Question about fruit beers

bernardsmith · Dec 1, 2014

I am thinking about making a beer with added pomegranate. Can richly flavored fruit be added to any style of beer? Does it matter whether the beer is a pale ale or a stout or porter. In terms of flavor what are the issues I need to pay attention to?

JimRausch · Dec 1, 2014

Yes, fruit can be added to any style of beer, depending on what you are looking for flavor wise. However, keep in mind that the yeast will eat whatever sugars you provide in the fruit, and most fruit sugars are simple and easily fermentable. A lot of fruit flavor is sugar, and when you take out the sugar, there sometimes isn't much flavor left, or the remaining flavor is not what you're expecting.
Case in point- last year I bottled an Irish Red with 8oz. of POM pomegranate juice(I foolishly wanted more red color). Color was beautiful, but there was a weird, astringent after flavor that was not good. Now, after about 9 months it is fading, but it still is not as flavorful as my IR bottled without the POM.
However, adding 1 lb of crushed whole cranberries to a Graf has been wonderful in both batches I've done it.
So, more research and experimentation(and other's opinions) will help you. Good Luck!

Suicid · Dec 1, 2014

Indeed!
There is a great BYO article on fruits in a beer, search their site for it.
The bottom line is that after fermentation all you stil have a (bit of) fruit fragnance, (possible)color and a (lot/bit - depends on friut used) sour flavour.

They said you should not antisipate a great wine has a flavour of grape juice, while was made of it

bernardsmith · Dec 1, 2014

Many thanks for your thoughts, Jim. I make wine (just new to brewing) so I am fairly familiar with what happens when the yeast removes all sweetness. I am actually looking for the "snap" that pomegranate has. I have made pomegranate wine several times and I love the bite it can have. I am thinking that as I bottle the wine at a gravity of about 1.000 - 1.003 the residual sweetness of the beer will nicely offset the flavor of the fruit but I tend to prefer darker, heavier beers than the beers I see most often associated with fruit - although your point about apple ale (Graf?) is well taken. I have a few gallons of apple ale happily aging (made with marris otter and cider from a local orchard). Never thought about apple ale as a fruit beer although it obviously is. Just thought of it as a blend of ale and cider in much the same way that a braggot is blend of mead and beer and not a beer with added honey

Suicid · Dec 1, 2014

Here is might be what you are looking for

https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/319-brewing-with-fruit-techniques

https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/678-fruit-beer-tips-from-the-pros

JimRausch · Dec 1, 2014

bernardsmith said:
Many thanks for your thoughts, Jim. I make wine (just new to brewing) so I am fairly familiar with what happens when the yeast removes all sweetness. I am actually looking for the "snap" that pomegranate has. I have made pomegranate wine several times and I love the bite it can have. I am thinking that as I bottle the wine at a gravity of about 1.000 - 1.003 the residual sweetness of the beer will nicely offset the flavor of the fruit but I tend to prefer darker, heavier beers than the beers I see most often associated with fruit - although your point about apple ale (Graf?) is well taken. I have a few gallons of apple ale happily aging (made with marris otter and cider from a local orchard). Never thought about apple ale as a fruit beer although it obviously is. Just thought of it as a blend of ale and cider in much the same way that a braggot is blend of mead and beer and not a beer with added honey

I do admit that it might have been the source(POM) and/or the timing of the addition(bottling) that gave the off-flavor. I imagine fresh or fresh-frozen fruit will always be better than extract, concentrate or juice. And your experience making wine will give you a big advantage that a beer junky won't have.
I devised my Graf recipe for the reason you mention- to have the beer add some residual sweetness to the cider. My 1st attempt at cider resulted in a bonedry tart applewine that took over a year to mellow. The Graf is drinkable as soon as it carbonates up.