I have been fooling around with adding fruit to my American sour Blonde. I used one can of the Oregon fruit raspberry puree to a carboy after the initial fermentation and let it go for a couple of months. I just tasted it, and I would like to increase the amount of raspberry flavor and aroma. Should I just add another can of puree now? Or is there something else that would work better. I don’t want to use raspberry extract.
I agree on leaving out the extract - that stuff sucks. I’d add some more puree. It’ll cause a fermentation just like before.
I would just add more. I’m not sure how many oz. are in your can, but maybe add half and wait and see if it gets better. I added more cherries to my Kriek when I thought it needed more and I was glad I did. I believe if you’re adding fruit to a beer that you should be able to smell it and taste it. Of course, you still want it to taste like beer so that is why there is a fine line.
I would definitely avoid the extract. Who knows how the chemicals in the extract will ferment out with brett and friends.
Typically you want to add 0.5-1 pounds of raspberries per gallon. I believe those puree cans are approximately three pounds so for a five gallon batch you’re on the low end of the recommended range. Personally I prefer closer to 1:1 ratio for raspberries in a sour pale beer. You could add another can but you might consider adding fresh fruit instead. The puree will ferment out faster but you will have no problem adding whole fresh fruit. The greater problem is trying to rack away from the broken down raspberries. It’s a real mess.
Agreed with adding more fruit. I typically start with at least 2 cans of puree/ 5 gallons for a nice fruity punch in the nose. You can also try adding some fresh fruit juice (with no preservatives) to increase your fruit flavor and aroma.
As far as extracts are concerned I have used some that suck and some that are amazing. Try checking out Silver Cloud Estates for extracts. They are natural and pure and while they are expensive, a little goes a long way to enhance your fruit flavor and aroma in a beer that just needs a little something more.
In Belgium we would add up to 300 grams of fresh raspberries per liter. You do the calculation
I have done fresh fruit before, and it is quite a hassle, so that is why I used the puree. Anyone use the concentrated pure fruit juice before? Something like this:
They are really expensive, but it seems like you would just need to use a tiny amount.
My suggestion is to find yourself a high quality extract. People can say what they want but if you use it properly you wont be able to tell. What I mean by that is I make a very good cherry wheat. I use a can of cherry puree and then I buy a good extract. You will need to experiment a little as in just keep adding a touch and see how it does. If you use the extract to enhance the flavor not to create it you will save a lot of headache and money trying to get the flavor purely by using puree or fruit.