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
Fruit varieties
- Cherries
- Raspberries
- Plums - Tilquin keeps ages lambic on plums for 4 months for their Quetsche Tilquin Facebook Post 22-Sept-15
- Apricots
- Peaches
- Grapes -
- Rhubarb - I know, it's not a fruit. Too bad. We're going to give you some suggestions here anyway.
Aging Vessels
In wood or steel (or glass or plastic)?
Forms of Fruit
(in progress)
Fruit is available to the brewer in multiple different forms.
- Whole or sliced fresh -
- 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. IQF - Individually quick frozen ref Jester King
- Pureed fresh
- Aseptic puree
- Concentrates and extracts
Usage suggestions for different fruits
(in progress)
| Fruit | Juice | Concentrate | Purée | Dried | Whole | Contact Time* | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tart Cherry | 1-2 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | Leave pits in if possible. | ||||
| Raspberry | 1-2 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | |||||
| Apricot | 1-2 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | |||||
| Nectarine | 1-2 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | |||||
| Strawberry | 2-3 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | |||||
| blueberry | 2-3 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | |||||
| Plum | 2-3 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | |||||
| Peach | 1-2 lbs/gal | 6-8 weeks | |||||
| Rhubarb | |||||||
| Pear | |||||||
| Grape | |||||||
| Zante Currant | 0.2-0.4 lbs/gal | 4-8 months [1] | |||||
| Passion Fruit | 1-1.5 lbs/gal [2] | 6-8 weeks | When using whole fruit, use pulp only. |
- * Contact time 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).