. I always add in secondary to retain the fruit flavor.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

Never boil the fruit, it will set the pectin which will cause nasty haze in final product. I always add in secondary to retain the fruit flavor.

If you're super concerned about making sure the fruit is clean, you can boil it and add pectin enzyme to get rid of the haze.

 

[Yooper]

If you're super concerned about making sure the fruit is clean, you can boil it and add pectin enzyme to get rid of the haze.

In my experience that doesn't work- the pectin gets "set" (think peach jam) and no amount of pectic enzyme seems to fix that. You can use a campden tablet (crushed and dissolved in 1/4 hot water) to pasteurize the fruit 24 hours before putting it into secondary, or bring it up to 170 degrees to gently pasteurize it.

 

[jayhuff]

I was thinking of adding orange zest to a hefeweizen, but since it is only my second batch ever to make, I am going to leave it alone to get a feel of how the beer will taste without flavoring.

But an orange zest will be something I try in the future. When I do it, I will rack the hefe to a secondary and add the orange.

 

[niquejim]

I was thinking of adding orange zest to a hefeweizen, but since it is only my second batch ever to make, I am going to leave it alone to get a feel of how the beer will taste without flavoring.

But an orange zest will be something I try in the future. When I do it, I will rack the hefe to a secondary and add the orange.

I usually ad zest and spices with 5 or less min in boil