When to add Fruit to a Beer??

[JustBri]

Hi Guys

I'm a big fan of the Belgium fruit beers, and i'd love to recreate one using the all grain method, the problem i face is at what stage of the brewing process would i add the fruit, also is it better to add whole pieces or maybe turning the fruit into a pulp?

Any help gratefully received

CHeers

JB

 

[graysalchemy]

There are two schools of thought.

1) add pulped fruit to the last 10 minutes of the boil.
2) Ferment out your beer and add fruit to secondry and let it infuse.

The second method means that you have better control of the flavour as you can add more or pull it out as necessary but it also means you are exposing your beer to possible infection unless you boil the fruit first or at least blanche it.

The first method means that the fruit actually ferments with the beer so the taste may be more complex and developed. However boiling the fruit will remove some of the aromas flavours.

When I brew my elderberry stout I pulp the fruit and add to the last ten minutes of the boil. I used 1lb of fruit per gallon of beer. It has a definite elderberry flavour quite like adding port to stout which is what I was trying to achieve. However elderberry is quite a robust fruit and usually if you are making wine or port out of it takes quite a time to mellow.

Designing great beers: the ultimate guide to brewing classic beer styles by Ray Daniels in Books has quite a good explanation but no difinative answer.

Hope that helps

Alistair

 

[dizidave]

I am planning on adding my fruit (fruit juice) after teh first fermentation has stopped.

To combat the infection risk i will CT my fruit before adding.

 

[graysalchemy]

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