When to add fruit flavoring

[garym58]

I making a wheat beer from a brewers best kit and I thought about adding cherry flavoring to it. My question is when to add it. Also would something better work instead of the flavoring such as real cherries?

Thanks

 

[AkBrew907]

I did Raspberry puree in an American Wheat a while back. I let it sit in Primary for about a week and then racked it to a secondary that I already added the puree to and let it sit for another week.


I had good results with the puree

 

[eadavis80]

I used this type of stuff: http://www.homebrewing.org/Tart-Cherry-Concentrate-16-oz-Bottle_p_5025.html and this stuff: http://www.northernbrewer.com/oregon-cherry-puree but my best fruit wheat beers were made with frozen (thawed by racking time) fruit added to secondary. I'll stick with that in future batches.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

If you're using real cherries, use about 1 lb per gallon in secondary. If you use extract, add it onto your bottling bucket to taste. The flavor of natural cherries transfers pretty well to beer (some fruits don't). Some brewers complain that extracts can taste medicinal but the newer extracts specifically for beer are much better. In the end it depends on your preference.

 

[pshankstar]

I did a Strawberry Blonde Ale (recipe found on this site) and let it sit on 8-9 pounds of frozen strawberries for two weeks in the secondary fermenter (bucket). The taste and aroma was very strong when I kegged the beer and then tasted it after forced carbonation. Since then it's been bottled using the "Last Straw" (kegged days before Thanksgiving bottled about two weeks later) and it still has the aroma but the taste has mellowed. Still apparent but not overwhelming like before when it was freshly kegged.

That's just my experience with fruit flavoring. I plan to do an American Wheat in the near future. I want to give it a raspberry twist. I think I will only use one pound of frozen raspberries given my experience with the frozen strawberries.

Good luck and keep us posted as to what you do and how it turns out.