Pineapple in beer/hot pepper beer

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TomWaggle

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So I thought of brewing a beer after eating some Hawaiian pizza that incorporated pineapple in it. Since I've been away from brewing for a little bit I kind of lost a little bit of knowledge about it. When adding fruit into a beer I thought it could be during the boil or in secondary fermentation. Am I right with that?

My second question to kill two birds with one stone is when brewing a beer with a pepper when do you actually add that in? My guess again would be sometime during the boil but if I add it in too early or too late would it have that big of an impact on the taste?
 
To my knowledge fruit can also go in the mash. I mean I'm doing a pumpkin beer and its finding its way in the mash versus the boil or secondary.

I did a strawberry saison where I went into the secondary. Some things I learned about that is one how are you going to sanitize the fruit as this could be very relevant depending on where you choose to add the product. I made a puree and pasteurized it. Two when are you dry hopping if applicable. I was dumb and did it not to long after the the beer was placed over the strawberry puree. The strawberry puree gave the yeast something new to chew on so fermentation kicked up sending some of that hop aroma out the blow off tube. Three does the fruit have pectin. My strawberry saison looked like strawberry quick and milk. I ended up cold crashing and usng some pectin enzyme (note, I did not add it when you are suppose to) and it cleared up pretty nice. If I'm not mistaken some folks have done comparisons when adding fruit to the beer, but can't recall what was the best practice.

If I were doing something with pineapple personally I would place it in a secondary fermenter and transfer the beer overtop of it. I might also do soemthing like a carmelized pineapple puree to add character but that's my 2 cents. I suspect this process probably offers a slightly higher aroma than the other methods but I'm merely speculating mind you. As for peppers, I'm actually going to be doing a mole stout soon and will likely place the dried (de-seeded) peppers into a secondary. I will just the immersion blender out and do something like a hazelnut and pepper puree. I'll then take the puree and either pasteurize or consider placing it in some bourbon prior to adding to the secondary fermenter. I might even have lesser concerns for infection as the beer will have already resulted in developing alcohol and in this case it will likely be around 8.5 %. My guess is there's probably not a wrong answer with these questions.
 
For peppers, I cut them up and soak in vodka for a day or two before adding to the secondary for a few days. I haven't noticed much pepper flavor but I get good heat. For what it's worth, I've only done this with a porter.

Haven't had much luck with fruit but BYO magazine had an issue a couple months ago that focused on brewing with fruit. It said that for some fruit flavors, it's better to use hops than the actual fruit.
 
Pineapple ...roast one up cut it up soak in vodka for a week ...strain ...instant pineapple extract that is awesome add at packaging
 
I just bottled an pale ale that I ended up adding pineapple too. I cut up one whole pineapple, soaked it in some vodka for about an hour, and put it straining bag. I added mine right into the primary bucket after ten days of fermentation. I let it sit another 7 days and then racked to secondary, where I dry hopped with citra. there was a hint of pineapple, but since I dry hopped with citra not exactly sure where citrus flavor was coming from.
 
FWIW, I added pineapple to a lager with disappointing results. I added 2 lbs of pure pineapple (pureed and carmelized) to secondary. The result was a very nice lager with zero pineapple flavor or aroma. Not sure why except that it did kick off a small amount of additional fermentation and it must have just fermented the flavor away. I think a commercial pineapple extract in the bottling bucket may be the way to go.
 
Hey blue, what was your size batch? I'm just wondering if you had enough fruit. Not that this is a rule of thumb per se but 1 lb per gallon is quite common for a lot of fruit beers. Also with a malty beer and lager yeast I might not expect the fruit to shine especially if the beer was at lager in temps. When I went 1.5 lbs per gallon on my strawberry saison it was plenty.
 
It was a 5 gal batch and I debated adding more pineapple but 2 lbs took up a lot of space and soaked up a lot of beer. Doubling that (or more) may have gotten at least some flavor but I would have ended up with probably 6 inches of trub in a 6 gal carboy if it would have even fit. As it was, 2 lbs left not even a hint of flavor. That's why I think extract may be a better option, at least for a lager. I added the pineapple after primary (at 50F) then did a D-rest then lagered for a month. Using real fruit might have worked better for an ale at warmer temps in a big bucket but it was a bust for the lager.
 
I once brewed a mulled pineapple quad which had about 4 lbs of canned pineapple in a 5gal batch. Took a long time to mature but it's come around nicely. The pineapple adds a weird kick to on otherwise very spicy beer. Added all the pineapple (pulped in a blender) to secondary. Leaves a gloopy sediment mess but definitely something to repeat :)

I wouldn't boil the pineapple. Pepper yes: boil it, steep it, put it in secondary, add wodka extract at bottling...all have their use. Gotta love pepper in beer :)
 
I have a habanero pale ale to keg tomorrow. Dipped two habanero in some sanitizer, deseeded and deveined, sliced and put in a weighted hop bag. This is my second batch, and three days seems just about perfect. Nice pepper flavor, not too hot, but a nice heat tickle at the back of the throat. LOVE IT.
 
I did a piña colada IPA that turned out damn nummy. For this batch I took fresh pineapple and blended it, then strained the juice and added it late in the boil 2 min remaining.) I toasted some organic coconut flakes briefly and added those to secondary. Both flavors are present in the beer and balance well with the hops, but I think the next time I brew it I'm going to use flavor extracts. Less hassle/mess, and definitely cheaper.
 
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