Fruit Beer

chiefsmurph · Jun 10, 2009

I am interested in making a fruit beer preferably an apricot beer. I have tried some apricot ales that I have really liked. I found a recipe for an apricot ale that looks a lot like a hefeweizen.

Is it possible to make an apricot ale by just brewing up an American Ale and adding some apricot extract or flavoring into the mix or should I stick close to the recipe? I already have an American Ale kit so thats why I'm asking.

boydak · Jun 10, 2009

I think you can do that.

SteveM · Jun 11, 2009

I'm gonna vote no on that. I mean, it's possible, but I don't know that you will be happy with the product. For the most part, the beer underneath the fruit should be a bit less bold in taste, and lighter in color than you might normally brew. A heavily hopped American Ale might not be entirely compatible with apricot.

Check my fruit beer recipe and some of the others in that section for discussion and ideas on making fruit beers.

jacketsfans · Jun 11, 2009

A recipe would help here, but I'll speak from my own limited experience. I just opened a raspberry I brewed for SWMBO, who loved the results and surprised the the heck out of me. I dumped the pasteurized fruit into the primary after aerating the basic wheat wort. I hear of others who rack into/over fruit in the secondary and it seems to work for them, too. The success of these two methods leads me to believe your proposal would not be as good as you'd hoped.

pericles · Jun 11, 2009

I've had great success with my Blackacre Berry. It's BASICALLY a pale ale with some added apricot flavoring.

davesrose · Jun 11, 2009

chiefsmurph said:
I am interested in making a fruit beer preferably an apricot beer. I have tried some apricot ales that I have really liked. I found a recipe for an apricot ale that looks a lot like a hefeweizen.

Brewing up a wheat beer is the most popular base for a fruit beer.....but there are summer fruit beers that rely on light ales. Just make sure your American Ale kit isn't too hopped, and you should be fine. Hoppy beers seem like the antithesis to fruit beers (or so I've noticed with people who are picky about what kind of beer they can drink)