Brewing with natural fruit flavourings

[jerseyboyd]

Hi fellow home brewers,
Me and my mates are thinking of brewing a blueberry stout.
Our supplier has a good range of "superconcentrated artisan purees" from Amoretti.
What we need to know is how much to use and at what point in the brewing/fermentation process.
Any advice or lessons learned gratefully received!

Best wishes
Boyd

 

[Clint]

Buy some bottles of stout or use your own if you have one brewed. Pour a few then add varying amounts of flavour with a dropper until you find the amount you think is best. You can then work out how much to add at bottling time to the batch.

 

[jerseyboyd]

Thanks for that, Clint. We won't be bottling, though. We use a soda keg.
So, if I've understood correctly, the answer to my question about 'when' to do it is post-fermentation, when transferring to the keg?
What about sanitation issues? Is it ok just to put a natural flavouring in without sterilizing it first?

 

[Clint]

I had a quick look at the product you plan to use and it's listed as being pasteurised so should be OK to put straight in. I'd drop them an email though to make sure. They also have some info regarding using their flavours for brewing.

 

[jerseyboyd]

OK Clint, thanks again for your help. I'll do that.

Cheers

 

[Redwulf]

As it is a puree with added sugar and syrup its likely going to ferment when you mix it with the beer so probably want to do a secondary fermentation with the fruit or you'll end up with extra yeast slurry in the keg...

Its easy enough,

Ferment the beer for a week or so and then clean a new fermenter and add the required puree, looking at their website I think you're looking at about half a bottle (10-12fl oz for 5-6 us gallon batch) and then transfer the beer in to the new fermenter with the puree and leave it for another week or so.

Its probably cheaper to buy a couple of kg (5-6lb) of frozen blueberries which you can defrost and add straight into the secondary fermenter without any messing about and then you know you've only added the fruit and not a whole load of other stuff that you probably don't want in your brew anyway.

 

[jerseyboyd]

Thanks for that valuable information, Redwulf.
My thinking was that the Amoretti range is perhaps designed for amateur home brewers like us, to make things easier?
I also seem to remember reading somewhere about Titanic Plum Porter (one of our favourites) that the brewer doesn't use fruit but rather flavouring.
I'm not sure I like the idea of having to transfer to a new fermenter, with all the risks of contamination and oxygen spoiling the beer.
But your point about yeast slurry in the keg is a good one.

Cheers
Boyd

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Hi Boyd,

As @Redwulf says, add the fruit after primary and off the yeast/trub.

How much you use depends on whether you want a fruit beer or a beer that has enhanced fruit flavours. Obvious perhaps but also worth noting that different fruit has different flavour and aroma intensity. Blueberry is not intense, raspberry and passion fruit are.

I recently made a raspberry sour using 2 litres of pure raspberry purée in a 20 litre batch.

Also worth noting you get a lot of sediment from purée (I had about 3 litres of slurry in secondary) and you need pectolase to clear haze from the fruit.

 

[Redwulf]

Thanks for that valuable information, Redwulf.
My thinking was that the Amoretti range is perhaps designed for amateur home brewers like us, to make things easier?
I also seem to remember reading somewhere about Titanic Plum Porter (one of our favourites) that the brewer doesn't use fruit but rather flavouring.
I'm not sure I like the idea of having to transfer to a new fermenter, with all the risks of contamination and oxygen spoiling the beer.
But your point about yeast slurry in the keg is a good one.

Cheers
Boyd

Yup, if you want to do it that way you want flavouring concentrate where you measure the addition to the keg in drops rather than fl oz.

There is a lot of talk about Oxygen right now and I think it boils down to the current popularity of Hoppy IPA and NEIPA's which do suffer if you are not careful.

Generally Stouts, Porters and less hoppy styles don't suffer terribly if you don't splash and mess them around too much and as long as you sanitised the fermentation and left the beer till its nearly finished then risk of contamination is low if you are sensible.

I've done 5 fruit beers this year with no issues using a mixture of open and closed transfers to a secondary fermentation vessel and in all honest I am not the most fastidious brewer.

Cherry Saison - Frozen cherries added in secondary - Open transfer
Strawberry Milkshake IPA - Strawberry Puree in secondary - Closed transfer
Sour Tropical IPA - Pineapple & Mango Puree in secondary - Closed transfer
Plum Porter - Fresh Plums Frozen then Stewed in secondary - Open transfer
Cranberry Berliner Weisse - Frozen Cranberry added in secondary - Open transfer

 

[jerseyboyd]

OK, thanks for that advice.
We want a stout with a hint of blueberry, not a fruit beer. A bit like our own version of Plum Porter, if you like, except with blueberries.
How do I avoid contamination issues if I have to transfer the beer off the yeast before adding fruit?

Cheers
Boyd

 

[Redwulf]

Clean the new bucket and siphon tube as you would if you putting a fresh batch in. Add the Fruit, Puree or Flavouring the bucket and then siphon it in. Make sure the end of the siphon is in the bottom so it doesn't splash and you are golden.

Then cover it up put the air lock in and leave the yeast to do its work.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Pretty much the same as you transfer from primary to keg or bottle except on this occasion it’s a secondary fermentation vessel (bucket?) that you’ve cleaned and sanitised just as you did for primary.

You’re less likely to get an infection at this point than you were at primary because the beer is already fermented. You have low risk of oxidisation (again noted by @Redwulf) if you are reasonably careful not to splash about in the beer.

Edit: Ha! I see @Redwulf and I are doing a double-act. I’ll back off for now. Good luck.

 

[jerseyboyd]

And a very good double-act at that!
Thank you both for your help and advice.

Boyd

 

[MickDundee]

I’ve used the Carte D’Or raspberry coulis (90% puree 10% sugar) in a fruit Berlinerweiss before and it was a massive success. I’ve heard people using the Funkin’ and Leonce Blanc ones with similar success.

I added a full 1kg carton after a week of fermentation and left it all for another week to 10 days before bottling.

I plan to do similar with the Leonce Blanc sour cherry one in a couple of brews time (Catherina Sour with Philly Sour yeast)

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Our supplier has a good range of "superconcentrated artisan purees" from Amoretti.
What we need to know is how much to use and at what point in the brewing/fermentation process.

Why not see what Amoretti say?
Our clients tend to report two ideal points during the brewing process at which you can add our products: During fermentation (towards the end of secondary fermentation) or post fermentation, right into your brite tank or keg. Keep in mind, when adding to the brite or keg, Craft Purées, Artisan, and Compounds do contain fermentable sugars. Extracts are the only exception and can be added at any point during your process.
For a more fruit-forward flavor, we recommend adding Craft Purées, Artisans, and Compounds post fermentation. If your end result is overly sweet, our products can be added during the fermentation process (typically near the end of secondary fermentation). A slightly higher dosage may be required. The final product will be more nuanced and less sweet in comparison to a post fermentation approach.

Craft Purees can also be used to flavor your beer by the glass.

• Suggested starting use level is about 1-3.5 oz per 1 gallon of beer
• About 0.83-2.5% by weight

As others have said, you've got to be a bit careful when adding anything with fermentable sugars to something with yeast - you've got to watch out not just for the safety aspect of bottle/keg bombs, but also eg diacetyl issues. And blueberry can be a relatively modest flavour compared to the "easy" ones like raspberry.

 

[jerseyboyd]

Yes, thanks for that, Northern_Brewer.
I had a look at their website this afternoon.

Cheers
Boyd

 

[hoppyscotty]

Interesting, I got some mango purée and planning to try a mango ipa and was planning on adding the purée when fermentation was about half to 3/4 done so still some fermentation activity going to work on the purée too. Just open the fermenter, pour in and purge it, might be some splashing as the purée goes in but purging the headspace and with active fermentation still going on seems to me to minimise the negative affects of oxidation, could add a quarter teaspoon of ascorbic acid at the same time for belt and braces. This seems to be the way a number of YouTube brewers have done it and they seem to not suffer any problems not racking into another fermentation vessel. I can easily do that if it’s the best way.

 

[Nicks90]

Ohhh got me thinking now about a fruit flavoured saison using good old Lowizc.
Bang that in on day 3 and let it do its thing.

 

[Didge]

Feel free to experiment with fruits, however I would suggest you lightly boil the fruit puree for a few minutes before adding it.

I have had a few successes, although I have also lost a batch of beer due to a so-called "ready-pasteurised" pouch of puree introducing an infection.