Fruit Beer Test Batches

Dice and freeze. Use more fruit then you think you're going to need.

 

agree with above and I'll add

blueberry - cook it to help retain some flavor, otherwise all you really get is color

orange - will add sourness and not much lasting flavor, best way to get an orangey flavor is orange blossom water ( a little goes a long, long, long way)

raspberry - good choice, dont need much in a batch to have a nice flavor, i usually shoot for around 16oz in a 5gal batch of saison for beer that has raspberry flavor, but doesnt taste like juice

peach - use white variety, fresh and very ripe, even then flavor is fleeting

cherry - another good choice, a mix of sour cherries(montmorency) and a small amount of black cherries is a good choice

 

I like your ambition. I would personally recommend making 4 different kinds of fruit beer and keep a gallon of your original beer. This will be a base beer in case the fruit is to predominant in any of your gallons. I made a boysenberry wheat beer 2 years ago. It was like a cocktail instead of a beer. It was poor measuring on my part.

 

On a sidenote: Most beers take 1 to 2 pounds of fruit per gallon of beer. Regardless of what you're going to do do, you'll need 6 gallon growlers for 5 gal of beer, since the fruit will take up a substantial amount of space at the bottom of each gallon growler. The type of beer has a big impact on how much you'll need and the type of fruit you use will have a big impact on how much you'll need. With a light beer like this you'll probably shoot for a pound per gallon. As said above, raspberries are potent.

 

What do people pay for raspberries in their area? I usually see 12oz cartons for like 5/6 bucks. Seems like quite the expensive addition when you are talking a pound per gallon.

 

Try a farmers market or getting the berrys 'in season'(whenever that is for rasp). The price diff is usually pretty substantial. Most grocery stores also sell frozen rasps for fairly cheap just make sure they dont have any sugar added ( a lot of them DO)

 

Yep. They're never cheap around here. They're very delicate and hard to ship. It's typical to see them sold around here in 6 oz plastic containers for about 2 to 3 bucks--even through the summer.

 

It's debatable whether fruit bears so-called 'nasties.'
No doubt some can and do, such as the wild yeast found thick-skin fruits; however, most probably do not.

There's tension between a 'better-safe-than-sorry' philosophy v. beer's low pH is an inhospitable environment for nasties so DWHAHB.

BSTS techniques include pasteurizing, blanching, Campden tab de-yeastifying, and sanitizing.
Despite the shockingly stoopit advice profferd in the current BYO, raspberries should not be blanched or sanitized. Save that method for fruits with a skin...right?

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How much Blueberry, Orange, Raspberry, Peach and Cherry?
BeerSmith

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WalMarti Peruvian frozen raspberries are reasonably priced and always in season.

 

For raspberries you dont need anywhere near 1lb/gal

I wasnt kidding when I said all I use in a 5gal saison is 16oz, at that amt they are noticeable but not the dominant flavor (fruit beer should still taste like beee)

 

Anyone ever read anything on preparing fruit by mixing with edible acid soln, like phosphoric

For the orange blossom water, what's the ratio per gallon of wort you've used?

 

Ive seen recipes posted that use 6oz in 5gal, personally I dont understand how they could use that much, taste buds destroyed? They want an over the top, punch you in the gut floral orange flavor that completely hides/destroyes the base beer flavor? I dunno, people do weird things, and make "beers" that dont taste like beer anymore

Personally I'd start in the 1.0mL/batch range and go from there, its potent stuff and can ruin a beer (very quickly) if too much is used

 

A raspberry addiition of 1#/G falls on the light end of the spectrum compared to other fruits such as strawberries (2-5#/G) and cherries (2-4#/G).

Suggestions for fruit additions at lower rates are outliers.