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

[Reviled]

Whats this parboil then freeze business??

[Reviled]

Also Glen - when you heated the fruit to 70*c or whatever, did you add any water? Or just mash up all the fruit and heat it??

Im thinking if I mash it up or chuck it in the food processer its gonna be ALOT harder to bag??

[denimglen]

I guess the parboil thing is just bringing it up to a boil and then chucking it in the freezer? He doesn't go into much detail cause he just goes on about the awesome Oregon puree canned stuff they get over there.

Uh, I think I just gave it the hell mash up cause from the multiple freeze-thaws there was heaps of juice so didn't really need to add water.

Maybe some pectin enzyme would be in order if you want to avoid haze?

Or maybe save yourself some trouble? :-P

[Reviled]

"Or maybe save yourself some trouble? :-P"

Stink, wish I saw that earlier ;oP Oh well, im committed now!!

Run me over thie pectin enzyme thing?? What do I do and where do I get it?

[denimglen]

I don't know too much about it but Hauraki or BC should have it.

I think you just chuck it in the ferment and it breaks down the pectins.

I've never used it, just head people talk about it.

[Reviled]

Sweet, just scored 1.5kg of Frozen cranberries for $24, by no means cheap but im hoping it should be enough for 10 litres...

Now the thing that bugs me about this - im going to have to use 2 fermenters for 20 litres of beer :o(

[MrC]

You could increase your grist and do a party gyle style brew to get 1.5 full fermenters (10L fruit, 20L non-fruit).

[Reviled]

Hmm, cant really do the partigyle thingo with BIAB I dont think.. Cheers for the idea tho

[MrC]

Oh well, maybe one day when you graduate to a traditional mash & sparge setup then...

[Reviled]

Graduate?? Surely you meant to say 'step down' :o) haha

[Reviled]

Just blended 1.5kg of cranberries and added them to a fermenter with about a litre of yeast/trub and 10litres of cream ale - im hoping that with a big mass cake of yeast in there it might be enough to fight off any nasties that might be hiding in the cranberries, allthough I did defrost and refreeze the fruit about 4 or 5 times to slow anything down, but now only time will tell...

The beer in the fermenter went red instantly :o) Awesome!