So I've only been brewing kits for less than a year and want to branch out and develop my own recipe for a caramel apple ale. Looking for a finished product with a rough ABV of at least 6%, with lots of apple flavor and enough caramel flavoring to notice. Thinking of using some caramel malt, "dry hopping" with apples in primary and secondary and possibly a pinch of caramel flavor extract to be used when bottling. Basically, think of going to a fair or carnival and getting a caramel covered apple...that's the flavor I'm looking to get. Am i nuts?
Personally if I was attempting this, I'd brew some type of malty amber ale with honey malt and lots of caramel malts, and then "top off" with preservative-free apple juice maybe in a 3:2 ratio of beer to juice. Ferment with a fruitier English strain like WLP013. Keeping in mind that the juice will dry it out, you'd want to target a fairly high FG in the beer portion, probably 1.015 at the minimum to avoid a cidery finished product.
This should be an interesting beer if it come off with the right flavors. Curt, that sounds like a nice approach, but I wonder if boiling the apple juice down a bit might concentrate the flavor as well as give a light caramelization to the sugar to help with enhancing that flavor. It would be an experiment to try that, but it's just a thought.
I found one recipe that called for a gallon of apple cider to be added to secondary. However I'm trying to stray from using any juices and focus on getting as much apple flavor as I can from actual apples. The recipe I've come up with so far makes use of 5 pounds of actual apples to be used at different points of the boil and fermentin stages. I have not used any of the English style yeasts before though. How much of a fruity difference would it make in comparison to a regular 1056 American Ale yeast?
I'm not able to imagine what this could possibly taste like without immediately thinking of cider. Good Luck OP.
Caveat: I don't have experience using fruit However, adding raw fruit (adding just about anything post fermentation) opens the door pretty wide to infection. I don't think adding raw apples is the way to go here, as least on the cold side. My concern with adding apples during the boil would be making applesauce. That may not be a problem, but I think you'd want to plan on a high loss to trub. Another thing: Adding juice and/or fruit adds fermentable sugars. Keep that in mind when running your equations. If you're going for concentrated apple flavor, I think you'd need a lot (a lot a lot) of apples. If this were my experiment, for a 5 gallon batch, I'd boil 3 gallons of apple cider down to 2 for two reasons. 1. Sanitation. 2. To concentrate the flavor some. Finally, I'd add some Potassium Sorbate to kill the yeast so as to not ferment out the cider and really keep the apple flavor. If you want it sweet, fruity and caramelly, a low attenuating English yeast is the only way to go. You'll absolutely notice a difference in fruitiness. An idea I just had...probably not a good one...you could try doing a hard cider with steeping grains. Bring it up to ~160F and steep some C40+ for a while, then boil.
The last brew I made (5 gallons) with fruit was a blueberry ale in which I got about 98% of the blueberry flavor from the use of two pounds of frozen blueberries used at various points. The remaining 2% I say came from the half teaspoon of blueberry extract I added when bottling (personally, I feel the extract ruined the beer but my friends and family love it). Another concern of mine is using fresh fruit...should I take any extra steps to prepare the fruit to be used other than just the standard washing as you would with any other fruit you intend to eat? Disclaimer: I realize that those percentages may not be entirely mathematically accurate, however I did get a TON of the blueberry flavor from the actual blueberries.
That would be interesting as well. I wasn't sure if there was any pectin in juice to be worry about. A smaller portion of higher gravity beer + apple juice I imagine would be roughly equivalent to a larger portion of lower gravity beer + boiled down apple juice. I'll be interested to hear how this turns out however the OP formulates his recipe. I also think that caramelization would be difficult to achieve via full boil. Perhaps boil a few cups of juice in a large pan to the side to get higher temps involved?
Yep. And IIRC, fructose (abundant in apple juice) has a fairly low caramelization temperature (relative to other sugars).
I think I may have just about nailed the finial recipe (which I will post here once I've totally finialzed it, brewed and tasted it) However, one large question remains as I am still going to use real apples: which type of apple is best to use? I'm thinking of using a Macintosh apple. A friend suggested green apples but I feel as if that would be an awful idea. Thoughts?
Unibroue pictures a green apple on the label of Ephemere (http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22/3523/) so maybe there is some info available on their website that would help you. If you go to green, Granny Smith is the only variety that I can think of. It's a firm apple with moderate tartness, but I like them.
Maybe just go to your farm market or store, see what they have, buy one of each and taste them? It depends what you are going for. Just a few other thoughts... You may want to peel the apples before you steep or boil them, and also avoid using seeds. Keep in mind that any fruit you put into your beer without it boiling could contribute wild yeast. Perhaps peel and then steam or bake apples for a little while before putting them into the fermentor? Also, it takes a whole lot of apples to get apple flavor, look into how many apples it takes to make a gallon of cider. At the same time, consider which scenario you would prefer; a caramel beer that has less apple than you wanted, or a cider that doesnt much resemble beer? Either way, good luck.
So far as the boiling down juice and caramelizing it, save yourself about an hour and just caramelize some frozen apple juice concentrate. I would also recommend using concentrate instead of juice even if you're not going to caramelize it, as it will actually increase gravity instead of diluting it. While I appreciate the use of fresh apples in secondary, it seems like it would be a lot of unnecessary trouble, will probably not get you the flavor you want in manageable amounts, and as others have stated, may lead to infection. I agree with the idea of lots of caramel malts, and would suggest a blend of them. Maybe have a grist along the lines of 2% special b/british extra dark/c150 10% c45 5% c20 3% honey malt 80% golden promise and a couple of cans of apple juice concentrate just enough hops to balance it as a bittering addition, none for flavor/aroma. When it comes to yeast, I got a good bit of "red apple" type ester from Mangrove Jack's Burton Union strain. Someone more familiar with the various and sundry British strains available through White Labs and Wyeast could suggest something that would also give this ester that is a bit easier to find.
I agree on using specialty malts to achieve the caramel flavor. 5% Abbey malt (honey) and 10+% Munich malt for caramel flavors.
I tried this once, using 2# in a 5gal batch. Awkward is probably the most polite word I'd use for how it came out - though I did some other things, like cinnamon sticks in the boil, that make it harder to track down where it "all went wrong"... but this batch is the closest I've had to a drain pour - but I also haven't made a cider that I like yet (I want to switch juices & see if that helps.. the beers all turn out fine though!).
You are right, I would never use extract. But to get the most out of the blueberries I wash and then hand mash them before I toss them in!
