A friend is home from University in Montreal where she has fallen in love with St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat and wants to know if I can make something similar. Since I also really like that beer, I’m gonna give it a try. But, I’m unsure what the best strategy is to infuse the apricot into the beer. McAuslan Products
Also, notice that this starts at 15.5 plato (1.062) but ends at 5% so it must be fairly low attenuation. Any suggestions on a yeast that would be a good starting point for this? I’m thinking WLP002 might be a possibility but I’m not sure where to start.
A couple years ago, I tried something like this by putting 1 gal of wheat beer onto pureed apricots. The taste was ok but I bottled it and because it had some apricot puree that got siphoned into the bottles during the process, the apricot provided nucleation points and each bottle gushed terribly. It wasn’t really over carbonated and it wasn’t contaminated so I’m pretty sure it was the apricot like I said.
Any thoughts on a better strategy to make this work? I’m doing all 15 gal batches now so I’d probably do a big batch of wheat and then do at least 10 gals in secondary with fruit under the assumption that if it works, I’d want a decent amount to have on hand for the whole summer.
US-05 throws off a lot of peach esters which could work well for an apricot beer. Of course, it is very attenuative, so you would have to mash very hot if you used it.
Dried apricots are pretty easy to get. The ones from Costco are astonishingly good. Dried apricots would have less of a nucleation point issue, I assume. I don’t know how well they would work flavor-wise relative to puree.
Anyway, I was thinking of making an apricot (dried) or peach (fresh) wheat ale this summer so let me know how things go.
I know at the time I shy’d away from dried fruit because a lot of it is sulphited and I thought that would screw up the bottle conditioning. Not sure if it would matter for kegging but it’s a factor to consider with dried fruit from what I understand.
I rack wheat beers onto fruit purees in a secondary pretty regularly. And I keg these as opposed to bottling, but they don’t get overcarbonated any more so than other beers. I’ve noticed some fruits or purees to be slow to ferment, so did you reach terminal gravity ? Just curious.
Hydrometer reading on the apricot infused was 1.012 so I think it was done. These were canned apricots that I pureed myself since that was my only option. I did a Star-San rinse on the food processor but there could have been some other wild yeasts that would drive further attenutation but I sort of doubt it based on the flavour etc. It sat on the puree for about 3 weeks at 68F. I really think I just sucked in too much junk when siphoning and because they were home pureed, they were lots of chunks.
Regardless, what puree do you use, where do you get it and how long do you let it sit?
Thanks
My LHBS has good ones (Oregon, Vintner’s Reserve). Usually ~ 2 weeks, checking until I get consistent readings. I used an apricot puree on the last one that seemed to get to FG in right around 2 weeks, give or take.
Good point. If you add dry fruit at the end of primary, the sulfite, really the sulfur dioxide, will be stripped out. The Costco dried apricots are preserved with sulfur dioxide and potassium sorbate. I’m highly doubtful that the potassium sorbate would pose much an issue due to dilution and that high levels of potassium sorbate can be overcome with large quantities of yeast, which would already be present in primary fermentation.
Dry dock does do the best fruit beer i have ever had. this is it. i really only used 3 0z of extract though. Ladies loooooooove it.
Recipe: Dry Dock Paragon Apricot Blond TYPE: All Grain
Style: Fruit Beer
—RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 5.4 SRM SRM RANGE: 3.0-50.0 SRM
IBU: 10.9 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 5.0-70.0 IBUs
OG: 1.053 SG OG RANGE: 1.030-1.110 SG
FG: 1.011 SG FG RANGE: 1.004-1.024 SG
BU:GU: 0.205 Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz Est ABV: 5.5 %
EE%: 80.00 % Batch: 6.00 gal Boil: 7.30 gal BT: 60 Mins
—WATER CHEMISTRY ADDITIONS----------------
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs Total Hops: 0.55 oz oz.
—MASH/STEEP PROCESS------MASH PH:5.40 ------
-ADD WATER CHEMICALS BEFORE GRAINS!!<<<<<<<
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 90.9 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 2 9.1 %
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 4.12 gal of water at 166.6 F 150.0 F 60 min
—SPARGE PROCESS—
-RECYCLE FIRST RUNNINGS & VERIFY GRAIN/MLT TEMPS: 65.0 F/68.0 F
-ADD BOIL CHEMICALS BEFORE FWH
Fly sparge with 4.50 gal water at 175.0 F
—BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------
Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.044 SG Est OG: 1.053 SG
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
0.55 oz Cascade [6.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 10.9 IBUs
—FERM PROCESS-----------------------------
Primary Start: 17 Apr 2012 - 4.00 Days at 67.0 F
Secondary Start: 21 Apr 2012 - 10.00 Days at 67.0 F
Style Carb Range: 2.00-3.00 Vols
Bottling Date: 01 May 2012 with 2.5 Volumes CO2:
—NOTES------------------------------------
1 can Vintners Harvest Apricot Puree (add to primary 2-3 days after start of fermentation)
4 oz Apricot Extract (add to bottling bucket or keg)
How about Apricot Juice instead of Puree. Amazon.com
Stuff isnt exactly cheap, but your puree remainder issue would go out the window.
Also, another suggestion. IF you make 15g batches and arnt 100% on the apricot, you could try testing 2-3 different fruits, so atleast if the apricot is a dud, maybe you will of stumbled in to a winner.