I just got back from a vacation to Northern California and while visiting the coast I stopped by the Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka. I tasted their Watermelon Wheat and it was fantastic. My wife loved it as well and now wants me to make a similar brew.
I was wondering if anyone has worked with watermelon before and what the best way would be to include the flavor in a wheat or cream ale.
I have some thoughts, but will make the disclaimer that I have never brewed with it before.
Best option: make a tincture/homemade extract. Soak a whole cut/cubed, even pureed watermelon in a shallow container with vodka, covered for 1-2 weeks at room temp, giving it a shake every time you walk by. I wouldn’t use amazing vodka, but I certainly wouldn’t use Popov either. You can run mid-grade vodka through a brita filter a few times to make it better. Once the two weeks are up, put it through a cheesecloth, and add the extract to the beer at packaging. This way you can add it to taste. Also, you get the aroma of fresh watermelon (as opposed to fermented watermelon), which is really what you are after. Also, you can package some of the ‘naked’ beer so you don’t have a full 5 gallons of fruit beer if you dont want it.
Other option: Make the beer as normal, then add cubed/pureed watermelon to the fermenter. Drawback: with fruit, you typically want to add one pound of fruit per gallon of beer. Watermelon is very, well, watery, and may dilute your beer. Also, I would highly recommend adding the fruit in a paint strainer bag, as racking from a fermenter can be a gigantic pain with fruit pulp everywhere.
You could also do a combination of these two, adding the homemade extract to supplement.
Thanks for the advice guys. For the sake of time/space I will probably give the extract flavoring a try (have had pretty good luck with the flavorings in the past). As Pietro mentioned, it would take a lot of watermelon to get any sort of flavor, but I thought Id just see if anyone had any recent success with the fruit itself. Ill let you know how it turns out!
I’ve been brewing a hell or high watermelon clone for a few years now. After a week of fermentation, add the watermelon. I am trying with a paint strainer bag this year, as it is a pain to remove watermelon. Here is the link to the recipe http://outofkey.com/beer/brewing/waterm … at-recipe/
If you try this, be sure to take some photos, especially if one of the ferm lacks gets clogged! Should you decide to ferment in the living room, give me a call; I can recommend a good divorce lawyer. I can also put you in touch with some explosive ordinance disposal folks. :mrgreen:
If you try this, be sure to take some photos, especially if one of the ferm lacks gets clogged! Should you decide to ferment in the living room, give me a call; I can recommend a good divorce lawyer. I can also put you in touch with some explosive ordinance disposal folks. :mrgreen:
Dan[/quote]
For a real show I would suggest Wy3068 and make sure the airlock fits tight.
Just thought I’d post a quick update on this beer. Brewed the NB Wheat Extract kit and at bottling added 1 bottle of Watermelon flavoring I picked up at my local home brew store. The end result is fantastic. Great wheat beer with a nice touch of watermelon. If I had any complaints it would be that the flavor isn’t as strong as I would’ve liked, but at least it doesn’t taste too much like a watermelon Jolly Ranger. Several friends have stated its my best beer yet out of the 12 batches I have brewed to date.
For my 5 gallon batches an entire 4 oz bottle does the trick. Based on the math, you would want to use .8 oz in a 1 gallon batch, so roughly 1/4th of the bottle should be plenty.