Fruit Beer using Rasberry Concentrate

[symptomlesscoma]

Hello just joined JBK today, been reading forum to a while but finally thought I should join.
Anyway, thinking of brewing a few of wheat beers in a row in August. A Hefe based on a Paulaner recipe, a weizenbock/dunkel based on a scaled down version of Aventinus and possibly a wheat based fruit beer,for the missus (although I'm quite partial myself).
One of the mail order homebrew shops sells a Rasberry concentrate, just wondering whether anyone has used this? And is it anygood?
Tried to make a fruit beer last summer with real rasberries when a was a relative newbie to brewing AG but it turned out horrible as got infected (i later read i should have pasturised fruit first in oven). Don't want to do this again as it costs an absolute fortune for several pounds of rasberries.
Also while we're on the subject whats the best way to make fruit beer, just toss it in primary before adding yeast? Or wait till secondary?
If anyone can help me I would be very grateful.

SC

[trucker5774]

I also have tried with fruit, but the results were poor. I would go with the concentrate. Add it when you bottle/barrel. It will also be useful if you do any TC you want to flavour

[Manx Guy]

Hi,

I'm not sure that fruit concentrate is the way to go, but not having EVER made a fruit beer myself WTF do I know?

I've read in 'The Complete Joy of Homebrewing' (TCJH) that it is 'traditional for the Belgian brewers to add fruit in the secondary stage, as this reduces the chance of infection... Beer being alcoholic and acid inhibits excessive beer spoiling bacteria etc...

Hope that helps, but I'm sure one of the 'belgian boffins' will be along to offer some sage advice...

Good on you for experimenting!



Bon Chance!

Guy

[Befuddler]

I haven't actually tried it yet but I have designs on a strawberry wheat beer in the next couple of months. I'm going to procure an arseload of strawberries from a pick-your-own place and simmer them down into a syrup with a bit of boiling water.. this will both pasteurise the fruit and concentrate the flavour. I'm going to seive the syrup and add it into the wort after primary fermentation has died down.. I'm not sure how much of the fruit sugar is fermentable by beer yeast, but personally I wouldn't want to risk adding it when racking.

[smdjoachim]

When i made various fruit wheatbeers I steeped the fruit at 80 degree in a little water for 10 min to pasteurised them before putting them in at secondary.
If you put them in at secondary you need less fruit as the flavours would be fermented of if you put them in the primary.
I put the fruit in a old pair of tights which was also pasteurised , which made racking so much easier.

Befuddler said
I haven't actually tried it yet but I have designs on a strawberry wheat beer in the next couple of months. I'm going to procure an arseload of strawberries from a pick-your-own place and simmer them down into a syrup with a bit of boiling water.. this will both pasteurise the fruit and concentrate the flavour. I'm going to seive the syrup and add it into the wort after primary fermentation has died down.. I'm not sure how much of the fruit sugar is fermentable by beer yeast, but personally I wouldn't want to risk adding it when racking.

The trouble with boiling fruit is you get pectin which will give you haze.So a cloudy wheatbeer or a dark ale would cover this problem up.

I quite fancy doing a blackberry stout in the autumn.

I'm all for pushing the boundaries of homebrewing

[symptomlesscoma]

Thanks alot for the imput.
When I did the last fruit beer i put it in primary and i think the yeast did eat away all the fruit flavour from the taste i had before i bottled (It just tasted like an under hopped wastery bright red beer). So i did assume it would be wiser to put fruit in secondary or bottle.
I know using Concentrate is a bit like cheating but think i'll give it a go as last go was an expensive mistake. Plus just to see if concentrate is anygood.
If i put concentrate in bottle would i still need priming sugar or would fruit be enough?

[dave-o]

I would be very careful putting it in the bottle. You will need a lot if you want any flavour and that amount will contain a large amount of sugar, so you run the risk of explosions and/or gushing bottles.

I add fruit after the primary fermentation has slowed down. I boil fruit in a little water for 5 minutes to kill any nasties first.

Concentrate would probably work quite well, but don't be put off trying again with real raspberries if you can get hold of them. It's always going to be better IMO, in the same way that all grain is better than extract.

If using fruit and wanting a clear(er) beer use pectic enzyme.

[chivelegs]

As we've got a glut of raspberries at the moment, I've taken a gallon from my latest AG brew going in to secondary, a big 6.5% stout / porter effort and bunged a whole load of raspberries in. Seems to be quite happily bubbling away although I'm definitely leaving this for a while before bottling as apparently some of the fruit sugars take a hell of a time to ferment out and apparently you're definitely risking bottle bombs bottling too early.

[Befuddler]

a big 6.5% stout / porter effort and bunged a whole load of raspberries in.

That sounds belting.

[HighHops]

Hi SC - Welcome to Jim's.

Good advice from all. I would add fruit to secondary and leave it to ferment for as long as possible as others have said. If priming bottles I would half the amount of sugar you usually use as some of the sugars in fruit may take a while to ferment out. If using concentrate, try to use several different sources to give it a bit more depth.

I quite fancy doing a blackberry stout in the autumn.

I'm all for pushing the boundaries of homebrewing

I want to do a blackberry stout in the autumn too, but that's another thread.

[Jolum]

I haven't actually tried it yet but I have designs on a strawberry wheat beer in the next couple of months.

I was listening to an interview with Randy Mosher on Basic Brewing Radio where he stated that strawberries made very poor beer. Not that I'm trying to put you off or anything - I'd probably try to make a small amount first and see how it turns out.

I'm going to stick with Raspberries as I grow them myself and they go lovely in a light beer. I also grow Damsons but I'm not sure how they will turn out, they're quite acidic but unless you cook them I find that they have very little flavour. And cooking them can result in a pectic haze so I'm going to do the same thing and try brewing a gallon or so and see how it goes - the missus can always chutney the rest

[dave-o]

I also grow Damsons but I'm not sure how they will turn out, they're quite acidic but unless you cook them I find that they have very little flavour. And cooking them can result in a pectic haze so I'm going to do the same thing and try brewing a gallon or so and see how it goes - the missus can always chutney the rest

"Poacher's Choice" by Badger features damsons, and it is delicious! Try one if you can find one. It fills the whole room with a lovely fruity aroma when opened.

As regards your haze, pectic enzyme is a must when brewing with fruit IMO.

[CJBrew]

I can't see strawberries working very well. I don't know how fruli do it... As far as I can remember the only time I've made fruit beers that haven't gone a bit off is when I've added the fruit at the end of the boil, so it gets pasteurised. Of course you lose some fruit flavour by this method but you could add it back with a concentrate addition in secondary.

I'm off making fruit beer at the moment, because the results are generally either disappointing or mouldy, and it's really expensive. Personally I'd concentrate on making really good beer with barley, wheat, hops and yeast, limit the fruit to Curacao orange peel in your wit... But good luck!

[Jolum]

I'm off making fruit beer at the moment, because the results are generally either disappointing or mouldy, and it's really expensive. Personally I'd concentrate on making really good beer with barley, wheat, hops and yeast, limit the fruit to Curacao orange peel in your wit... But good luck!

TBH, that's what (finally) drove me away from producing fruit wines, there was just way too much inconsistency in the results - even with pectic enzyme For ever good, tasty fruit wine I made I had two bad ones where it either got infected or the fruit flavour just wasn't present in the final product. Not to mention it took sooooo bloody long to find out you'd ended up with a gallon of thin, flavourless piss Don't get me wrong, I don't want to knock the whole fruit-wine scene, some people (like my mother-in-law) get a higher success rate but it didn't work for me so bollox to it.

These days, I prefer to limit my experiments to syphoning off a gallon or so of beer from the primary into a third fermenter, where I'll add the sieved juice of a pound of fruit (usually raspberries as IMO they work the best). That way, if it works I end up with ~9 bottles of something even the missus likes to drink, if not I've still got ~9 gallons of beer to drown my sorrows

[Mountain]

Not been around for a while, but I've brewed a few fruit beers and all were very good!

First, you need lot's of fruit. At least 3kilos for 4-5 gallons, but you can double that if you like!

I use some pectin.

I've also found the best way is to add the fruit about 15mins before the end of the boil. You get a 'fresher' fruit flavour this way.
I've tried putting the fruit in primary and secondary, but 15mins before the end of the brew and straining into primary worked best for me.
If you leave fruit sitting around in the FV you risk infection. You also risk it being 'stale' and you end up with all that grey mush that seems to soak up the alcohol.
All you need to do is extract the fruit flavour.

I'll be out raiding the hedgerows again soon.

Here's my Raspberry wheat from last Christmas. You can see that it got a lot of raspberryness from the colour!