Apples in brewing - Anyone tried?

[Fermentandrise]

Hi everyone, since it is Autumn and the fruit trees are pretty full i have been thinking about making a wild blackberry and apple saison but have not put apples in beer before. I'm thinking of the following approach - Thinly slice apples and dehydrate into apple 'chips' as this method tends to keep the flavour profile of the fruit. I was then going to whirlpool 200g of the chips at 80 degrees for 20 minutes then use a further 300g of apple chips and steep in the fermenter for 4 or 5 days. The blackberrys would be made into a puree and the beer racked ontop if it into the fermenter.

Has anyone tried doing this with apples before? Any advice or guidance would be appreciated :)

 

[Leon103]

It's still summer

 

[Fermentandrise]

It's still summer

It's felt like a very long year...

 

[jMac]

I’ve not done it but I think your idea for using dried apple is a sound one. The trick is going to be not ending up with something too cidery, of course. I’d be inclined to use dehydrated blackberries as well as apple and add as a kind of ‘dry fruiting’ after primary fermentation of the wort is complete, as you’re trying to add flavour rather than ferment the fruit. Some of the threads about Graf (malted cider) might have some useful info.

 

[Cwrw666]

It's still summer

Maybe it is but there are plenty of blackberries around and all the apples are already falling off my trees. And looks like my hops are going to be a write-off this year, 2 of them have already shrivelled like it's October already.

 

[jceg316]

I've always found apple and cider flavours in beer to be an off flavour, but I guess it's only an off flavour if you don't want it there! One thing I can think of is sterilising the apples before dry hopping with them. I don't know how drying affects the organisms living on apples, but they have host of bacteria and yeasts living in and on them when fresh, and it's best not to put non-sterilised things in your beer.

In terms of adding fruit in general, I recently watched this video which was helpful: