Fruit Beer Watermelon Wheat

[wtaylor3]

Malty_dog, I am just assuming as other fruit beers tend to lose their fruit flavors after some time, whether it be weeks or months, don't let me shy ya away from this beer

 

[Rev2010]

Has anyone tried adding the watermelon when kegging - so that the refrigeration stops the yeast from fermenting the watermelon sugars? I ask because when I brewed in the past adding fruit to the fermenter both times (once with white peach puree and another with apple cider) the result was a tart taste - since the sugars were converted. I didn't like that so I was thinking of adding it in a way the yeast won't eat the sugars and just ferment the base ale at a lower temp so the beer itself has less sweetness. Or perhaps ferment half the juice and add the other half at kegging. Anyone tried this?


Rev.

 

[tgmartin000]

Ok, I've been meaning to post back about my experiments on this beer. I made 8 gallons, split into 4 fermentors, with WLP001, WLP320, WLP400 (belgian wit), and WY1010 (american wheat). I added 3 cups of fresh pureed watermelon to each 2.5 gallon batch, 7 days after primary. All batches finished about 1.008.

We had a tasting party a few weeks back....some quick notes:

001: Best watermelon aroma, nice and clean fruit aroma and flavor. Prominent watermelon. Very clean fruit wheat beer, almost jolly rancher like flavor.

320: More flavorful than the 001, nice play of hefe yeast and watermelon flavor. Less watermelon aroma, but great pinkish color.

400: really great mouthfeel, but we felt the spiciness from the yeast did not play as well with the melon.

1010: SOmething amiss here. I get an asprin off flavor. Never had that issue with this yeast before.

And the overall winner was the 320 batch. The way the yeast flavor melds with the melon was really great and complimentary. The 001 was second best - I just had it in a beer tasting over the weekend, and everyone loved this beer.

I'll be making more of this for a wedding next summer, using the 320 for sure. I think the low FG of my beers really helped accentuate the melon flavor, and really helped the drinkability. Next time I might reduce the OG a few points, as these beers finished about 5.5%.

 

[wtaylor3]

Well I was bound and determined this was gonna be a keg beer, however the kegerator still isn't done and it's been in primary since July 8th!!! Not sure how it's going to be

 

[wtaylor3]

In the keg and pressurized for a 24hr force carb

 

[wtaylor3]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1443233535.118631.jpg

Drank a 16oz sample of it warm and flat, a little tart but the watermelon flavor definitely came through. I believe my efficiency was still terrible as its very light. Overall I'm fairly satisfied with it though and cannot wait to try it carbed up and cold.

 

[DuckBrown]

I plan on brewing this this weekend. Can't wait!

 

[jjackel53]

I'm using cane sugar to prime this beer. What would be the best amount to use? I used an 06 wheat yeast for this beer.

 

[Hopzz]

Thanks for posting this. LBS has a watermelon kit but they warned me it tasted too much like candy.

 

[figgnewton]

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.

 

[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!