Making fruity tasting beer

[foxhound]

I've made a few kits and some brews with DME successfully. In between brews I drink some comercial bottled beer and have noticed that some mention a fruity taste on the label, which it is. Can I add fruit juice from a carton to my brews? If so how much? I know it will ferment as I've made cider from juice in a carton and it's quite good.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Turbo-Cider-part-1/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Turbo-Cider-part-2/

Cheers :

 

[klaus]

In the past I have done some fruity beers, actually a cheap lager kit split in half, with a straining bag of tinned raspberry and one with pineapple chunks. The latter one I did in 2006, and only recently uncovered six bottle which were very nice with a hint of pineapple. In principle should be ok to use juice, but perhaps do a small batch, say 20 pints with the fruit you prefer. How much to add is probably down to experimentation. 20 pints is about 13 litres, so perhaps if you start off substituing two litres of water with juice?? This will add additional sugar/alcohol of course.

 

[graysalchemy]

I have done an elderberry stout which used the juice from 1lb of elderberries per gallon of wort. You need to boil it up to sterilize it but there is no reason why it can't be added to a kit at the beginning of fermentation. There is some debate wether you should add it to the wort or to the beer after it has initially fermented so as you can gauge the underlying beer and the addition as you add it, instead of adding it all at once and hoping for the best. I did it by adding to the wort and it turned out very good, something I will be repeating in a few weeks. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[foxhound]

Thanks guys, at least you said it was a good idea :P . I'll give it a go :party:

 

[Vossy1]

You can also get fruity notes by fermenting your beer at warmer temperatures :thumb: