Dragonfruit Blonde

[bjsstranger]

I am just getting started on trying to make a blonde with dragonfruit. I have never made a beer with real fruit before. I am not sure if even a blonde would be best for the pairing. any one have any ideas out there? I do not have fg capability so it must be extract recipe. Thanks for the help.

 

[spinlock]

I just taped a wheat based Biere de Guard that had 1/2gal of home squeezed prickly pear juice added to secondary. The only special prep I did to the fruit was to sanitize it at 160f for 30 min.

I'm a big fan of Belgian style ales, so I would recommend a bit of wheat and a Belgian yeast the compliments the fruit, but that's just me

 

[spinlock]

I thought about this a bit more. Dragon fruit and prickly pear are pretty damn similar.

A dead simple recipe would be:

6.60 lb Wheat Liquid Extract
1.00 oz Hallertauer (60 min)
Any liquid Belgian Wit yeast; White Labs #WLP400, Wyeast Labs #3944, etc.

Add a few lbs of dragon fruit puree, sanitized, to secondary. After 2 weeks in secondary, rack to tertiary or bottle/keg.

Add 1oz of coriander and/or orange peel at 5 min if you want to add some complimentary flavors.

 

[bjsstranger]

That seems like that could work out well. I will put it in my beersmith recipes and play around a little. Thanks a lot for the help. Next step is to figure out where I can buy a couple of pounds of dragon fruit in Michigan.

 

[spinlock]

Here is the recipe I made if you want any additional inspiration:

Opuntia de Garde

* Mini mash *
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine
0.50 lb Honey Malt
0.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row)
0.50 lb White Wheat Malt

* Boil *
3.15 lb Pilsner Liquid Extract (60 min)
1.00 oz Tradition (60 min)
3.15 lb Wheat Liquid Extract (15 min)
1.00 lb Agavea Nectar (15 min)
1.00 oz Strisslespalt (5 min)
0.50 oz Coriander Seed (5 min)
0.50 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (5 min)
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 5.0 min) Misc

* Secondary *
0.50 gal Prickly Pear (Secondary 2.0 weeks) Misc

1 Pkgs Biere De Garde Private Collection (Wyeast Labs #3725) Yeast-Ale