I made two beers this weekend, a Bavarian Hefeweizen and Dry Dock Brewing Co. Apricot Blonde. The recipe for the apricot said two add a pound of apricot puree 2-3 days after fermentation starts. When I went to add it to the beer I wasn’t paying attention and added it to my Bavarian Hefeweizen instead of the blonde. I’m not worried about it messing up the blonde as it will just be a blonde instead of an apricot blonde, but how is this going to effect my Hefe. Any ideas?
It’ll be fine. However you won’t get much apricot essence from one pound- and you wouldn’t have in the Blonde either.
You probably need at least 10 pounds to make it noticeable.
Thanks, this was my first Hefe and I was super excited about it and was kinda scared i’d messed it up. I knew it would still be drinkable, just wasn’t sure how much it would change the style.
It seems like Apricot would work well in a hefe. Find some Apricot extract and add to the blonde at packaging if you still want to go that route.
+1. And you could still run out and get some more apricot and throw into the blonde. Dry Dock uses apricot puree after primary fermentation is done along with adding apricot extract during bottling/ kegging. Ya never know, the apricot Hefe may just turn out to be the best Hefe you’ve ever had!
apricot does work well in hefe. I actually prefer WLP380 which gives me a bit of an apricot ester anway.
I suppose depending on how much banana you’ve got in there it COULD clash but I suspect it will be great.
cheers–
–Michael
Thanks all. I still have the extract to add at kegging for the blonde, hopefully the hefe turns out good.
I’ve made the dry dock recipe several times and everytime it’s great! I’ve used just one pound and when you pair that with the apricot flavoring the recipe calls for it makes a beautiful and tasty beer. The apricot in the hefeweizen might just had a little more haze and flavor 
Cheers!
Yeah I’ve wanted to make it for a long time, but it’s such an expensive recipe that I never did. I am looking forward to trying it as a blonde, i’m sure it’ll still be pretty good.
As a fan of Dry Dock’s beers, I concur that you will be fine, and that Apricot Hefe will be delicious. The blonde might stand alone, but I would add the Apricot to that too…you can’t go wrong here.
sometimes mistakes lead to a greater discovery.
sometimes they are drain pours.
Well, you can send me a bottle or two of that apricot hefe. Sounds like a great flavor combination to me.
As a side note, this year was the first time Dry Dock entered the Apricot Blonde at the GABF and it won Gold (their Mild got Bronze).
The owner of my LHBS described that to me. He said when using fruit, you want to lay a base flavor with real fruit or puree, then use a light touch with the extract to dial in aroma when bottling. I’ve never used extracts before, but that made sense to me.
So the Blonde came out great, just added a little extract to when kegging and it tastes fantastic. The Hefe didn’t fare so well. Just didn’t turn out well at all. No off flavors, nothing to suspect it went wrong, just doesn’t taste good. I love Hefe’s, but i’ve never had a bavarian hefeweizen so maybe i just don’t like them. Definitely has the profile of hefe but maybe the apricot puree ruined it. I don’t know.