Fruit Beer Formulations

[boussh]

A friend and I want to brew a persimon (sp?) beer with fresh fruit and an all grain red ale recipe. Would we add the fruit in the mash, the end of the boil, during primary frementation, or after the first racking to a bright tank? We are planing th brew a ten gallon batch with about 20 pounds of fresh fruit.

[jrdamas]

Do not add the fruit during the boil!!! You will release all of the fruit pectin and make a very cloudy product. It is usually best to add the fruit during the ferment. 20 lbs. of fruit for 10 ten gallons is in the ballpark for the proper amount of fruit. I made a 10 gal. batch of cherry stout and used 18 lbs of cherries. It had a good fruit flavor.

Bottoms Up,
J. Boy

[tarmadilo]

Yep, what he said!

You also might consider washing the fruit with a mild detergent (and then rinsing it well, of course!) so as to minimize any unwelcome microorganisms and/or pesticides, and adding it to the beer at high kreusen (so that the yeast is at its most vigorous).

Cheers, Tim

[Zambo]

Many brewers also pasteurize the fruit to maintain a controlled yeast strain in the ferment.

[The Student]

Hello,

I would add to the above posts that you have to make sure that the fruit is in the beginning of its ripening process, since you don't want to lose any nutriments for the yeast by choosing a ripened fruit (for the climacteric fruit anyway).

Cheers!

Simon

[Mike Eden]

You might want to consider freezing the fruit to kill microorganisms on the fruit.

[Gael]

i would strongly suggest using fruit in both the fermenter and your finishing tank for a bigger range of flavours. We wash all our fruit in Oxonia (peroxyacetic acid), then freeze it, and we've never had a contamination problem. Freezing also helps break down cell walls and skin, so the fruit mingles with the beer more quickly.