Mango - best time to add ?

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Oct 22, 2018
Messages
485
Reaction score
247
Hi folks, I can’t seem to get a definitive answer on this one. I want to get a subtle but noticeable mango flavour to my hoppy IPA but not to make it too sweet. I’m an all grain brewer, I don’t bother with racking or transferring my beer to a secondary fermenter. I dry hop directly into the primary, cold crash and then keg. My instinct is to defrost frozen mango chunks and add them to the fermenter after cold crash to retain some sweetness and flavour, alternatively to add a couple of days before the end of fermentation which would mean some of the fruit sugar being fermented but hopefully not the flavour. Advice welcome thank you
 
I would deforst then add say day 2 or 3 after the high krausen while it is still fermenting. I have done loads of fruit beers in the past especially mango and this works but do add it in veg bags so you can remove the pulp as it can become messy and if you want you can squeeze the bags to get as much flavour out of them just be careful of oxidising the beer but if done quickly it will minimise this.
Ps leave the fruit in for about 4 days then remove and crash the beer if possible and it will usually be hazy so drink fresh for the most taste
 
A winemaking idea, is to thaw the fruit, and collect the juice, pressing or squeezing the fruit pulp. Then pitch the stained juice.

Much cleaner flavours because the pulp is being fermented or having an alcohol maceration.

Freezing does impact juice flavours because the call membrane is being broken down.
 
What about doing that;
"collect the juice, pressing or squeezing the fruit pulp. Then pitch the stained juice"
But after chilling when kegging?
I bought some Monin mango syrup what a mistake it has a disgusting after taste when added to an IPA. 🤮 Strange as their others are great!
 
I stew my fruits in a pan on the hob. Once they are a purée leave to cool with a tin foil lid. I add them when primary fermentation is done, usually around day 5. Iv had great results with raspberries and mango,, cherry on the other hand left little taste.
And because they’ve been heated it’s peace of mind there’s no nasty’s left in.
 
I stew my fruits in a pan on the hob. Once they are a purée leave to cool with a tin foil lid. I add them when primary fermentation is done, usually around day 5. Iv had great results with raspberries and mango,, cherry on the other hand left little taste.
And because they’ve been heated it’s peace of mind there’s no nasty’s left in.

But they are "stewed". Hmm.
 
What about doing that;
"collect the juice, pressing or squeezing the fruit pulp. Then pitch the stained juice"
But after chilling when kegging?
Yup. At kegging. Late as possible retains most flavour.

I bought some Monin mango syrup what a mistake it has a disgusting after taste when added to an IPA. 🤮 Strange as their others are great!

That surprised me. Big fan of monin syrup, never had a bad one...
That said never had mango.
Interesting thread. I have a mate making mango beer at the moment.
 
Last edited:
Sorry I should have tried harder😅
Just meant stewing will have other effects of the taste profile etc depending on the temp and time.
 
Last edited:
I thought it was a bag of frozen chunks 🤷🏼‍♂️.
Ps Iv used the tin of Morin and had good results
You can add the frozen chunks once thawed to room temp as they are fit for human consumption and already sterile.
Stew if it suits some do but add the juices that come out when stewing aswellathumb..
 
Don't make the mistake I made. I used high quality unsweetened fruit puree (not the mistake) and added into the fermenter when the fermentation was around 3/4 done thinking the the later I left it in the process the more of the Mango flavour would be retained. all the sugar fermented out but I got nothing in the resulting beer...not a hint of mango. Not sure if using fruit chunks would have been better or maybe I didn't use enough (2 litres in 20 litre batch). Not sure what I did wrong or if I just used the wrong product to get much Mango flavour out.

Would have thought stewing or heating would destroy the mango flavour...I guess its just like jam though.
 
I use chunks and put them in @ day 3-ish while it is still fermenting. From memory I use 4 Kg of frozen which gave a nice mango taster without being too overpowering in a IPA. I think you could go less to get more of a hint if you wanted.
Ps I did squeeze it when removing and always have but maybe not on a NEIPA as it does risk introducing oxygen but I personally have never had it and I have done plenty
 
Will this do gonz?
Screenshot_20230802-142958_Google.jpg
 
Dear all, an update on the mango addition. For a 23L batch, I defrosted 2Kg of mango chunks, put them in a mesh bag, and added them to the fermenter on day 12 of 14. At the same time as the dry hop, and also setting the temperature to 1.5C for a cold crash. On Day 14 I carefully lifted out the bag, let it drain carefully so as not to splash and then started to transfer the beer to the keg. The transfer was a pain. I put the siphon in a hop spider to catch any bits, but the mango bag meant hops were still in suspension, and the spider kept getting clogged up. Eventually, I got the keg filled up. The suggestion on racking to secondary before adding the mango bag seems a good idea, i'll try that next time. The beer is fantastic, with great mango flavour but not overpowering the hops, and sweetness, but again not too much. My kegerator is set to 10c so there's been no opportunity for the yeast to eat the mango sugar.
 
Back
Top