Flavorless Fruit Beer?

Northern Brewer General
1

Hey everyone,

So, this is my first attempt at making a fruit beer. Not normally what I like to brew, but I wanted to give one a shot just to see how it would work (and to have something for the ladies). It’s a very basic wheat ale extract recipe, and the sample out of the primary tasted pretty darn good.

I racked onto 3 pounds of frozen blackberries and 3 pounds of frozen blueberries which i crushed up pretty good (while they were still frozen). It’s now been 2 weeks in the secondary. After the first week in the secondary, I pulled a sample and there was almost no flavor from the fruit at all, but the batch had taken on the color of the fruit. I tried another sample 4 days later just for fun, and pretty much the same deal. I don’t want to let it sit on the fruit for too long, so I’m not really sure what to do other than just go ahead and bottle it and see what happens.

I took the sample right from the top of the fermenter… does that make a difference? I know you should never disturb the beer for fear of oxidation, but would stirring it a little bit help?

Thanks!

Matt

2

Did you crush the fruit at all? If not, you might try mashing it up (with something sterile of course).

3

6 lbs of fruit should give you some flavor, even from blueberries which tend to be pretty weak in flavor. Was the primary all finished when you racked? If there is a very vigorous fermentaion after the fruit is added it can blow off a lot of the flavors with the excess CO2. That’s why fruit shouldn’t be added too early.

4

If you want more fruit flavor and aroma, add more fruit. You don’t get much contribution from blueberries, but adding another 3-4 pounds of blackberries would help. Also, what yeast did you use? If you used a german wheat yeast, the flavors from it could be masking the fruit. IMO, neutral yeasts work best in these types of recipes.