Fruit Beer Watermelon Wheat

[55x11]

My last beer brewed was something similar. I juiced up 5 lbs of watermelon and 3 lbs of canteloupe, added to secondary. I also added half an oz of watermelon oil and half oz of canteloupe oil by lorann... and still barely had melon flavor. What could I possibly have done wrong? The fruit was very fresh and tasted good before adding to beer.

wait - you juiced 5lbs of watermelon and added it to secondary and you still do not taste watermelon? what am I missing?

 

[figgnewton]

Yes this is pretty true, I could very mildly detect any melon. was also 3 lbs of cantaloupe. People also had good success adding just a dram of the lorann oil but I added like 6 drams of both melon and watermelon and still could barely detect the melon flavor. This was just under 5 gallons all together so not like it was watered down

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Bump for later.

 

[bill402]

Got this in the bottle. Did anyone else notice a lot of watermelon sediment? I juiced, strained, and bottle with muslin cloth over my funnel and I still have a lot!

 

[jjackel53]

I ended up putting 12 cups of juice in secondary....has nice melon flavor, but I think it totally depends on how sweet your melon is. I used a melon in May and it was fine but I am going to use a July or August melon.... It will be better and sweeter I think... But I love this beer!

 

[bill402]

I ended up putting 12 cups of juice in secondary....has nice melon flavor, but I think it totally depends on how sweet your melon is. I used a melon in May and it was fine but I am going to use a July or August melon.... It will be better and sweeter I think... But I love this beer!

I did 3 qts. as well. Nice flavor. It's definitely melon-y, and it kind of gives a bit of a cucumber after taste. I'm happy with it.

 

[tmartin110]

Anyone else having trouble getting to DubbelDach's website? Trying to see latest recipe versions, but browser keeps warning of threatening link. Tired different computers as well as browsers.

 

[tgmartin000]

I just made my second version of this beer. Used 9 cups of fresh watermelon puree after primary was done. The watermelon flavor was....pronounced. It's for a wedding this saturday, so we'll see how it goes, but overall it's a super tasty beer. Definitely a fruit beer!

 

[Morrey]

I just made my second version of this beer. Used 9 cups of fresh watermelon puree after primary was done. The watermelon flavor was....pronounced. It's for a wedding this saturday, so we'll see how it goes, but overall it's a super tasty beer. Definitely a fruit beer!

Are you adding the juice straight up or concentrating it?

 

[tgmartin000]

Are you adding the juice straight up or concentrating it?

So I cored a seedless watermelon, then used my food processor to puree it. Then I froze it overnight, thawed it, then added directly to the primary once fermentation was finished. Gave it another 5 days, then kegged.

 

[Morrey]

So I cored a seedless watermelon, then used my food processor to puree it. Then I froze it overnight, thawed it, then added directly to the primary once fermentation was finished. Gave it another 5 days, then kegged.

Consider my method: Freeze 1/2G juice in an empty half gallon clean milk jug. Turn upside down (lid off) on an open quart mason jar. The essence will drip out first leaving an ice block. Usually takes me 3-4 hours slow melt. Refreeze that one quart of collected concentrate and do the melt/drip trick again to collect 16 oz from that quart. That stepped down 16 oz is what you'll use.

It is very concentrated and using only 16 oz will not water down your beer like the full volume of juice will. Works for me.

 

[armenianbrewer]

Consider my method: Freeze 1/2G juice in an empty half gallon clean milk jug. Turn upside down (lid off) on an open quart mason jar. The essence will drip out first leaving an ice block. Usually takes me 3-4 hours slow melt. Refreeze that one quart of collected concentrate and do the melt/drip trick again to collect 16 oz from that quart. That stepped down 16 oz is what you'll use.

It is very concentrated and using only 16 oz will not water down your beer like the full volume of juice will. Works for me.

So I froze maybe close to 1 gallon of watermelon juice (blended two large watermelons, then filters out just the liquid, much of what was left behind was simply pulpy pieces).. I'll add pics when I get a chance but I was wondering, in about a week or so I want to use this frozen juice..

Should I let it thaw out in the fridge slowly until it's almost entirely liquid then rack my wheat beer right on top?

It's currently a solid chunk of ice right now... I even had a chance to measure the gravity of the juice I extracted from the watermelons and it was around 1.036, so quite sweet.

 

[tgmartin000]

So brewed 5 gallons of this for my SIL's wedding a few weeks ago. Poured off a few bottles for the state fair, which I entered into the fruit beer category, american wheat beer with watermelon.

One of the judges said it had a "watermelon flavor" that was not appropriate in wheat beers.

IT'S SUPPOSED TO HAVE WATERMELON FLAVOR, EINSTEIN. IT'S THE FREAKING FRUIT BEER CATEGORY.

I swear...some of these judges....

 

[treacheroustexan]

So brewed 5 gallons of this for my SIL's wedding a few weeks ago. Poured off a few bottles for the state fair, which I entered into the fruit beer category, american wheat beer with watermelon.

One of the judges said it had a "watermelon flavor" that was not appropriate in wheat beers.

IT'S SUPPOSED TO HAVE WATERMELON FLAVOR, EINSTEIN. IT'S THE FREAKING FRUIT BEER CATEGORY.

I swear...some of these judges....

hahaha are you kidding me? I would be emailing the judge... just to put him in his place.

 

[armenianbrewer]

So I froze maybe close to 1 gallon of watermelon juice (blended two large watermelons, then filters out just the liquid, much of what was left behind was simply pulpy pieces).. I'll add pics when I get a chance but I was wondering, in about a week or so I want to use this frozen juice..

Should I let it thaw out in the fridge slowly until it's almost entirely liquid then rack my wheat beer right on top?

It's currently a solid chunk of ice right now... I even had a chance to measure the gravity of the juice I extracted from the watermelons and it was around 1.036, so quite sweet.

New thought, my wheat beer is ready for the watermelon additon but since I had to juice my watermelon ahead of time, I ended up freezing a gallon of it in a freezer ziploc bag.

Now my next question for the experienced brewers on here, is it okay for me to rack my 3 gallons of wheat beer on a giant frozen block of watermelon juice or should I let it thaw out completely and then dump into an empty fermenter followed by racking wheat beer on top of it? Or will the giant ice block potentially harm the yeast in my wheat beer and thus not allow it to ferment the watermelon sugar?

Is it safe for a large amount of essentially ice juice to slowly thaw and ferment in the beer?

 

[tgmartin000]

I'd give it a couple days to thaw out. It won't kill the yeast, but it could put them to sleep for a while.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I would use it frozen. Just like the berries in my strawberry blonde. Rack on top of the frozen melon.

 

[armenianbrewer]

Update:

I let my giant frozen block of watermelon juice slow thaw in the fridge and by the time I went for racking it was mostly thawed but with chunks here and there, but sufficient enough to measure volumetrically in my fermenter. When I poured it into my mini SS fermenter, it hit right above the 1 gallon mark for juice.... then I topped it off with 2.25 gallons of my wheat beer.

Excited to see how this turns out, before I had froze my watermelon juice originally, I took a sample of the gravity of the juice and it was 1.036 which is a pretty respectable amount. For 2 days I saw some nice CO2 activity in my blowoff airlock but I'm not sure how long I should let this before racking to my keg?

Any ideas or suggestions? 2.5 gallons will be kegged while the rest of about .75 gallons will be bottled

 

[tgmartin000]

A week on the fruit is good, then package.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Brewing this over the weekend. Wanting to have it ready for July 4th. Very excited!

 

[user 30639]

This looks awesome! Commenting so I can find it later.

 

[brewbama]

Has anyone tried simply adding the watermelon juice to a glass of wheat beer to taste vs secondary fermentation? The DIL had a watermelon wheat recently and wants me to brew this. ...but I am not sure I want 5 gal of it.

 

[brewgar]

DIL?

 

[treacheroustexan]

DIL?

Daughter in law I'm assuming.

 

[brewbama]

Daughter in law I'm assuming.

Correct

 

[treacheroustexan]

Bought all the ingredients earlier. Super cheap beer too. Cost me a little over $20 for everything and I'll have hops left over. Brewing Sunday.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Transferring to the fermenter. Super easy brew day. Now need to to find the perfect melons [emoji16]

 

[Beewrangler63]

Bottling a 5 gallon batch of this later this afternoon.

 

[treacheroustexan]

The yeast finally took off from Sundays batch. I'm trying to ferment it on the cooler side. Want to try and rack on the watermelon next weekend so I can get it in a keg sooner than later.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Racked on the watermelon. Let's see what happens.

 

[brewbama]

I got me some of that Amoretti Watermelon Purée. I added one pump to a glass of English Summer Ale. Not bad. 10x better than that crap I ruined a whole 5 gal batch with last summer. Plus, now I don’t have to drink 5 gal of Watermelon Beer. I can have a few glasses and call it good. The Gkids can add the rest of it to soda or water.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Well guys, I have my own version brewing! Didnt have 320 on hand but I did have 300. Also did not have the right hops so I used cascade. Went with 3/4 ounce since they were 3.4% AA. Hoping for a watermelon banana medley! Tim

Having lived and worked in Bavaria for 9 years, I think adding anything to a Hefe Weizen is a CRIME.

I would have just used Nottingham or Safale US-05 for a Watermelon Wheat.

 

[treacheroustexan]

First taste from the keg. Still needs to carb but it's fantastic. Watermelon on the nose, and taste isn't overpowering. Just enough to know its present. Not artificial. Love it so far. Thanks for the recipe!

 

[Blackhawkmech06]

Quick question for everyone. The link to DubbelDachs' v5 on his website isn't working, what is the general consensus on what everyone is brewing for v5? Wanting to brew this one as the next brew. Thanks!