To each his own but fruit doesn't belong in beer

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I actually think that fruit/flowers in beer is fine as long as it is done right. I like "subtle hints" of these from time to time and SWMBO loves them! Would I like to drink a 12er of Leinies berryweiss? Hell No! I can barely choke down 2 swallows of that stuff but a nice strawberry blonde on a hot day camping? Absolutely.

These things have been added to beer for a very long time. Look @ heather beer like Fraoch. It is actually really good, IMO as is the lore behind it. This beer/style actually inspired me to create a "floral beer" of my own. All the samples have been nothing but stellar so far and it comes time for the 1st taste after conditioning for 2 weeks in the bottle on Friday night after work. If the beer turns out (It may need another week or 2 to fully carb/condition), I will post it because as far as I know I may be the 1st to have created this particular kind of beer! (extensive searches turned up nothing but a wine...) I also have a few other "ideas" that I would like to explore.

I do have a question for the anti fruit/flower crowd...Do you also not ever use coffee, beans/seeds (like vanilla), honey, or any other "spice" or "flavoring agent" not gotten from barley, wheat or hops? and if "yes" then what is the difference??? :confused:

The bottom line is a good beer is a good beer. The issue is what is "good"? This is a personal choice that can change from minute to minute, from person to person and be affected by environmental factors as well.

Fruit or not, I wish you all the best of brews! :tank:
 
The real title of this thread should be "Fruit, wheat, etc..." is perfectly acceptable in beer, I just don't like it in mine or I've never tried it.

I like the smooth almost IMO "flour (yes, that kind of flour)" like flavor in wheat beers. I like a good fruit beer with subtle hints of fruit, or a well blended beer with higher percentages of fruit. I also like Jasmine in IPA's.

I was going to say that even if something doesn't sound good, you should give it a try but then I realized I'd have to eat my own words and other things if someone offered me monkey brains or cricket scrotums. Maybe fruit beers are some people's cricket sacks, and they can't bring themselves to try them no matter what.
 
I stand corrected. Recently my brother bought me some Sam Smith Organic Raspberry Ale. I am a convert. If I could brew this beer I would never leave the house.
samsmithras.gif
 
I have to say that I really really enjoy 21st Amendment Brewery's Hell or High Watermelon. In fact I would call it my goto beer for long hot summer days. Not too sweet and thirst quenching in a way that most beers usually aren't.
 
Seems like someone switched sides so to speak. I'm not much of an additive fan myself (wether it's spices, fruit, chocolate, etc.) but a friend of mine brought back some Lambics from Belgium years ago. I remember that some of them were head and shoulders above anything I had ever tasted before (or since).
 
redalert said:
I've never tried a fruit lambic and I'm not inclined to anytime soon. -- For women maybe.
Click to expand...


Ok Mr troll, I guess Michael Jackson was a chick too....:drunk:


Try a few before making yourself look like a total fool with your head up your ass, oh wait you've already done so.

any of these beers is worth a try>
Drie Fonteinen Oude Kriekenlambik
Drie Fonteinen Schaerbeekse Kriek
Cantillon Cuvee Moeder
Cantillon Lou Pepe - Kriek
Oude Kriek De Cam
Boon Oude Kriek Mariage Parfait
Oud Beersel Oude Kriek Vieille
 
I drink what I brew, and I brew what I want.
Fruit or no fruit. :)
I prefer a nice malty Irish Red, but every now and then I'll throw a bag of oranges into my wit or some extract into a couple of the bottles.
 
jgourd said:
Oh yeah! I made a Clorona :D a few months ago. It lasted about two weeks. I need to make some more. Great thing is that you can have it without the skunk or have at it with the skunking to any level you want. I tried from 5 minutes in the sunlight to an hour. About 25 minutes was the best for me. But to be honest, no skunking at all was quite nice.
Click to expand...

Purposely skunking beer to style. That's funny.
 
I keep looking at the dried cherries in my local Publix and wanting to do something with them, but I'm just not a big fruit beer fan either.
 
Myself and others think I make a pretty good Rasp ale.

Gotta use real berries, extract flavorings taste like doo doo :cross:
 
The great fruit debate continues. I enjoy a good fruit beer especially in spring and summer. It's a nice change of pace. My goal this year is to make a good rasberry wheat beer for summer as well as good lemon flavored beer. If I could come up with a kit that clones Summer Shandy I would brew that every year for sure!
 
If I like the taste and enjoy drinking it, I'll drink it. It's pretty simple for me. I'm not swayed by what others think is good or not. Life is too short for that stuff.
 
I don't mind some now and then but my wife begs to differ. Her response "I let you keep all your damn bottles all over this house and in my kitchen so the least you can do is brew me me some rasp. wheat." can't argue with that.
 
The most traditional thing about beer, is the experimenting. Before hops spread, people used whatever herbs were on hand to balance the malt.

Even if innovation makes a "bad" beer here and there, at least you found one way not to make a beer.

I'm not keen on fruit beers myself but, Dog Fish Head's Aprihop is pretty darn good. And I don't like apricots, but in the beer they blend nicely with their choice of hops. Sam Adams fall Pumpkin Ale was pretty good, and Samuel Smith has a tasty Strawberry beer.
 
I would tend to agree that most fruit beers are pretty poor, and I have no desire to make one myself, but some of the lambics & Sours out there with fruit are pretty amazing, Supplication is a favorite of mine, though grossly overpriced.

And to those touting Reinheitzgebot, I encourage you to do some research on it. To apply it to any beer other than German styles really doesn't make any sense. The original purpose of the law was to preserve the wheat crops so that bread could be made in plentiful quantities. The original law also stated that beer would only contain Barley,Hops, & Water. They didn't even know about Yeast, it just so happened that there was yeast on the paddles they used to stir the Wort,. IMO, the law got spun into the "purity" bit thus becoming a marketing ploy. With all of the great styles to make, and tasty things to put in our beers, there's really no reason to limit yourself by following a law that's not even in affect anymore.
 
The OP is talking about not liking the taste of fruit beer. Are we talking just commercial, or home brewed too? I have read plenty of bad reviews for brewing with kits that contain a flavoring or artificial flavor.

For those who have ventured into brewing your own beer using only natural, whole or crushed fruit or real fruit juice, I would be interested in hearing your opinions.
 
Here is my opinion. I do and have brewed several fruit beers. They have all come out very nicely and have been very popular among my beer snob buddies. I love to experiment and try new things.
Some "un-pure" non rohnheinsgebhot cringing beers I have made are:
Strawberry Ale (3 times)
Blueberry Lager
Blackberry Porter
Peach Ale
Vanilla Porter
Vanilla Stout
Coffee Stout
Green Tea Honey Kolsch
Carmel Apple Ale

All have been well received. All have been made using fresh fruits (though I process them in various ways.)

Typically I puree most of my fresh fruits first. Then mix in some Pectic Enzyme (this eliminates Pectin Haze) and let the puree sit overnight prior to use to give the enzyme time to work. I also usually bust out my food dehydrator and dehydrate a portion of the fruit I am working with to add both to my secondary and to my kegs for serving.

I usually add the puree to my BK in the last 15 minutes or so of the boil. When I do this i run my cooled wort thru a strainer when going into the bucket to catch any remaining puree pieces.
When the beers go to secondary, they receive a muslin bag with dehydrated fruit.
Then again, in the keg they get the same treatment. I find this adds a nice fruit flavor to the beers that is not overpowering, but still noticeable. (again, the amount and quality of ingredients makes all the difference)
In the cases of my Peach Ale, Strawberry Ale, and Blueberry Lager I also got some nice coloring. The peach had a nice golden peach color, the strawberry a dark pink, and the blueberry was blueish purple.

So yes, experiment, have fun and you too can make some truly great fruit beers.
 
You know, I think I have to agree with keeping rohnheinsgebhot to German beers. It makes sense that I'd never really thought about before, as does the beginning of the law.

It's definitely an interesting brewing practice, if you want to challenge yourself to seeing how much variety you can get from four ingredients.
 
I was telling my mom that people put fruit in beer.
Her reply was "then it's not beer"
She is from Germany.:)
 

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