Hibiscus Mango Wheat help

[jpbrauer]

Hello everyone !!

I've been thinking of brewing a Hibiscus mango Wheat Ale, but I'm having some trouble with the mango addition. I live in the tropics, so I have fresh mango almost constantly. Still, I have been reading a lot about frozen mango, canned mango, and even people who trow juice in secondary fermentation. At the moment, I'm leaning toward utilizing Dole Frozen Mango Chunks, but I want to know if I need to pasteurized frozen mango or if I can just place the mango in a bag and throw it on my carboy (also how much mango should I add).

https://dolesunshine.com/us/en/products/ingredients/16oz-frozen-mango-chunks.html

This is my recipe so far (4 gal)

I'm going for a simple grain schedule that would give a lighter color so the hibiscus can turn my beer ruby red

5 lb pilsner
3 lb wheat
0.5 flaked wheat

100 gs of hibiscus the last 15 mins of the boiling

For the hops, I have some motueka, cascade, nugget, mosaic, and citra in my freezer, so I'm still thinking about what to do with my hop schedule.

Yeast: Safale 05

 

[jpbrauer]

Correction * 5 lb Viking pilsner malt and 3 lbs of Viking wheat malt

 

[milkflakes]

Frozen fruit is not sanitary, though if using in secondary, which is when you should add it no matter how you choose to do so, it's unlikely to cause issues. If you want to stay on the safe side use a soak of campden tablets or vodka. Also, use a cheesecloth bag when you make the addition, it will save you a lot of annoyance later.

You could also just make the juice yourself or use storebought. I have found it impossible to use real fruit in my limited setup without losing a ridiculous volume of beer and working harder than necessary.

 

[jpbrauer]

Frozen fruit is not sanitary, though if using in secondary, which is when you should add it no matter how you choose to do so, it's unlikely to cause issues. If you want to stay on the safe side use a soak of campden tablets or vodka. Also, use a cheesecloth bag when you make the addition, it will save you a lot of annoyance later.

You could also just make the juice yourself or use storebought. I have found it impossible to use real fruit in my limited setup without losing a ridiculous volume of beer and working harder than necessary.

So for my 4 gal batch what would you recommend? using juice? I usually brew 3/3.5 gal batches and from time to time a 5 gal so I can spend less time bottling (I just dislike the process of bottling as a whole, as soon as I have the money I will buy a keg). I'm doing a 4 gal batch because I was taking into account some volume lost. How much volume do you usually lose when using real fruit? I've never done anything with fruit before.

 

[jpbrauer]

Frozen fruit is not sanitary, though if using in secondary, which is when you should add it no matter how you choose to do so, it's unlikely to cause issues. If you want to stay on the safe side use a soak of campden tablets or vodka. Also, use a cheesecloth bag when you make the addition, it will save you a lot of annoyance later.

You could also just make the juice yourself or use storebought. I have found it impossible to use real fruit in my limited setup without losing a ridiculous volume of beer and working harder than necessary.

Also, what's your opinion on canned fruit?

 

[milkflakes]

Volume loss will depend on the amount of fruit relative to your batch size and how good you are at getting the pulp separated from the liquid. With just a siphon and a simple cheesecloth filter I recently lost nearly half a 2.5 gal mini batch that contained 4 lbs of blueberries. Not good.

A common rule of thumb is to do a pound of fruit per gallon of beer if you want the flavor to really shine. Haven't used mango, but I would probably stick to that ratio or even less and figure out the juice equivalent if using. I'm going to assume that it's got a much stronger and funkier flavor when fermented than berries or apples. If you use whole fruit you should also thaw and smash it to increase contact with the beer. Pectic enzyme will also help maximize what you get out of it.

I assume when you say canned fruit you are talking about purees which I've heard are fine but have not used since for me it's cheaper and easier to just get fruit. Again you would have the same issue separating the fruit from your beer post-fermentation. A lot of people cold crash so the pulp settles.

 

[RCope]

I've made a number of mango beers, including a mango wheat. I have access to fresh fruit, as you do. My process is 1-1.2 lbs fresh fruit per gallon. I filet the mangoes, freeze them and if I have time I'll thaw and re-freeze. Then two days before adding to the fermentor I puree in a blender with 8 oz of vodka. This gives me about 2/3 of a gallon of volume for 5 or 6 lbs. Pureeing puts a lot of air (oxygen!) into the fruit and it dissipates after a day or two in the fridge.

I add the puree on day 2 or 3 of fermentation. Do this slowly as it adds nucleation points and can foam up dramatically. Don't ask me how I know. I then give it a good stir with a sanitized brew spoon. I let it ferment completely, soft crash then add whatever dryhop I had planned.

I cold crash for two days, then try to close transfer by rotating my racking arm above the pulp. I usually end up having to do an open transfer due to clogging the poppet. This is for kegging. I also routinely use a top draw system for mango beers. For bottle conditioning, I'd add the sugar to the bottle and rack/siphon above the pulp.

Canned fruit is pasteurized so you don't need to add vodka. I always use fresh fruit when available but have used vintner's harvest canned fruit many time with good success. Cheers! Rick

 

[jpbrauer]

Thank you guys !!

I think you two gave me all the information I needed. I'll give you updates and some pictures if the beer turns out fine

 

[jpbrauer]

Btw is you got any suggestions in terms of hop schedule I would appreciate it. I'm looking for low bitterness and some nice flavor/aroma to got with the tart from the hibiscus and mango. Maybe utilizing two hops from the ones I mentioned.

 

[RCope]

In a 4 gallon batch, for hopping I'd go with Nugget for bittering, maybe .5 oz at 60 to get about 20 ibus, then a short boil addition of Citra .5 oz at 5 min, then 1 oz of Mosaic with .5 oz of Citra for a 20 min whirlpool at 170 degrees. I dry hopped my mango wheat and I'd do an oz each of Citra and Mosaic for a 3 or 4 day dry hop post fermentation. The mango will overpower any specific hop flavor but Citra and Mosaic will add to the overall fruitiness...

 

[jpbrauer]

Little update

Well the beer tastes fine, and I'm still waiting for the strong fruit flavor to mellow out. The color is strange hahaha it's not ruby red. It kind of looks like grapefruit juice, and it kind of tastes like grapefruit juice (guess that the combination of mango and hibiscus went that way). My mom and my girlfriend loved the beer, my father, who is german, hated it. I'm kind of in the middle, the beer dry out quite a bit because of the fruit and well, it's the kind of beer that I would never buy in a bar, but it is drinkable. I think that I just don't like mango in beer, also the hibiscus added an unusual flavor. Nice experiment thou, but I'm not repeating it.