Adding apples to Honey-Apple Brown Ale.

[ShareBrewing]

Has anyone experimented with the best way of adding cooked apples to beer?

I'm making a honey-apple brown ale that I really want to have some culinary fun with. It's usually 14-16 gal batches at a time so I usually have 3 carboys to experiment with (one being a control, of course). This is a 4 gal portion which will be topped off with wild flower honey and 1/2 gal of honey crisp apple cider (pasteurized, no preservatives).

Honey Apple Brown Ale (4.0 gal portion)

OG 1.058 IBU 28.7
22.2 SRM

35.2% US 2-row (Briess)
23.4% Vienna malt (Avangard)
11.0%. Munich 9L (Avangard)
11.0% Cara-Red (Weyermann)
9.7% Flaked Oats (Briess)
3.4%. CaraMunich 47L (Weyermann)
3.4 %. Chocolate Wheat (Weyermann)

First Wort - East Kent Goldings 8.0 IBU
60 min - EKG 13.8 IBU
15 min - EKG 6.8 IBU

WLP002 - English Ale yeast

0.5 lbs Honey (wildflower) @ 75% attenuation
1/2 gal Honey crisp apple cider @ 75% attenuation
??? Cooked apples (secondary)

Mash at 150F for an hour.

It's obvious that it'd be best in secondary but what would be the optimal cooking method (baking vs. caramelized in pan)? Was thinking of doing about 2 pounds. The English yeast will help to leave some residual sweetness and that is also why the cider and honey are added so late in primary. This will help the beer's body be unaffected by a sugar addition and enhance the flavors.

I have also experimented with graffs (ale fermented with apple cider) and even with 2 gal wort to 3 gal of cider, the wort becomes so diluted the final product really just seems like a cider. Almost no beer flavor. I've done a few batches of that and it seems to be similar results. Light body, some sweetness from the cider but not much.

Has anyone ever tried any of these things? Any knowledge bomb you could drop would be awesome. Cheers!

 

[TandemTails]

I haven't tried this but it's something I've thought about a few times. Cooking the apples and adding them to the beer could produce a pectin haze. This might not be an issue in a darker beer though so maybe it's not something to worry about.

Cooked apples will definitely give the beer more of an 'apple pie' flavor than a raw apple flavor.

What I'd probably do is not worry about the pectin haze and heat the apples in a sauce pan with the honeycrisp juice until the apples are mushy and the juice has reduced some. I might even throw in a cinnamon stick during the process too if you wanted something a little more fall/winter flavored. I'd then strain the apples and pour the cooled juice into the beer and add the mushy apples to a hop sack or paint strainer and then add that to the beer.

Like I said, this is all from ideas I've had as well. I've never tried this so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

 

[ShareBrewing]

Tails, your thinking and mine are pretty similar. The sack for the apple mush is a great idea!

And for the pectin haze, do you think pectic enzyme would work? I'm not at all concerned, but I'm curious what others might think. Maybe dose a tsp into secondary with the apples? Making hard cider for the fall is a must so I always have some pectic in supply. My cider comes out crystal clear, but I'm using unpasteurized, juice with no preservatives. The juice for the brown is pasteurized, which from experience of others on the cider forum, shows a slight tendency to be harder to clear. Cooked apples are apparently much harder to clear as well.

As for cooking method, I was discussing this with the head chef of the restaurant I work at. It's important to know that this chef's specialty is upscale comfort foods! He recommended braising the apples! His method - in a sauté pan, place the apples (cut in half) face down with about 8-12 oz of the cider. Cover the pan with tin foil and cook in the oven. Not really aiming for spices in the mix, but a stick of cinnamon added in would be great! Thoughts? I couldn't get any info on what temp.

 

[TandemTails]

I'm not sure about the pectic enzyme in a beer. I don't see why it wouldn't work but it might be more fuss than it's worth.

Keep us posted on how this turns out. When are you planning on brewing this?

 

[ShareBrewing]

I've already brewed it and added the cider and honey. The beer is murky anyway, it was last few gal to come out of the kettle so it's pretty thick with proteins and trub and such. So I might forgo the enzyme addition. The beer smells and tastes great which is the important thing.

 

[ShareBrewing]

Just to update, adding apple cider to beer doesn't work as well as one would hope. This is the third beer I've tried mixing apple cider and beer, each at a different ratio. Being the cider/juice tends to ferment totally dry, the resulting beer is pretty lacking in body and flavor. It seemed to have muted some of the more rich malty flavors and almost no discernible apple flavor showed through.

Would love to work on these recipes for a solid graff, but IMO, it's not worth it. Tried these ratios before. Cider : Beer (in gal)

4:1, 2:3, 0.5:4.5

Even just adding 1/2 a gal really affected the brew, and not for the better.

If you want apple flavor in your beer, DON'T use cider. Use a flavor extract or else attempt to make your own vodka tincture with apples. No wonder you don't see many apple infused beers (that aren't fake and nasty).

 

[TandemTails]

If the mouthfeel is the big issue, I wonder if adding in a lot more flaked oats, lactose, maltodextrin, mashing a lot higher or any other malt / adjunct that improves mouthfeel would make it more enjoyable.