Using fruit with your home beer brewing

Brewing with fruit is all about exploring what works for you

What are your personal tastes? 

How adventurous are you?  

Are raspberries your favourite fruit in the world? Then try making a raspberry stout! 

Got some more eclectic fruit preferences? How about an elderberry ale? 

That's the beauty of brewing with fruit - there are some many arrangements, styles, and combinations that there's a fruit brew for everyone. 

The fruits most commonly used in fruit beers are raspberries, cherries, apples, and citrus fruits. Feijoa suit more of a wine profile but you do you.

The point is you can use any fruit you like, it's your beer. Some fruits of course work better with certain beers but the world's your oyster in that regard - brewing is your hobby, after all, you can do whatever you like. 

So the first question would be fruit brewers often ask is:

Should I use fresh fruit with my home brew?

You might have heard the expression "fresh is best" when it comes to using cryo hops but when making a fruit beer, you need to consider that fresh fruit can have some issues

Taking the fruit right from the orchard or vine without some form of treatment makes some brewers nervous  - as they are trying to avoid wild yeasts. This has meant several practices have been developed to treat fresh fruit.

So the options which we will now examine are:

• boiling
• freezing
• pasteurization
• and being brave

Should I boil the fruit in the wort?

There are two schools of thought about adding fruit to the boil.

Many brewers will do it to ensure that any bacteria present are destroyed because nothing is as disheartening to discover your beer is infected and ruined!

And in that sense, it will work but there are certainly a few drawbacks.

Boiling fruit releases the pectin in the fruit and that will likely cloud your beer, giving it a cloudy haze that many brewers wish to avoid. It can also be attributed to off-flavors (despite irony of the intention of boiling to release flavour).

Soft fruits like cherries, grapes, and strawberries contain smaller amounts of pectin than other citrus fruits like pears, apples, guavas, quince, plums, gooseberries, and oranges so you can way that up in your decision to boil or not.

If you insist you need to add fruit during the boil what you can do is steep your fruit in the hot wort, or add it directly to the fermenter at the right time. If you are going to steep your fruit, place whole, fresh fruit in a nylon or muslin bag and place it in.

So if you have decided not to boil your fruit what can you do?

Should I freeze the fruit before using it?

If the thought of boiling your fruit is too much you can totally freeze the fruit. It's a really common and trusted practice in the beer brewing community.

The night before you think it's time to add it to the batch (post-primary fermentation), begin to slowly thaw it out in the fridge. It will then be ready when you need it. 

Freezing the fruit is not a complete guarantee against no contamination, but it will reduce the potential risk of infection occurring.

Oddly, freezing can also help with getting the fruit's flavors out of the fruit and into the beer. This is because the water inside the cells of the fruit crystallizes and expands. This process bursts the cell walls and in a sense, it mashes the fruit from the inside out. You can compare this to the freeze thaw action of ice on rock!

How to pasteurize fruit for brewing

In most civilized countries, the law requires that milk is pasteurized prior to sale to prevent bacteria such as salmonella, e. coli, and listeria from harming the general population. That suggests that fruit could benefit from pasteurization before it is added to the beer.

Basically, you use low heat to kill the bugs. Puree your fruit so that it is nice and smooth (so it can be cooked through). You pasteurized it by heating it on the stove in a pot at 80 Centigrade for 30 minutes at a constant temperature. 

That should take care of the bugs - it's now time to add the fruit to your beer.  

If you make the fruit too hot, you will have the same effect as boiling and pectins will be released.

Being fearless and chucking the fruit it the fermenter

There's certainly nothing wrong add your fruit in sans boil or freezing. If you are adding it post-primary fermentation, the alcohol present can protect against infection.

I guess you could always give the fruit a quick soak in some Star San or similar for a short while.

Pureéing fruit for brewing in a blender

If you are going to pureé your fruit - use a good blender. One that has of course been sanitized with something like sodium percarbonate! 

This reminds me to share that I once read of a guy who when blending would add a cup of vodka to the fruit to try and kill any bacteria! 

I reason this could kind of work and the vodka wouldn't add any unintended flavor to the beer. 

You should, of course, wash the fruit thoroughly and then remove any stems, leaves and pits or seeds before blending.

Can I use dehydrated fruit with beer?

You sure can add dehydrated fruit to beer.  It's less messy but if you going to pulp it up, you might need to blend it with some water. Make sure the water is clean first with a test kit.

When do I add fruit to your beer?

We've talked about it but let's get into some detail.

So if you haven't boiled the fruit in the wort when do you add it?

Kind of like dry hopping, many brewers report that you tend to get the best results if you add the fruit about one week prior to bottling rather than adding it directly to the wort on brew day (either before or after the boil). 

The reason for this is that the processes of primary fermentation can strip out the flavors of the fruit.

So to that end, a good time to add the fruit is after primary fermentation is complete - so take your hydrometer and do your readings - when you have two or three identical readings you have your final gravity and can you add the fruit.

Adding during secondary fermentation has the added benefit that you are adding the fruit to a known solution of alcohol - which will help kill and work against any bacteria that may be sneaking in on the fruit.

Some punters remove the skins from the fruit

If you are making a nice plum lager out of some ripe Black Doris, you might want to think about peeling the skins due reduce of a wild yeast like brettanomyces which is usually found on the skins of fruit.

It's interesting to note that Brettanomyces were first discovered by scientist N. Hjelte Claussen in 1904 at the Carlsberg Brewery - he was investigating the 'Brett' as a cause of spoilage in English ales.

It's worth noting that while Brett is considered a contaminant in beer, it is a vital component of the wine making process for many winemakers. 

That was a slight detour - the key point is that if you want to reduce the chance of naturally occurring yeasts getting into your beer, strip the fruit of its skin if you can - might be hard if you're making a cherry beer!

How much fruit should be added to the beer?

A rule of thumb is to consider how sweet your fruit is. If you have a very sweet fruit, such as cherries, you might want to add less to your beer than you would say a peach.

The truth is that amount of fruit to add varies according to the desired intensity of flavor and aroma, but for medium intensity, you should add ½ pound of fruit per gallon of beer for strongly flavored fruits like raspberries and up to 2 pounds (1 Kg approx) per gallon for fruits like peaches or melon which you could consider have a milder, less tart flavor. 

If I can't get fresh fruit, what else can I use?

Given fruit is quite a seasonal item, there are other fruit-based options available. You can add concentrates, purées or juices to your beer - they've been well processed by the time they get to you via the supermarket so you can skill the boil or freezing parts of the processes and add them just prior to secondary fermentation.

If you simply want a flavour, you can use artificial ones or extracts, just remember they do not contribute to the body or 'mouth feel' like real fruit will.

You can of curse use all kinds of fruit juice to make prison hooch.

How long should I bottle condition fruit beer for?

Bottled beer usually takes around three weeks to get to the prime drinking period, regardless of whether it has fruit in it or not. 

In our case, at least a month of bottle conditioning will give plenty of time for the yeast and other floaties to fall to the bottom of the beer as sediment (remember, you can always cold crash before bottling). 

This will also give the fruit plenty of time to become one with the base beer flavours.

You can also remove fruit extras by using finings such as Irish Moss, or sparkolloid.

Go forth and experiment young Padawan!

The wonderful thing about beer makers is they love to experiment - there's something special about brewers who are willing to try new things and mix up their norms - using fruit is a great way to do that as there are many combinations of fruit and beer types that offer even the most casual brewer a chance to produce a fun tasting beer. Or you make cherry wine!

Leave a Comment brettanomyces, fruit, pectine

How to identify and prevent 'off flavors' and smells in homebrew beer

How to identify 'off flavors' and smells in your beer 

Brewing is not just boiling up some grains, throwing in some hops and bottling.

It's not that simple.

Brewing is a bit of science.

It's a bit of practice.

It's also a bit of experimentation.

Like GNR, all we need is a little bit of patience. 

You can do all that right but sometimes it's still a bit of luck.

This is why when a brew batch goes wrong, it can sometimes be considered bad luck that your brew tastes like cabbage, butter or stinks of rotten eggs.

But is it really bad luck that your beer tastes like wet cardboard?

There are all kinds of chemical reactions happening in a brew and this is very normal and nothing to worry about.

It could be that for many brewers the smell of the hops over powers these smells and so when they are finally smelled, they get flagged as a concern.

For this brewer, I'd only be worried when it came time to bottle beer. And even then the first thing I would be asking is should I simply delay bottling another week? As every brewer knows, time is your friend when making beer!

There are many elements that can shunt the beer train off its brewing tracks, particularly improper preparation prior to making the beer and during fermentation and then bottling or kegging.

Working out what went wrong and what it means that you will be a better brewer for it.

And you know what?

The best way to learn is by tasting your beer and understanding what the 'off-flavors' of your beer are and how you might prevent them from happening with your next brew.

Here's a brief guide to help you trouble shoot common off flavors and what the smells mean for your beer!

When your beer tastes like green or rotten apples

I've never eaten a rotten apple but I know what a sour green apple tastes like.

Tart and bitter.

In an apple, this is delicious.

In a beer, this probably means you have a fair amount of acetaldehyde present. This chemical forms at the beginning of the fermentation process. The yeast will eventually convert it to ethanol (alcohol).

This is why it's good to let primary fermentation continue for a fair time and to let your beer condition for at least three weeks. The longer you condition your beer, the greater the reduction in acetaldehyde that will occur and the beer your beer will take.

It will also help to ensure that you correct a fair amount of yeast. If there is not enough yeast present in the beer, it will take longer for the acetaldehyde to be converted.

Who cut the cheese?

If your beer has a cheesy taste, you're probably getting a sample of isolaveric acid. Often described as tasting like old socks, the acid occurs naturally all over the place, including, funnily enough, in the sweat of socks. 

In the case of beer brewing this acid develops when the alpha acids in hops oxide. 

The fix is too use fresh hops - both in leaf and pellet form and ensure they have been stored properly. 

If you do find it in your beer, once again, let the beer condition further and this will mellow it somewhat. 

Another way isolaveric acid can get into beer is when you are using fruit. If you get a 'Brettanomyces' infection from the skin, you'll run into trouble.

Fun fact: some drinkers love a wedge of Blue Cheese with a Wheat beer!

What we do in the shadows

Ever heard of skunked beer?

This is when a chemical reaction happens in the bottled beer due to over exposure to direct sunlight.

So named after the smell a skunk can release, 'lightstruck' beer is caused by the UV radiation in light from the sun and retailer's lights.

The so-alpha acids in the beer (which come from hops) are broken down and form a new compound in the beer by joining with any proteins floating around.

This compound stinks!

The solution is to condition and then store your beer out of sunlight or from under UV Light (why you would be doing that anyway?).

Brown glass bottles are can preventing this from occurring as they can mute the effects of the light but not so many green bottles or clear glass. I have no idea why this occurs.

Refraction maybe?

So, the trick to avoiding skunked smelling beer is clearly to store your beer in the dark.

Funny how that's a solution to many of these flavoring issues eh?

This is why your beer tastes like wet cardboard

If your brew tastes a bit like cardboard or wet paper or simply feels stale, you've let in too much oxygen and your beer was over oxygenated. 

Here's the rule of thumb and oxygen when making beer. 

Before primary fermentation, it's encouraged. During fermentation and after it's discouraged. 

If this happens to you, you can't fix the beer. It is what it is. Drink it with some lime? 

The only way to prevent oxidized beer from occurring is preventing it from getting into your fermenter. Ensure the drum or carboy is tightly sealed and that your bubble airlock / air vent has water in it. 

When preparing the wort, oxygen is good because the yeast uses it before fermentation. When the yeast is doing its job, it doesn't need it.

Rotten eggs !!

I once went to bottle a brew. The moment the beer came out out of the tap, a rank smell began to permeate throughout my man shed. It was disgusting, like some kind of vile stink bomb had been let off or I had dropped a case of rotten eggs on the floor.

My brew was somehow contaminated. That rotten egg smell can most likely be identified as the gas hydrogen sulfide  - which was the by-product of fermentation gone wrong.

It is the by-product of the yeast strain or bacteria that have snuck into your brew (did we ever mention you've got to sanitize your equipment?).

The thing about lagers and rotten smells is that all is not necessarily lost.

You can fix this problem if the sulfide was produced by the yeast and not bad bacteria.

Lager yeast strains are quite prone to producing sulfide odours. This is quite normal. If you properly condition your bottled beer (the lagering process) by letting in stand for a few weeks, the smell should go away before it's time to drink. 

Let your beer sit and be patient about it!

The news is not so good if you have a bacterial infection

I didn't tell you the whole story above. I was a very novice home brewer and I decided to bottle the batch anyway. I left them for a fair time and then cracked one open.

Did you ever make a volcano for a school experiment when you add baking soda to vinegar? You get an explosion of foam and that's what happened to my beer. 

They were giant gushers! 

This was most likely caused by the unwanted bacteria continuing to work its own fermenting magic on the malt in the beer.

What a waste of time, energy and money!

So to prevent the smell of rotten eggs, you have to stop the infection from occurring in the first place.

You must ensure that you have clean equipment and that you've done your best to sanitize it, and kept it clean during the beer brewing process.

Why does my beer taste like chlorine?

Or more rather, are you asking why your beer tastes like plastic or iodine? 

If you used chlorine to sanitize your brewing equipment, you may have over done things, especially if you didn't rinse properly afterward (which is why we recommend using sodium percarbonate instead of bleach products).

You may also have a water supply that is overly chlorinated. If you used this to rinse equipment of brew with, that's most likely the cause. 

The simple solution is to not use such water, however, it may be that kind of water is your only source. What can do then is either filter it or boil it for 15 minutes, leave to cool (we don't want you burning yourself or killing the yeast!) and then using it. 

If you do need to use a chlorine-based bleach, then use no more than half an ounce per gallon of water and rinse with said filtered or boiled water.

Or move town. 

Why does my beer taste like grass?

You could be forgiven for thinking we are just naming every kind of flavor there can be and say that it can be found in beer.

So forgive us when we say that beer can taste like grass.

This can be caused by using old ingredients like malt and grains that have been exposed to moisture. The best way to prevent this grass flavor is to use fresh ingredients and to store them in dry but dark places.

Or it could be that if you've used fresh hops, you've added too much leaf and stem material. It should be obvious what to do.

Grass taste should not be confused with some of the qualities that certain hops impart into beer. Cascade hops are often commented on by brewers as having this effect.

What could be the case here is that the beer has been hopped too long. It depends on what you are going for off course but a lot of home brewers dry hop shortly before bottling to try and capture as much hop flavour as they can. A beer that has aged for a longer time with hops may lose some of its zesty-ness and be construed as being more grassy than hops. 

It possibly depends on how bitter the hops are as well.

Why does my beer taste like cider?

This one is a classic result.

One of the reasons home brewing in the 'bad old days' was because beer tasted too sugary sweet like cider.

And what was the cause of this?

Too much sugar.

If you make your beer with too much corn or cane sugar, cider like flavours will develop.

Brewers looking to increase the ABV of their beer will often add extra fermentables (extra as in more than the beer recipe required). Sugar is cheap and fermentable so they will add an extra kilo or pound of it and get the cider result as a bi-product.

What you can do is off course reduce the sugar and supplement with other fermentables like honey or more malt extract (DME) - basically use more beer enhancer!

Help! My beer has nice fruity smells!

First of all, check that you aren't making a nice stout with raspberry because that would just be awkward....

Brewers often report that their beer smells like fruit - banana, strawberry,  pear and even raspberry.

This fruity smell is quite likely to be an ester called isoamyl acetate. The occurrence of it in beer is extremely common. Like many of the flavours and smells in this guide, they are a by-product of fermentation where the temperature was too high for the yeast, or there was too little yeast pitched.

Generally speaking, the higher the temperature of the beer, the more ester that is produced during fermentation. They are caused by acids in the wort combining with alcohol.

The concentration level of ester will also depend on the kind of beer that is being made. German style wheat beers and Belgian ales tend to possess theses as a deliberate beer aesthetic. Go Bavaria!

One way to reduce the production of esters in your beer is to use a tall and narrow fermenter than shallower vessels. According to the American Homebrewers Association "this is because high hydrostatic pressure and levels of CO2 in the tall, narrow vessels inhibit ester formation."

We did say beer making was a science!

To remove your unwanted esters the solution you have to prevent them from occurring in the first place so try and brew your beer at the recommended temperature for your yeast, favoring the colder side of the spectrum. This is especially so if you are brewing a lager because esters to nod add to the drinking experience of a lager.

The other option is to overpitch your yeast to ensure that there is no deficiency >> a low amount of yeast tends to make the yeast work harder and produce more esters.

Finally, ensuring your wort is properly oxygenated prior to primary fermentation will help the yeast function as intended.

A final amusing point on isoamyl acetate is that it is actually used as an artificial flavoring for things like banana milkshakes!

That delicious paint thinner taste is a fusel alcohol

Now I've never drunk paint thinner but I've sure smelled them! They are strong and pungent.

'Paint thinner' is a term for solvents that are used to thin oil based paint or for cleaning up paint brushes and maintaining equipment like chainsaws. They are usually referred to as white spirits, turpentine or acetone. Either way, you recognize them as smelling quite harsh - and you can imagine the taste.

While most people do not drink solvents, many brewers often report that their beer has a 'paint thinner' taste.

What is most likely the cause of this flavor are fusel alcohols. They are sometimes referred to as fusel oils.

These occur naturally in home brewing and will occur at noticeable levels to the palate when the beer is fermented at too high a temperature of the beer is left in contact with the trub for too long.

The way to prevent fusel alcohols occurring in your beer is to ferment at the recommended temperature for the beer you are making.

Most certainly do not leave your beer to ferment for a week in a closed shed at the height of summer! It will surely be too hot.

I have to admit, I made this mistake. It's so disappointing to discover when bottling your beer doesn't smell like when it started and a quick taste test reveals the truth...

Ensuring you use the correct amount of yeast can help. 

If you have difficulty controlling the temperature of your brewing situation you could try using yeasts known for their ability to handle higher temperatures, such as Belgian yeasts.

Letting the bottled beer condition for a good length of time will also give the fusels a chance to break down. It's not a guarantee of fixing the problem. If you have a mild case, your odds get better with each day of conditioning. 

Here's some other common flavors and what they mean:

• Tart tastes can be caused by polyphenols which are caused by over milled grains that are steeped too long.
• Butterscotch or buttery flavors can be diacetyl and is naturally occurring. Affected by temperature and over oxygenation post pitching of the yeast.
• Cough Syrup - possibly phenol which can be caused by a variety of things including improper sparging and mashing techniques, temperature ranges, and sanitizers and cleaning products that utilize iodine or chlorine.
• Metal, pennies - a contaminant from non-stainless metal kettles and poor water. 
• Salt - you probably added salt to your beer. Add too much and you wreck the taste balance.
• Soap - you probably added soap to your beer (again WTF) or you left it to soak too long in the primary fermenter and your beer is literally turning into a form of soap. No, you can't shower with it.

Final words

If you've made it this far, you will appreciate there are many factors and processes which can contribute to off flavors in your homebrew (and of course ciders and wine). 

We haven't even covered them all!

Some of them occur naturally and will fade away as part of the normal practice of brewing is followed. Others will be fatal to your beer (such as a bacteria-infected or skunked beer). 

Using well-established brewing practices will help alleviate many of these problems from occurring.

So yes, clean and santize your equipment, use fresh hops, brew at correct temperatures and let your beer condition properly and you will have a good tasting beer. 

Leave a Comment brettanomyces, ester, fusel alchohol, hydrogen sulfide, isoamyl acetate, off flavors, rotten eggs, trub, wet cardboard taste