Adding fruit to FV

[Alex.mc]

Great colour!

 

[Harbey]

I've got a Saison bubbling away as we speak - went into the FV last night. My plan was to split the brew into 2 batches keeping one plain and leaving the other for an extra week with a bag of raspberries in. Great thread - helped me make my mind up.

 

[MartinHaworth]

I've got a Saison bubbling away as we speak - went into the FV last night. My plan was to split the brew into 2 batches keeping one plain and leaving the other for an extra week with a bag of raspberries in. Great thread - helped me make my mind up.

Good call Harbey - I'm loving Saisons.

I did a plain one at a low temp just before the Raspberry and Lemon one at 29C. As I said up thread, the R&L still needs more time - but I just LOVE the plain one. I reckon you'll love them both.

Cheers

Martin

 

[Harbey]

So one week later and the Saison is still bubbling away, all be it at a much slower pace than earlier in the week. I've upped the temp gradually throughout the week, starting at 19 and now at 24, so that's probably helped too. I'm just a bit unsure as to whether to split the batch now, or wait until fermentation is fully done. Anyone got an opinion on this?

 

[geigercntr]

I was looking at Greg Hughes recipe eatlier for Cherry Lambic ".. a traditional Belgian style of sour beer. Most of the flavour comes from the wild yeast strains, which are added after primary fermentation".

By 'wild yeast strains' does he mean the natural yeast, found on the bloom of the (6kg) of morello cherries? If 'Yes' wouldn't this get washed off by the farmer, wholesaler and friendly supermarket fruiterer?

Yeah a lot of fruits in supermarkets are treated with bugkiller chemicals/sprays/UV light. Organic or home grown fruit should have their surface dwelling flora intact

With lambics though, the romantic story is that yeast and bacteria land in the wort from the air as it cools in large open top coolships. More realistically, most of the bugs live in the barrels and environment of the brewery itself.

Lambics are a big old complex thing which take a long time to mature. Some argue that the term Lambic should be restricted to beers produced in the area of Belgium in which they originated.

It's worth looking up the guides on spontaneous fermentation on the Bootleg Biology site for guides on harvesting wild yeast.

http://bootlegbiology.com/diy/capturing-yeast/

 

[LeeH]

Looks awesome.

Where did you find 4KG of raspberrys without selling a kidney?

 

[MartinHaworth]

Looks awesome.

Where did you find 4KG of raspberrys without selling a kidney?

I did some google-fu and ended up at Iceland. I have to say it did cost me over £12 in frozen raspberries.

On Friday night, had some mates round and we tasted my 'normal' saison (based on Farmhouse in my Soul from Thirst Class Ale), and them the Raspberry and Lemon saison (based on the Partizan beer).

The conclusion of this-in-no-way-representative-sample is that putting fruit in beer (especially expensive fruit) is a stupid idea and a waste of time.

I felt loved.

I'm tabling this beer at Norwich Amateur Brewers tomorrow, so we will see what they think. I'm expecting to get slaughtered...

Cheers

Martin

 

[LeeH]

Of course, I was thinking about fresh raspberries.

 

[Harbey]

The conclusion of this-in-no-way-representative-sample is that putting fruit in beer (especially expensive fruit) is a stupid idea and a waste of time.

Now you tell me! Literally just sat down after splitting my batch and adding a couple of punnets of fruit to mine.

 

[MartinHaworth]

Now you tell me! Literally just sat down after splitting my batch and adding a couple of punnets of fruit to mine.

Ah, but it's all BEER! and by definition it's all lovely.

The Raspberry and Lemon is a good beer, but it is different to normal beer, and I was (I think) judged harshly by the mates.

And doing daft things with beer is a membership qualification for this forum....

Cheers

MArtin

 

[MartinHaworth]

My <cough> friends at Norwich Amateur Brewers were unkind in their judgement of this beer.

As a group they decided that as it had 2.7kg malt to 4kg raspberries, it was more of a fruit based drink than a beer.

Now, as raspberries are 80% water, all of us here know that their judgement is flawed....but would they listen?

As always with more complex flavours, it continues to improve.

CHeers

Martin

 

[Harbey]

My Raspberry Saison has come out rather nice, although I suspect it'll be even better in a month or two. The subtle fruitiness goes a long way towards balancing what is quite a strong and very dry beer. I'll certainly be doing something similar again. In fact I added a couple of grapefruit peelings to an IPA yesterday.

 

[Braindead]

Looks awesome.

Where did you find 4KG of raspberrys without selling a kidney?

I got 4kg too for the Omnipollo recipe
ALDI and not very expensive plus frozen so no need to sanitise