Fruit Beers

[feedthebear]

I've just heard that pasturizing leads to all of the fruit not being usable by gelatanizing it because of the heat binding the simple sugars into more complex ones. Maybe it just makes it take a little more time, I bet fresh fruit does taste better.

Pasturizing only heats the fruit to a high enough temp to kill any wild yeast and bacteria that may be living on it. It isn't warm enough to change the sugars. Pasturizing can be done as low as 145F for 30 minutes. Or it can be done for as short as 5 minutes at boiling (blanching). The hotter the temperature, the more pectin haze you may get. The longer in the water, the more sugars, aroma, color will transfer from the fruit to the water instead of going into the beer.

For putting fruit in the primary, it definitly needs to be pasturized or blanched. Thats why a lot of fruit in the primary recipies call for putting the fruit when the wort is around 160F. Its being pasturized by the hot wort.

For putting fruit in the secondary, pasturizing is not quite as important. The beer already has alcohol in it. The alcohol will usually kill off any wild bacteria and yeast before they have time to cause problems in the beer. Personally, I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[EmptyH]

Great stuff SteveM! I will give that one a whirl this fall. Sounds like a nice festive holiday drink.

 

[SteveM]

SteveM...great info! The most thorough info I have seen on fruit beers. I noticed you have used blueberries in the past. Can you share your experiences? I am in New Hampshire and blueberries are plentiful here. I am going to do a blue brew this summer when the berries are in season. I am curious as to how much fresh blueberries I should plan on using.

I used extract only when made a Blueberry Ale and I was not happy with it. I would probably try about three pounds of fresh or frozen blueberries if I tried using real fruit, and follow the same steps.

 

[mizzoueng]

A lot of good info here, glad I searched for it.

Has anyone ever tried to make a beer with oranges? I know that using teh zest is the primary method, but I want to use the whole orange.

I know the acidity of the orange becomes an issue.

 

[Chuck Love]

About a year ago I made a blueberry wheat. I used 6 lbs of blueberries - I threw in 2 lbs of fresh into my wort at the end of the boil (when I turned off the heat) and then another 4 lbs into the primary. I made the mistake of using a regular air lock on my plastic fermenter (I use glass carboys now), and on the 2nd day the top of that bucket was "buckled up" and almost blew off.

Luckily I was able to wiggle the airlock out w/o too much of a fruit explosion...I replaced it with a blowoff valve and ran the tubing into the tub of water I had my primary sitting in. I think I left it in the primary for about 2 weeks, then in the 2ndary for about a month. I kegged it after that. It was certainly drinkable a few weeks later...but then I tried some about 6 months after that and WOW what a good one. The beer was a nice purple color and had a great blueberry aroma and taste.

I think for my next fruit beer I'm going to go with Kumquats Wiki Link. Any suggestions on a style that might carry the kumquat flavor well? I'm thinking a wheat beer again...