Brewing with dried fruit.

[Mark Ritchie]

I'm planning my next brew for Sunday. Using a woodfordes admirals as my base and 500g of medium spray malt to give it a little kick but I'm aiming for a fruity Xmas ale. Want to add some dates and some spiced mixed dried fruit and a pinch of cinnamon. What do I need to do to prep the fruit and is it ok to just chuck it in the fv?

 

[Drunkula]

I've done dried fruit and poached it a bit to make sure it's dead, then put it in the fermenter. I also poached the spices for a bit and I did a Christmas beer that one of my mates just went mental for. I did it in a bit of water and added it a few days into fermentation because I wondered if early in the gassing off would take off some of the flavour. At the end I strained it and the sultanas had swollen right up and the bottom of the fermenter looked crazy, but the beer cleared really well and it was a real tidy beer.

 

[geigercntr]

I found out the hard way that dried fruit is very thirsty! It will soak up a LOT of the liquid it's placed in, so bear that in mind when you're working out volumes and amounts.

Also a lot of dried fruits have a coating of some oil or other to stop them clumping together. If you give them a quick soak in StarSan then a rinse with cold water, that should minimise it

 

[Mark Ritchie]

Thanks for that. I was thinking of brewing light but now I think I will keep to full volume.

 

[geigercntr]

Thanks for that. I was thinking of brewing light but now I think I will keep to full volume.

I rested 5litres of beer on about 1kg of dried apricots. This is what I managed to bottle. Tastes great mind...

 

[Mark Ritchie]

I'm planning a small batch. So I'm using a single tin of admirals reserve to 16litres. An additional 500g of spray malt. I've got 600g of dried dates and 500g of sultanas and I'm throwing in a tin of black treacle and a few pinches of cinnamon. The fruit is preservative free so I will just thoroughly rinse thru before adding. Not sure how much cinnamon to add. Don't want it to be the overriding flavour just a subtle hint. Advice welcome.