I am hoping to add some watermelon to a Berliner Weisse this summer. Does anyone have any tips on concentrating watermelon flavor? I added watermelon puree to secondary with a wheat beer a few years ago and didn’t get much flavor at all. I guess I could try boiling it down to concentrate the sugar, but looking for some proven methods.
With my watermelon wheat, I use a combo of watermelon during the fermentation and watermelon extract from OliveNation at kegging.
Try dehydrating it in the oven so you are adding less water. I still think you will need a lot to get a great flavor without supplementing with some kind of extract or flavoring.
If you could freeze dry it that would be ideal, but that’s a specialized piece of equipment.
I used this method with great success in a gose last year.
Mash up a watermelon and strain into a plastic gallon water jug. Collect 1/2 gallon of juice.
Freeze solid.
Invert frozen jug into one quart mason jar and allow to thaw to collect one quart of watermelon concentrate
Freeze again
Repeat thawing to collect 16 oz. of watermelon concentrate
Use concentrate at kegging/bottling to taste
I used the 16 oz in a 5 gallon batch which added a pleasant but not overpowering watermelon flavor.
Not my original idea, worked very well though.
Original forum post HERE.