Chop or puree watermelon for a watermelon wheat?

[BadWolfOregon]

The title pretty much says it all. I'm about to go into secondary with my watermelon wheat, so I will be adding the pulp of one large watermelon to approximately 5 gallons of beer.

The big question is... Should I puree the pulp, or just chop it up. I'm assuming puree will provide more surface area at first, but will also settle down to more of a single surface at the bottom of the ferment.

Thoughts?

 

[Calaeb]

While i've never used watermelon, I would think that if you left it in chunks it would be alright, maybe easier to clean up as well.

 

[unionrdr]

I pureed one sugar baby watermelon & strained it, adding some 3 1/2 cups to 5 gallons of wheat ale. Tasted a good balance of watermelon. Here's a shot of my watermelon hefe;

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Juice it if you can or purée and filter out the solids.

 

[BadWolfOregon]

I pureed one sugar baby watermelon & strained it, adding some 3 1/2 cups to 5 gallons of wheat ale. Tasted a good balance of watermelon. Here's a shot of my watermelon hefe;

[IMG]http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss71/unionrdr/PICT0002_zps13497925.jpg[/IMG]

How many cups did you get from a single watermelon?

 

[BadWolfOregon]

Duplicate post

 

[Morrey]

I pureed one sugar baby watermelon & strained it, adding some 3 1/2 cups to 5 gallons of wheat ale. Tasted a good balance of watermelon. Here's a shot of my watermelon hefe;

Pretty beer! Did 3.5C of watermelon juice add that much rose color to your 5G batch or were there other color adjustments added?

 

[chickypad]

I usually just use fresh juice as well, about 4 cups per 5 gals gives nice flavor IME. I find that a watermelon sort of between basketball and soccer ball size gets me 4-5 cups without working too hard.

 

[unionrdr]

How many cups did you get from a single watermelon?

About 5C! strained it twice too. Not much in the way of solids. when they say watermelons are mostly water, believe it!

Pretty beer! Did 3.5C of watermelon juice add that much rose color to your 5G batch or were there other color adjustments added?

No other color adjusters, just the watermelon juice/nectar. 4C even, as mentioned will do just as well. It won't exactly overpower the wheat. It was Bavarian wheat DME as I recall. Just about equal it, maybe?...

 

[BadWolfOregon]

I used half the large watermelon that I had on hand. Chopped and blended and strained, this is what I got:

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1472178038.101181.jpg