# 🍺 Top-down Brew: 29 Fruit Beer

## Data Entry

Recipe variables
name: 29 Fruit Beer og: 1.054 malt: American two-row, 50, 2, 80 malt: Wheat malt, 45, 2, 80 malt: Crystal Malt 10L, 5, 10, 74 ibu: 18 hop: Willamette, 100, 5.0, 60 yeast: ale vol: 5.5 system: US eff: 75 prime: 2.5, 72

### Conversion to malt extract

- Delete the two-row and wheat malt lines.
- For liquid malt extract, add sugar: Wheat liquid malt extract, 95, 5, 76
- For dry malt extract, add sugar: Wheat dry malt extract, 95, 3.5, 96

### Explore other malts, sugars, and hops

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## Results

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## Notes

2021 BJCP 29A. Fruit Beer overall impression: "A pleasant integration of fruit with beer, but still recognizable as beer. The fruit character should be evident but in balance with the beer, not so forward as to suggest an artificial product.

Wheat malt can range from 15% to 45% of the grain bill. This may give a pie crust character. Light crystal malts like crystal 10L or carapils can be 5%. The remaining malt is mostly standard American two-row or a combination of two-row and pilsner malt (up to 25%). The overall aim is to keep it light to avoid overpowering fruit flavors.

The recommended hops are lower alpha acid hops such as continental European hops (example: Hallertau, Kent Goldings) or comparable American varieties (examples: Cascade, Willamette, Mount Hood). Again, keep the bitterness light. Most fruit flavors benefit from some residual sweetness. Avoid hops that are excessively pine, resin, or dank. Hop flavors and aromas are not desired. Zainasheff's opinion is that most hop flavors do not pair well with fruit flavors.

American ale yeasts are often used, like Fermentis US-05. Some American wheat yeasts are available in liquid form. Kolsch yeasts are okay. Do not use phenolic hefeweizen yeasts.

Consider other wheat beer styles, such as American Wheat, witbier, or weissbier. Other light beer styles might also work well. Dark fruit beers are also possible, such as stouts or porters with raspberries, cherries, or blackberries.

A key issue is how much fruit is needed. Mosher (2004) recommends the following amounts for popular fresh fruits.

- Blackberries: 1 to 4 pounds/gallon (120 to 480 g/l)
- Blueberries: 1 to 3 pounds/gallon (120 to 360 g/l)
- Cherries: 1 to 4 pounds/gallon (120 to 480 g/l)
- Peaches ("terrible disappointment"): 1.5 to 5 pounds/gallon (120 to 600 g/l)
- Raspberries: .25 to 3 pounds/gallon (30 to 360 g/l)
- Strawberries: 1 to 5 pounds/gallon (120 to 600 g/l)

These amounts can be entered into the recipe with lateboil: followed by the name and dosage expressed as ounces/gallon or grams/liter. For example, 2 pounds per gallon of blueberries would be the following code, with 32 representing 32 ounces (2 pounds * 16 ounces/pound = 32 ounces).

    lateboil: Blueberry, 32

The late boil conversions tool might help to convert recipe amounts to the dosages needed for entry into the beer engine calculations.

Another challenge is the tradeoff between sanitation and flavor. Caliagione (2012, p. 70) recommends adding fruit at the end of a 60 minute boil with a steeping temperature between 160 and 170F (71 to 77C). This is the safest method, but aromas important for flavor may be diminished. Another possibility is to pasteurize the fruit, then add it to the fermenter when primary fermentation is nearly finished. This may help to retain flavor.

Fruits will need to be crushed or pureed to make their components available to the yeast. Freezing, then thawing is one method for accomplishing this goal.

Fruit concentrates and flavoring extracts are also possibilities. These are easy. The downsides is that the flavor may be inferior to fresh fruit.

## Sources

Beer-analytics.com Fruit Beer

Calagione, S. (2012). Extreme Brewing: An Introduction to Brewing Craft Beer at Home. Quarry Books. p. 70.

Mosher, R. (2004). Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales, and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass. Brewers Publications, chapter 12.

Zainasheff, J. (2008, December). Fruit beer: Making the case for a good base. BYO, p. 19-22.