Redcurrants in Beer

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Binkie Huckaback
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Redcurrants in Beer

Post by Binkie Huckaback » Tue Jul 06, 2021 12:33 am

I've a few kilos of redcurrants and I'd like to have a go at putting some in a beer and wondered if anyone had any thoughts or experience. There are a couple of posts here from a long time ago from people no longer active, so thought it might be worth asking if any newer members might have some input.

Having given it some thought, I guess my request can be broken down into two parts. First what beer to use as a base and second when to add the redcurrants.

There are a couple of recipes I have in mind.

The first is a kind-of wit (23 litres, 60 minute mash, 60 minute boil):

Lager Malt 46.6%
Wheat Malt 37.7%
Flaked Oats 15.7%

Target 12.45 % 60 mins 10 grams 31.3%
Saaz 2.20 % 15 mins 22 grams 68.8%

Plus:

20g Ginger root (fresh, grated)
15g Cardamom (whole, peeled)
12g Coriander seeds

All added in the boil at 50 minutes

Mangrove Jack's wit yeast

Or Graham Wheeler's Batham's Best recipe (23 litres, 90 minute mash, 90 minute boil):

100% Pale malt

Fuggle 6.49 % 90 mins 27 grams 50.9%
Northdown 6.19 % 90 mins 17 grams 32.1%
Golding 4.02 % 0 mins 9 grams 17%

S04 Yeast

Last year I made a fantastic wet hop beer with 100g of an unknown hop added

The second part of my request is how much fruit to add and when? The fruit will have come from my allotment and I don't use pesticides and am pretty sure the people close don't use any kind of spray that travels far. It will have been picked over, destalked and washed prior to freezing and from what I've read, I think I might heat it in a little water (maybe try to pasteurise it?) and add it to secondary.

I'll probably be using a conical fermenter, but have little headspace above the fermenter (the height of the lid plus a two-piece airlock and enough room to remove the top part). So, I guess if I want to add to the fermenter, I'll need a sanitised jelly bag attached to a sanitised length of cotton trapped under the lid of the fermenter.

Or I could wait until I get myself sorted with pressure fermenting in a keg over the next few months.

Another option and maybe the best is to use this as a chance to experiment and split the batch between several demijohns, perhaps one where I rack onto the fruit and another where I do the same, but sour it.

Any thoughts/hints/tips gratefully received. Thanks for reading.

Kingfisher4
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Re: Redcurrants in Beer

Post by Kingfisher4 » Tue Jul 06, 2021 3:43 pm

Hi,

If you hate sour beers please ignore.

If you like them or would like to try then look up David Heath’s sour part 3 on YouTube, it’s an easy raspberry sour with Philly Sour yeast which doesn’t contaminate fermenters or need kettle souring etc. I brewed a batch last summer and love it as an occasional hot weather refreshing sour beer, in bottles it has lasted well for 10 months now.

Binkie Huckaback
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Re: Redcurrants in Beer

Post by Binkie Huckaback » Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:09 pm

Thanks Kingfisher. I do like a sour beer now and then, so will take a look at the videos.

Kingfisher4
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Re: Redcurrants in Beer

Post by Kingfisher4 » Wed Jul 07, 2021 12:14 am

Binkie Huckaback wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:09 pm
Thanks Kingfisher. I do like a sour beer now and then, so will take a look at the videos.
Pleasure. I’m just about to harvest my Blackcurrants so will probably try substituting them for the raspberries as an experiment.

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MashBag
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Re: Redcurrants in Beer

Post by MashBag » Wed Jul 07, 2021 7:58 am

Fruit beer. Eeeeek. Buy some ice cream.

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Cobnut
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Re: Redcurrants in Beer

Post by Cobnut » Wed Jul 07, 2021 1:53 pm

Someone else asked about blackberries. My reply in this thread mentions my use of raspberries and blackberries in a Belgian Strong Blond.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=81524&hilit=raspberry
Fermenting: nowt
Conditioning: English IPA/Bretted English IPA
Drinking: Sunshine Marmalade, Festbier, Helles Bock, Smokey lagery beer, Irish Export StoutCascade APA (homegrown hops), Orval clone, Impy stout, Duvel clone, Conestoga (American Barley wine)
Planning: Dark Mild, Kozel dark (ish), Simmonds Bitter, Bitter, Citra PA and more!

Binkie Huckaback
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Re: Redcurrants in Beer

Post by Binkie Huckaback » Wed Jul 07, 2021 10:06 pm

Thanks Cobnut

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LeeH
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Re: Redcurrants in Beer

Post by LeeH » Sat Jul 10, 2021 9:50 am

MashBag wrote:Fruit beer. Eeeeek. Buy some ice cream.
Interesting recipe…
Sabro Single Hop NEIPA 25/02/20 CLICK ME to monitor progress with Brewfather & iSpindel

oldbloke
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Re: Redcurrants in Beer

Post by oldbloke » Fri Jul 16, 2021 1:04 am

With that much redcurrant I'd definitely do wine. We have a bush that yields about 4kg per year and almost all of it ends up as wine. I've given up keeping exact notes because if you add 250gm or more per gallon of blackcurrant to any berry mix it comes out nice. However we also have plenty of raspberries and I usually mix in some red gooseberry, rather than doing a straight gooseberry wine. Though that's nice too. The general rule is about 3lbs of fruit per gallon, don't be too picky about getting all the stalks off as that's your tannin, they don't have huge amounts of sugar so add RequiredABV*20gm/litre. Freeze then thaw to break cells walls, a day in a bin with a Campden to kill any nasties, add yeast and nutrient and ferment on the pulp for a week then strain to demijohns. You can put all the sugar in at the start or split it between the bin and when it goes into demi - doesn't matter much. Almost can't go wrong.

Binkie Huckaback
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Re: Redcurrants in Beer

Post by Binkie Huckaback » Sun Jul 18, 2021 9:46 pm

Thanks Oldbloke. I've made redcurrant wine before (and jelly) but wanted to try something else as the only things people seem to make is wine and jelly and I'm not a massive fan of wine.

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