Cranberries

[Reviled]

Has anyone brewed with cranberries before?

Im thinking of doing a cranberry wheat beer for summer, I figure the sweetness in the wheat beer will counter the tart/sourness of the cranberries...

Ill probably use about 1-2kgs of cranberries to start with, but the only ones ive found are ocean spray 'craisins' at $4 for 170g theyre a bit pricy, so does anyone else know of a good source of bulk cranberries?

Also - any info on what to do with the fruit would be awesome, from what ive read putting them into secondary is best, but should I boil the cranberries first? Or chuck em in and maybe get some funky wild yeast thingy going on as well???

Cheers

[MrC]

Here's what I did for my one and only fruit beer Pink Panther.

I didn't add any pectic enzyme to remove the haze from the fruit and the beer was cloudy as a result. Here it is on bottling day.

I added some fruit at the end of the boil for a base fruit flavour and then added more after primary and left them in there until it tasted just right. I never boiled the fruit but I did steep it at 80c for 30min in an attempt to kill the bugs without cooking the fruit. I wanted the fresh fruit flavour rather than the cooked fruit flavour.

I'm happy with the approach that I took and would definitely do it the same next time.

As for the wheat beer base, I used 60% wheat & 40% Maris Otter. Next time I'll add some caramalt (2%'ish) to sweeten it a little. The beer was quite tart due to the fruit and all that wheat.

[Reviled]

Hmm, tart you say? thats sort of what im going for so might not look at adding any crystal... I was also thinking of maybe doing a cream ale instead of a wheat beer but am still pondering this...

So you left the fruit in the fermenter for about a week in total?

Also, im liking the idea of a split batch... Means I wont have to spend so much on cranberries... Also Mr Cherry were the pams rasberries the frozen ones?

Cheers :o)

[MrC]

The first fruit addition was at the end of the boil and left to steep for 30 min. The chunks of pulp were left in the kettle with the hops & trub. The second addition was steeped, muslin bagged and added to the fermenter after 1 week and left in there for another 1 week. I was tasting it daily and waiting for it taste just right. Fruity yet still definitely still a beer and not a fruit drink. It just happened to be exactly 1 week. I guess it would depend on the type and volume of fruit added.

I used the Pams frozen Raspberries. I thawed them and then squished them all by hand while they were still in the plastic bag to release all the juices.

Mine was a split batch (2 x 11L). I mashed for 22L of 1.045 wheat beer then split the wort for the boil. Both had the same bittering hops but 1. was late hopped as an American Wheat and 2. got the fruit.

I think a Cream Ale would be good. My next fruit beer will be a split batch Blonde Ale when my hops are grown. Half hopped with home grown hops, the other will be a Boysenberry Blonde.

[vdog]

instead of steeping them in hot water to kill bugs, what would happen if you dunked it in cool starsan solution and then rinsed? Would that kill anything that needs killing, without losing the fresh fruit flavour? I'm thinking of having a crack at your Pink Panther, and was wondering if that approach would work.

[denimglen]

You can't boil fruit usually because of the pectins, you'll end up making jam.

What I did for my raspberry porter was repeatedly freeze and thaw the fruit, like about 4 times, I figured this would put a decent amount of stress on any bugs in there, and also it helps break down the cells of the fruit which releases more flavour. Then I heated them in a pot to something like 70C (can't remember the exact temp and time, but it should be online, I know other brewers do it this way), and then cooled it down quickly. Added to to secondary and had no dramas.

If you have a standard beer that you want to add fruit to I'd plan on making it a little more unfermentable than usual, whether that's via higher mash temp or cara malts probably doesn't matter. The porter I made tasted awesome but was really thin, probably due to the added simple sugars and amount of juice.

[MrC]

I don't see why that wouldn't work. It might depend on what fruit you use though. I used Pams frozen Raspberries and there was a lot of liquid in the bag after thawing. I added a minimal amount of water for the steep and then added the lot (fruit and water) to the fermenter. If you use starsan you might lose some juice assuming that you don't want to add the starsan to your fermenter. I guess you could just increase the amount of fruit to compensate.

[denimglen]

I was actually considering not adding the juice that was in those bags and just using the pulp for my RP rebrew to try and combat the thinness.

[Mark]

campden tablets (small amount of sodium metabisulphite) will kill the bugs in the fruit, wine makers use it when they don't want the wild yeast on grape skins

[Beer_ledgend]

As a non brewer I thought Cranberries were a rock band!!! :)

Would be very interesting to try, could be very sweet. But I would boil them as precaution, mmm may boil out the juice.

Just my thoughts.

[Reviled]

Cranberries arent sweet at all, so I doubt they would add any sugar, in fact you cant even buy cranberry 'juice' as its allways mixed with sugar to make it drinkable...

The more I think about this the more im tempted to throw them in unboiled into 2ndary to get some funk happening :)

[Beer_ledgend]

Let us know how you get on, would be cool to try it.

You could call it the "Dolores Special" (Lead singer of the Cranberries :)

[MrC]

It doesn't matter how sweet they are 'coz all the sugar will ferment out. Control the percieved sweetness by increasing the unfermentable sugars (crystal malts, lactose, etc) and/or decrease the bitterness to compensate.