Just curious- does anyone know the technique that the big guys use for fruit beers?

[Beardown]

I understand that most add the fruit to the secondary. But, don't most of the commercial breweries not use secondaries? What technique do the big guys use to make fruit beer? Purée? Thanks

 

[jekeane]

https://amoretti.com/collections/extracts?page=10

A 2 ounce bottle treats 110 gallons. I know a lot of breweries that use this stuff.

 

[enkamania]

I had my strawberry cream ale brewed on a 7 bbl system and they used puree.

 

[Beardown]

Wow that's all? At what point do they add it?

 

[Beardown]

They add it before, after ferm? During mash? Boil?

 

[chrisroarshack]

I had a buddy at a brewery that swore that King Orchard cherry concentrate was key for big cherry flavor. Whether they added it post or pre ferment, couldn't tell ya. They (King) grow their own cherries too!

 

[bajaedition]

extracts, because then they boil up thousands of gallons at a time, then they only flavor the amount they want to be a fruit beer, the rest they make their regular beer

 

[Schreiner]

I have used their mango concentrate with great success:

https://www.monin.com/m/products/concentrated-flavors

Used 300ml for a 5 gallon batch, added to the keg.

This is a new line for them, looks like they are adding more flavors as they go! Looks like they recently added "oak barrel"?!

 

[Beardown]

When is that supposed to be added ?

 

[madscientist451]

You can use a commercial extract, and add at bottling/kegging. You can make your own extracts with fruit and vodka. Adding puree at secondary at the homebrew level is unpredictable because the fermentation will kick off again. Commercial breweries generally brew a base beer, when its done they run it through a filter to eliminate the yeast and can then add fruit without the fermentation re-starting. When you add fruit and the fermentation re-starts, you get some fruit flavor and aroma but its very minimal.

 

[applescrap]

Since i havent made a ton of fruit beers i cant say for certain, but i have done a massive, repeat massive, amount of research and putting the fruit in the secondary is the way i keep coming up with. That AND adding extract. I ask pro brewers as well and they secondary or bright tank something or other but certainly after fermentation. The problem is if you add it in the boil its not bad, just different. Same with primary.
The problem is putting fruit in with the whole yeast cake will lead to diminished flavor and scents from the yeast refermenting. I have all kinds of plans but havent gotten to it yet. Juice in the secondary seems a good idea. Also freezing the fruit to break open cells. That and adding some extract would create a very fruity beer. The raspberry blueberry beer i made was in boil i think and it came out good. Problem is fruit can be expensive to. I like juice idea.

 

[jerbrew]

I had my strawberry cream ale brewed on a 7 bbl system and they used puree.

I just have to say that's a comment that'll get you mad cool points in my book.

 

[Schreiner]

When is that supposed to be added ?

I added the Monin flavor concentrate in the keg.

 

[jekeane]

I have used their mango concentrate with great success:

https://www.monin.com/m/products/concentrated-flavors

Used 300ml for a 5 gallon batch, added to the keg.

This is a new line for them, looks like they are adding more flavors as they go! Looks like they recently added "oak barrel"?!

I just ordered a couple of these for some experimenting.

 

[Schreiner]

I just ordered a couple of these for some experimenting.

Cool. I also bought some grapefruit concentrate. A friend just goes ga-ga for the Schoenhoffer grapefruit hefe.

 

[jekeane]

I picked up grapefruit, mango, peach. Working on a Trappist single with "fruit"