In May, I’m making a watermelon gose and would like to add fresh watermelon juice. I’ve found varying opinions on when to add this. For those recommending secondary, how do you do so without infection? Thanks
There’s no reason secondary should produce an infection if you know what you’re doing. Be prepared to use a lot of watermelon juice. The flavor is very subtle and ferments out. Truthfully my recommendation would be to look for a good quality watermelon extract. If you use juice, add it post primary.
Thinking I know what I’m doing is a significant assumption
Very interested in this. I have been toying with making an Apricot wheat and just have not pulled the trigger on it yet.
When adding the juice you can add some potassium metabisulfite (campden tablet) as well. That will help protect from infection and also oxidation.
I’ve been testing some fruit purees from a company called Boiron. They’re very good. The apricot was especially excellent. You might want to look for it.
How does there fruit purees compare with Oregon fruit puree?
I think I like it better, but it’s been a long time since I’ve used the OFP.
I’m always interested in this topic because I’ve had some fruit beers on my list of things to make but my past efforts always turned out poorly. Each fruit is different in its flavor and strength and I could see watermelon requiring A LOT of juice because it’s subtle. The thing I always mention is the sugar in the fruit/juice kicking up a secondary fermentation and drying out the beer. The other part is what you want the fruit to do for you… do you want the beer to be sweet, tart, dry, etc? There are so many variables that I end up thinking about what Denny suggested… use an extract. There are places like Olive Nation that make high-quality extracts in many, many flavors. Every time you see a beer like a chocolate peanut butter stout or a toasted-marshmallow porter… you can assume it’s made with an extract.