Cranberry Lager for Thanksgiving?

[eatria]

I came up with this idea the other day. Anyone tried such a thing? Obvious concerns are that real cranberrys are extremely tart. My store sells some concentrated syrups, but I'd imagine those might not be great.

thoughts?

 

[scinerd3000]

sam adams does a cranberry lambic. I have used raspberries in beer which are less tart by a HUGE margin comparatively and that beer is way too tart-beyond sour. You could try using cranberry juice but either way using i wouldn't use 100% cranberry juice(L&A) because its very offputting. Stick with ocean spray juice(~28%) or dried oceanspray cranberries. Just my thoughts

 

[Ecnerwal]

I'd suggest thinking in terms of Thanksgiving 2009.

You'll want to run some experiments, and then you'll want time. Think about balancing the malt with sour as opposed to bitter - ie, work with the cranberry as an alternative to most of (or all of) the hops. You might also want to work in crystal malts or lactose to provide some non-fermentable sugars for balance.

 

[BarleyWater]

I think you could cut the tartness of the cranberries by adding some lactose at bottling. My fruit beer that use sour cherries, blackberries and raspberries, was to tart, and lacking that fruity flavor. A little bit of lactose (3/4lb), and it solved the problem.

In any case, it is probably too late to be brewing a Thanksgiving lager for this year. A lager needs a couple weeks of primary fermentation, before being lagered for at leat 3-4weeks. So it won't even be ready to be bottled for 5-6 weeks from whenever you brew it, and since Thanksgiving is in 6 weeks, you will have no time to let it condition and carbonate in the bottles. Of course, if you keg, you may be able to have it ready on time, but this may take some experimentation before you get the right balance.

 

[eatria]

thanks for the info! I've never done a lager before, so was hoping to try my first. I wasn't aware of the extra time requirements.

Perhaps a CranAle?

 

[BarleyWater]

thanks for the info! I've never done a lager before, so was hoping to try my first. I wasn't aware of the extra time requirements.

Perhaps a CranAle?

Lager literally means "to store". The yeasts work much slower at lower temps required for lagers, and to get the crisp lager flavor, it needs to be aged for a while at near freezing temps.

 

[eatria]

yeah, i totally forgot that b/c I only make Ales.

Love the Tobias headshot avatar, btw.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I think you could cut the tartness of the cranberries by adding some lactose at bottling. My fruit beer that use sour cherries, blackberries and raspberries, was to tart, and lacking that fruity flavor. A little bit of lactose (3/4lb), and it solved the problem.

Pardon my ignorance, but what does the lactose do, sweeten the brew, or enhance the fruit flavor?

 

[Yooper]

Pardon my ignorance, but what does the lactose do, sweeten the brew, or enhance the fruit flavor?

It's a non-fermentable sugar, so it's used for sweetening.