French Press for Fruit Additions

[AZ_Jack]

I've searched the forums for a similar thread but could not find one. If I missed it, please just point me in the right direction.

My wife would like for me to make a fruit beer. I'd rather use real fruit that an extract if possible, but most recipes I see call for at least 1lb of fruit per gallon of beer. As I brew 5 gal batches, 5lbs of fruit and its accompanying pulp seems like a lot of waste in the secondary.

I've read a lot about the use of a french press with hops for addition to the secondary. Is there a way a french press can be used to create a natural "homemade" extract from the fruit that could be added to the secondary for flavor and aroma?

Which fruits might work for this? Which fruits wouldn't?

Please keep in mind that I own a french press (thoughtful gift) but have never actually used one.

 

[TheHappyHopper]

I do a strawberry blonde with 1# of frozen strawberries per gallon. Add to a sanitized straining bag, tie off, add to secondary, and then rack on top of it and let sit for a week before bottling. At bottling time, I just pull out the bag then transfer the beer to the bottling bucket. It works great.

As far as the "waste" goes - if you want the flavor of X pounds of real fruit, you are going to have to use X pounds of real fruit. You can't get the same flavor out of less fruit, whether you just add it to the secondary or create your own extract as you mentioned.

Another option (that I have not personally tried) if you don't want to use a ton of real fruit or an extract is the canned fruit puree.

 

[Vamptrump]

I've tried cans of fruit puree. It lacks the fresh taste you get from fresh/frozen fruit, but it's really easy and not that bad to clean up.

I've also used fruit extracts and applied to the bottling bucket. This gave good control and you can get a lot of fruit flavor with a little extract. The downside is, it tasted artificial to me, even though it wasn't.

The only way I know to get the fresh flavors is just using the real deal. It's a massive lose of pounds of fruit, but it's the price you have to pay.

The other possible alternative is to use the french press post bottling when you go to drink the beer. If you want fruit, just infuse it then. Then you can change around the fruits/flavors every time you have a bottle.