Adding Apple & Caramel to a Brown Ale

*knows much more yet bites tongue again*

 

Look, @NGennaroL777, people are going to give you shit because there was some pretty good advice in this thread and you're ignoring it in favor of the very approach that people tried to warn you away from.

But you're the one expending the time, money, and effort, and you're the one who's going to have to drink the beer. So, you do you.

My advice is that in terms of flavor, granny smiths and mutsus (aka crispins) are your best bet. I am a big fan of winesaps, but in my experience they lose a lot of their distinctive character when they are baked. Macintosh's are also considered excellent baking apples, but I think that might be partly that they hold up pretty well in terms of texture. I've also really enjoyed a variety called "Rhode Island Greening," but I've only seen them a few times, so I am not sure you could get your hands on them. I've also heard really good things about Gravensteins, but I think that might be more of a West Coast thing. I've never seen them on the East Coast. Wikipedia tells me: "In Austria, Gravensteins are used for the production of high-quality brandy (Obstler) that is particularly popular in the southern Steiermark." So, certainly they have a tradition of being used in alcoholic beverages.

If you're determined to add baked fruit to your beer, you should probably read up on pectin and see if there are steps you can take to address it. I also agree with others who have recommended a touch (only a touch! tread lightly) of cinnamon or maybe ginger. Much as pumpkin beers don't have to have pumpkin in them, an apple beer probably doesn't need to get much character from apples in order to be recognizably apple-y.

 

If you're holding back details about making good apple beer, please don't! I've been planning on brewing one of these in November (when the cider is richest tasting) and I'm always interested in actual experiences I can leverage when I make my own.

 

Okay... Go here, but I no longer recommend using any smoked malt...

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=71478&hilit=harvest+smoked+apple#p662452

You'll see that I've previously said my peace regarding brewing a small batch and then "diluting" with a good amount of fresh orchard apple juice. As for varieties...... it really doesn't matter in a beer. In a cider, maybe, but in a beer, naw. Just use whatever's cheap but fresh and with no preservatives. Seriously.

 

I brewed an apple ale last fall. The base was basically an ESB. I added about a gallon of apple juice to the boil sporadically throughout but reserved most for the last ten minutes or so. I added about 5 lbs of local apples cut up with an apple corer. I don't remember what varieties they were, but I recall one was very sweet and remains one of the best apples I've ever eaten and the other was more of a baking apple (not great for eating by itself). When I do it again this year, I'll just use the stronger flavored baking apples. I don't know what people's hangups are about using fresh apples, but I wouldn't change a thing from my recipe. It remains one of the best beers I've brewed, and I can't wait to brew it again. I also added cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla to get more of an apple pie flavor from the beer. Not a lot, though. It was still very much an apple beer, not a spice beer.

 

I would have recommended added no cider in the boil, i.e. add to fermenter. To preserved uncooked flavor of fruit.

 

Don't know if there's such a thing as "too heavy of an apple hit". You're lucky to get much apple flavor in an apple ale, even if you use a lot. The natural flavor of apple is easily overpowered by anything and everything else in beer. If you're trying to ward against this turning into Redd's Apple Ale, don't worry -- Redd's uses artificial Jolly Rancher style extract. You won't get anything anywhere close to that from real apples or juice.

If that's where your concerns lie, I've got to say, this reminds me of people who say rye malt makes their beer taste spicy -- total baloney! They're thinking of pumpernickel, which has spices added to the bread! Actual rye by itself isn't spicy, not really. Doesn't keep everyone and their brother from making an automatic association between rye and spice though. Same thing with how not all pumpkin beers contain cinnamon and clove. But now I digress...

 

Shameless self-promotion and resurrection of an old thread, in time for anyone who might be interested in brewing this beer for this lovely fall season....

The above recipe scored Second Best of Show at the Brixie's Brixtoberfest this past weekend out of 183 entries. Yay.

http://brixies.bobbo.net/brixtoberfest/

 

You no longer recommend using smoked malt, but you used smoked malt again for this competition? Mmmkay...

 

I brewed it a full 12 months ago. This batch was what decided for me that I don't like the smoked malt. Personally I find the beer to be borderline drinkable and somewhat disgusting, or at least, you have to be in the mood for it. Apparently others thought it was good as is. I won't be using smoked malt in it anymore, because I'm the guy who ends up drinking it. My friends don't like anything that doesn't have lots of Simcoe or Mosaic. Previous batches turned out far less smoky and more lovely. This last batch, man, it's smoky. If you like it, you like it. Do what you like.

 

So a beer you consider to be barely drinkable and somewhat disgusting was the second best beer in the contest?

 

Exactly. I'm as shocked as anyone. I'm not quite as shocked that my Sorachi Ace IPA only scored a 25, I was expecting that one.