Thoughts on cranberry puree in a Kolsch post ferm, maintain clear light beer

[Earl_Grey]

So I would like to make a cranberry kolsch but keep the kolsch appearance. My initial thought is to use a puree and dose accordingly however the kolsch being as pale as it could succumb to discoloration rather quickly from the dosing that could be needed.

I was thinking of taking the puree and reducing it down through heat, possibly in a double pot boil method so as to not scorch the puree. According to searches, cranberrys are ~90% water so I think I can get a decent reduction and concentrate the flavor therefore adding less to the beer.

What are the downsides to doing this? Should I worry about tannins from this?

 

[jalc6927]

Don’t think you can use cranberries without changing the color of a kolsch

If you are able to reduce it down to water, you’ll remove the flavor as well

Nothing wrong with a pinkish kolsch

 

[Northern_Brewer]

So I would like to make a cranberry kolsch but keep the kolsch appearance. My initial thought is to use a puree and dose accordingly however the kolsch being as pale as it could succumb to discoloration rather quickly from the dosing that could be needed.

I was thinking of taking the puree and reducing it down through heat, possibly in a double pot boil method so as to not scorch the puree. According to searches, cranberrys are ~90% water so I think I can get a decent reduction and concentrate the flavor therefore adding less to the beer.

What are the downsides to doing this? Should I worry about tannins from this?

Both the flavour and the colour is in the 90% that isn't water, so you're concentrating the colour as well as the flavour.

AIUI cranberries are not easy to brew with, they don't give up their flavour readily so colour is really a minor issue in comparison. You should be worrying about how you can extract enough out of the cranberries to flavour the beer, not how you can extract less out of the cranberries to not colour it.

Besides, I'd regard a pink colour in a cranberry beer as a feature, not a bug. The girls will love it.

 

[Earl_Grey]

So I wont be using real cranberries but a cranberry puree. In that puree is mostly water that I want to get out to reduce the volume. I do agree that I would likely be concentrating the color as well and don't really see a way around that.