Anyone know how the flavors of fruit additions change if they are added to the boil, or to primary instead of dry hopping in secondary?
Yeah, cooking the fruit will most likely, unsuprisingly, lead to a cooked fruit flavour in the end product... You'll get the most 'fruity' flavours, and those closest to the original fruit by doing an addition post fermentation. Adding the fruit at the start of fermentation can give some interesting and different flavours, but will be more subtle and not always better / what you are looking for.
If you put the fruit in primary there is a better chance the yeast will ferment out some of the aromas you're looking for and there is a higher chance of infection. I always put fruit in secondary, but I also only use it for sours.
If that's what you're looking for, with time you'll have subtle flavor because fruit fades just like dry hops. What kind of beer are you going to use the fruit in?
I have only used fruit once and it is sitting in a sour right now. I am going to try a Peach&Mango IIPA. But I want the fruit to blend in and not dominate like Grapefruit Sculpin.
I would still do secondary for the fruit addition, but I would just not use a ton of the fruit. For grapefruit sculpin they add grapefruit zest and use grapefruit forward hops. I would go along that line and use hops that complement those two flavors. You're probably not going to get a lot of peach because it's pretty delicate.
I'm not so sure that zest is all they use from the grapefruit. AFAIK, they've never actually come out and said that, leaving us to speculate. This was discussed a little bit in this thread.
That's what Yuseff told me they did. They dry hop with zest and choose grapefruit flavor forward hops like cascade. I asked him about using juice and he said they didn't use the juice
as of now the plan is to use 3 lbs of fruit, which I believe is pretty light. I am still deciding when to add it, I am leaning towards half in primary half in secondary. And also yes I plan on using hops to compliment peach and mango. I have an idea of which hops to use, but you have any opinion on that too? Any input is appreciated.
Citra can be pretty peachy. Galaxy could also be a good choice. If you can find it I would recommend using Trois for fermentation due to its production of fruity esters.
Cool. You're the first person (non article-writer) I've seen to have claimed info straight from the brewer. Did he happen to mention what their proprietary process is? http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/recipes/ct-0401-beer-o-month-20150330-story.html "The brewery won't say exactly how the grapefruit flavor is added — it's "a proprietary process that uses grapefruits purchased from Florida" — but does say it is added as a final step in making the beer." I suppose the article could have got the quote wrong. But if not, how is adding grapefruit zest a proprietary process, I wonder.
Not really. I just asked for some suggestions and told him some of my ideas. Then he told me what they do. I think a lot of it has to do with the base beer. I some what doubt that the base is sculpin with grapefruit added. Edit: I'll look at my email and see what he said specifically.
