Soured Fruit Beer
The acidity and fruity characteristics in many mixed-fermentation beers make them good candidates for fruit additions. It is not recommended to put fruit into a beer to cover up some major flaw or off character. Fruit can complement a good beer but it will likely not fix problems. Quality fruit is expensive and you'll want to start from a good base if you are going to invest the time and money in good fruit for a beer.
2nd steepings - ref Jester King, Upright, Rare Barrel...
Contents
Aging Vessels
In wood or steel (or glass or plastic).
Active fruit fermentation may cause fruit particles to clog the airlock or bung and prevent the vessel from venting pressure. This may cause the airlock to shoot off or worse. The Rare Barrel prevents this problem by stabling foil over the bung holes of barrels of actively fermenting fruit beer rather than using a bung[1] (~52 minutes in).
Forms of Fruit
(in progress)
Fruit is available to the brewer in multiple different forms.
- Whole or sliced fresh - Use a CO2-purged keg or minimize headspace in a carboy. Mold and acetic acid bacteria can grow on the skins of floating fruit [2]. Some brewers like to swirl the fermenter every few days or to keep the alcohol in contact with the fruit, though some others report no ill effects from not swirling the fermenter (and this is impractical in commercial settings). If using a barrel or larger fermenter, you may try using a punch-down technique. If punching down the fruit, purge the headspace of the vessel with CO2 to avoid oxygen exposure to the beer. Allow the fruit to get fully or possibly even over-ripe (not rotten) for best flavor.
- Whole or sliced frozen - Freezing fruit has a few main potential benefits. First, freezing fruit helps to break down cell walls, which may make the fruit easier to access for yeast and bacteria in the beer. Freezing fruit can also knock back the microbes present on the fruit. Note however that freezing does not kill all the microbes on the fruit. Finally, freezing fruit allows the brewer (especially the homebrewer) to take advantage of local and seasonal fruits when they may not have a use ready for those fruits in season. Frozen fruits are also available as IQF, or individually quick frozen fruit. IQF fruit is frozen but each berry is distinct rather than a single frozen mass. This allows for easier handling, helps prevent clumping, makes for easier fitting of fruit into small openings in carboys or barrels, and allows screening and removal of bad looking fruit.
- Pureed fresh - pureeing fresh fruit has the benefit of extracting the fruit flavor faster. It also sinks to the bottom of the fermenter [3], so the problem of floating whole fruit is avoided. Puree can be difficult to rack the beer off of, and more beer may be lost compared to using whole fruit. Some brewers choose to heat pasteurize freshly made puree.
- Aseptic puree - Same as "Pureed Fresh", but has already been pasteurized. This is usually the case for commercially available puree. We recommend Oregon Specialty Fruit or The Perfect Puree for quality commercial puree.
- Concentrates and extracts - Concentrates can lose aromatics due to the process, and are generally not as recommended. Some manufacturers such as Kings Orchards uses a process that reintroduces the aroma back into the concentrate [2].
- Juice - Make sure there is no sugar or preservatives added [2].
Fruit varieties and usage suggestions
Specific notes on select fruit varieties
- Apricots - Noyeaux, getting pretty acidic.
- Autumn Olive - This is a shrub producing small tart fruits native to Asia and found naturalized in eastern US (though it is considered invasive).
- Black Currants - Finding black currant juice without added sugar can be difficult because of the juice’s high acidity. Keep this in mind when tasting the juice, as the amount of added acidity after refermentation can make the beer unpalatable [4].
- Blackberries - Adds citric acidity; milder flavor compared to raspberries. Works well mixed with cherries.
- Cherries - Both sweet and sour varieties of cherries are available. Generally sour cherries are used in beer. They are more difficult to find and to source some you may need to look into smaller local farmers or frozen or juice options. Varieties of sour cherries include Schaerbeekse (traditional in lambic), Montmorency, Morello and Amarelle. The stones also produce some character and can add to the beer, so you may want to consider leaving the pits in with some or all of the fruit.
- Fuyu Persimmon - Works well with fruity Brett character.
- Grapes - Wine grapes are preferable for their depth of flavor compared to table grapes. Consider both the influence of the juice of the fruit as well as the potential to pull tannins and flavor/aroma from skins. Some homebrewers have experimented successfully with blending finished wine with beers --mad fermentationist--
- Loquot - Leave out pits.
- Passionfruit - When using whole fruit, use the pulp only.
- Pineapple - Leave the skins out.
- Raspberries - Advice: use a fine-mesh bag for whole fruit or a fine-mesh strainer for puree since seeds/skins may not settle even with extended aging. Frozen products tend to be more consistent than fresh [4]. Raspberries can pair well with both pale and darker sour beers.
Usage Suggestions
"Contact time" in the table below is for mixed fermentations with Brettanomyces. Kettle sours or beers that do not contain live Brett can have a much shorter fruit contact time (generally 1-2 weeks). All contact times are assumed to be applied in secondary, and at the end of aging. Keep in mind that this is just a general guideline for usage amounts. Brewers should consider their base beer's characteristics such as abv, flavor profile, acidity levels, etc. when considering how much fruit to add. It is common for lambic brewers to age much higher fruit to beer ratios and then blend back with unfruited lambic to the desired g/L amount. If you are really trying to nail the perfect fruit amount, applying this sort of technique could be useful (assuming you have suitable beers around to blend back). This will allow you to try different blend ratios to determine the appropriate amount of fruit for your beer and desired outcome.
Don't be afraid to experiment outside of these guidelines.
- Click here and comment on the MTF thread to add your recommendations to this wiki!
- Click here to convert pounds per gallon to grams per liter.
Fruit | Juice | Concentrate | Purée | Dried | Whole | Contact Time | Notes | Commercial Examples |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tart Cherry | 12-24 fl oz/gal | 0.5 lb/gal [4] | 1-2.5 lbs/gal | 3 weeks juice/6-8 weeks whole [4] | 200 g/l (1.67 lbs/gal) Cantillon Kriek, 300 g/l (2.5 lbs/gal) Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek | |||
Raspberry | 1-2.5 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | 200 g/l (1.67 lbs/gal) Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus, 300 g/l (2.5 lbs/gal) Cantillon Lou Pepe Framboise | |||||
Apricot | 1-2.5 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | 300 g/l (2.5 lbs/gal) Cantillon Fou Foune | |||||
Nectarine | 1-2 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Strawberry | 0.5-1 lbs/gal [4] | 2-3 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | |||||
Blueberry | 2-3 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Blackberry | 0.7-3 lbs/gal [4] | 6-8 weeks | 350 g/l (2.9 lb/gal) Tilquin Mure | |||||
Coconut | ||||||||
Elderberry | 0.5 lbs/gal [4] | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Plum | 2-3 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | 250g/l (2 lbs/gallon) Tilquin Quetsche (contact time of 4 months)[5] | |||||
Peach | 0.5-2 lb/gal [4] | 1-2 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | |||||
Rhubarb | 0.5 lb/gal [4] | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Pear | 6-8 weeks | |||||||
Guava | 1-2 lbs/gal [4] | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Grape (Table) | ||||||||
Grape (Wine) | 2-3 lbs/gallon | 300 g/l (2.5 lbs/gal) Cantillon St. Lamvinus and Vigneronne | ||||||
Zante Currant | 5-10 fl oz/gal | 0.2-0.4 lbs/gal | 4-8 months [6] | |||||
Black Currant | 24-36 fl oz/gal [4] | 3 weeks juice/6-8 weeks whole | ||||||
Passion Fruit | 1-1.5 lbs/gal [7] | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Autumn Olive (Autumn Fruit) | 1-1.5 lbs/gal [4] | 2 lbs/gal [4] | 6-8 weeks | |||||
Pomegranate | 8 fl oz/gal [4] | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Pineapple | 1 pineapple/gal [4] | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Cantaloupe | 0.5 lb/gal [4] | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Prickly Pear | 0.5 lb/gal [4] | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Apple | 0.5 lb/gal [4] | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Watermelon | 64 fl oz/gal [4] | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Loquat | 2 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Mango | 2 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | ||||||
Fuyu Persimmons | 2.5 lbs/gal [4] | 12 weeks [4] |
See Also
Additional Articles on MTF Wiki
External Resources
References
- ↑ The Sour Hour #14: with Jester King, pt. 1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Conversation with Kyle Kohlmorgen on MTF regarding fruit. 10/23/2015.
- ↑ Conversation with Dara McMains on MTF regarding puree. 11/1/2015.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 Conversation on MTF about adding fruit to sour beer. 10/23/2015.
- ↑ Tilquin Facebook Post 22-Sept-15
- ↑ Russian River Consecration Description. Retrieved 10/21/2015.
- ↑ Conversation with Manny Jannes and Kristopher Johnson (Green Bench brewer) on passion fruit additions on MTF. 10/22/2015.