First fruit beer for gf. Help w/ recipe

[CanAusBrewer]

I am looking for a way to get my girlfriend into the idea and habit of enjoying my homebrew as much as I do.

I would like to make a beer that is a cross of her two favourites (which we can't get in Australia), Blue Moon and St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale from Quebec. Ideally, I am aiming to make a beer with the base malt, hop and flavour character as Blue Moon, but with the subtle apricot being the more dominant flavour, over the coriander and orange peel.

Since apricots are out of season, I have found three 410 g cans of pure halved apricots with no added ingredients. I plan to puree the drained fruit in a sanitised blender and strain through a sanitised strainer. The juice collected would then be added to the primary fermenter after primary fermentation had finished. I only have one fermentation vessel and haven't got the space for another in my small flat as of yet. From what I have read on HBT, I will have basically the same effect as adding to a secondary if the yeast have already finished the major part of fermentation.

I only have a 15 l brew pot so would ideally like to make a partial mash batch. This is the recipe that I have planned, as adapted from Nilo's Blue Moon adaptation. I also plan to bottle pime with canned apricot nectar and work out volumes by sugar in nutritional information.

This is the first time I have designed a recipe so any feedback and recommendations on ways to improve this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Apricot Wit - Blue Moon
American Wheat or Rye Beer

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 19.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.100
Total Hops (g): 28.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.054 (°P): 13.3
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014 (°P): 3.6
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.31 %
Colour (SRM): 4.8 (EBC): 9.5
Bitterness (IBU): 12.1 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 90

Grain Bill
----------------
1.500 kg Liquid Malt Extract - Wheat (36.59%)
1.000 kg American 2-Row (24.39%)
1.000 kg Wheat Malt (24.39%)
0.400 kg Crystal 10 (9.76%)
0.200 kg Carapils (Dextrine) (4.88%)

Hop Bill
----------------
28.0 g Hallertau Mittlefrueh Pellet (3% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.5 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
14.0 g Coriander Seed @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
84.0 g Orange Peel @ 5 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 68°C for 90 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with Safale US-05

Notes
----------------
-2 tbsp corn starch @ 15 min (mixed with 1/2 cup cold water to avoid clumping)
-14 g cracked coriander @ 10 min
-84 g orange peel @ 5 min

Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[SudsyPaul]

Can I ask what's up with the cornstarch? Is this just for the haze effect? Why not toss in some wheat flake to your partial mash?

I'm not sure if the coriander, orange peel and apricot will marry up super well, but all the power to you. Personally, I would invest in another vessel for your fermentation. If you dump the juice on the yeast cake, you'll likely lose almost all the apricot flavour since you'll have a healthy supply of yeast to destroy the juice. Racking to a secondary would drop your yeast population and limit the amount of flavour that the yeast could chew up.

Personally, I would ferment the US-05 a bit cooler than 20c, I find it's a lot cleaner at 17ish. You'll still get a good beer from 20c, esp. since it'll be very aromatic/flavorful, the yeast won't shine through as it would in a simple ale.

Hopefully it works out for you

For my wife, her kryptonite is Ahtanum. Anything I make with that hop (IPAs, mostly) come out like grapefruit bombs. No need for fruit additions, the hop does all the work, just a thought, if you wanted something less fruity, but still super aromatic and flavourful.

 

[JimRausch]

Looks OK to me, with a few suggestions:
I have to say that the recipe choices on the Wayne/Nilo thread make a superb beer- very close/almost identical to BM. My wife is a big fan.
They use a basic 50% Barley malt:40% Wheat malt:10% rolled oats. I would add the oats to your recipe. The cornstarch- eh I don't bother. But I like my beers to be clear(and so does my wife who I make this for).Your plan on adding the apricot puree seems fine to me. In my experience with the original recipe, the coriander and orange peel added during the boil is subtle and shouldn't overwhelm the apricot flavor. I usually add more orange and coriander at bottling. My latest attempt I'll be adding apricot extract at bottling. Priming with apricot nectar is a little more of a gamble because it's a little hard to guess on fermentability of the sugars. Having said that, I did successfully bottle prime with pomegranate juice once using the nutrition info. on the label. So, it can be done if there is good info. on the label. Good luck- it sounds like you are on the right track!

oops-rereading your post, I noticed you are adding more orange peel than coriander. In what I've read, you want the opposite. You get more orange flavor from the coriander. I think the original was 1tsp. coriander and 1/3 tsp. orange peel.

 

[CanAusBrewer]

I think that the cornstarch is indeed for the haze effect. I was reading the whole hread, trying to design my recipe and got to page 20 before I skipped to the last page and picked something that the original recipe had been adapted into by the people in the thread. It had obviously been modified significantly in three years. If I were going with my original grain bill I would do something like this:

Apricot Wit - Blue Moon
American Wheat or Rye Beer

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 19.0
Total Grain (kg): 3.800
Total Hops (g): 48.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.051 (°P): 12.6
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.01 %
Colour (SRM): 3.7 (EBC): 7.3
Bitterness (IBU): 21.1 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 90

Grain Bill
----------------
1.500 kg Liquid Malt Extract - Wheat (39.47%)
1.100 kg American 2-Row (28.95%)
0.800 kg Wheat Malt (21.05%)
0.400 kg Flaked Oats (10.53%)

Please note that the coopers wheat LME that I use is 50% wheat, 50% pale malt. I did notice on the initial recipe that people were complaining that the beer lacked body and mouthfeel. I assumed that the recipe had morphed into something with more of these qualities.

As for the orange peel and coriander, I found quite a bit of conflicting info on that but obviously I want this to be more subtle than the apricot. I found these ingredients to be described both in teaspoons and ounces which is a big difference. Is 1 tsp coriander and 1/3 tsp orange what you use JimRausch?

If I could get my hands on apricot extract I would definitely use that, however my choices seem to be a bit more limited here in Australia than what people seem to be using in the USA. I notice you are brewing something you call "Apricot Moon". Is your beer the same thing I am aspiring to create?

 

[sweetcell]

Since apricots are out of season, I have found three 410 g cans of pure halved apricots with no added ingredients. I plan to puree the drained fruit in a sanitised blender and strain through a sanitised strainer. The juice collected would then be added to the primary fermenter after primary fermentation had finished.

why are you straining the fruit? why not add the puree to the beer, give that a week, then cold-crash for a few days to drop the fruit? rack carefully with a fine-mesh bag over the end of your racking cane (filtering on the input), and you should be able to pull off clear beer. having the pulp in the beer will increase flavor extraction.

 

[CanAusBrewer]

why are you straining the fruit? why not add the puree to the beer, give that a week, then cold-crash for a few days to drop the fruit? rack carefully with a fine-mesh back over the end of your racking cane (filtering on the input), and you should be able to pull off clear beer. having the pulp in the beer will increase flavor extraction.

Thanks for that. This is the reason I ask questions in forums. Otherwise I would have just discarded the pulp.

I am also wondering if this will be enough apricots for the flavour I want or if I should rehydrate some organic dried apricots and blend them up as well. I have a powerful blender that could basically liquify the puree.

 

[CanAusBrewer]

I should probably mention that my partial mash is BIAB. I think I am meant to add half the oats at 20 min left in my 68 degree C 90 minute mash and boil the other half in a muslin bag throughout the boil. Does that do more for my beer than just mashing my oats?

 

[ong]

Thanks for that. This is the reason I ask questions in forums. Otherwise I would have just discarded the pulp.



I am also wondering if this will be enough apricots for the flavour I want or if I should rehydrate some organic dried apricots and blend them up as well. I have a powerful blender that could basically liquify the puree.

I agree that fermenting on the whole purée will give you more flavor. If you do use any dried apricot, be careful to use a product without sulfites (generally they will be much darker if they're sulfite-free).


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[CanAusBrewer]

I agree that fermenting on the whole purée will give you more flavor. If you do use any dried apricot, be careful to use a product without sulfites (generally they will be much darker if they're sulfite-free).


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Good point. I don't want any of that crap interfering with my yeast. Has anyone had experience doing this all in the primary, while of course waiting for fermentation to complete?

 

[sweetcell]

you'll get more fruit contribution if you wait for primary to finish. an active primary fermentation can scrub out and blow off a lot of aromatics. yeast drag down all sorts of compounds as they flocc out.

 

[CanAusBrewer]

you'll get more fruit contribution if you wait for primary to finish. an active primary fermentation can scrub out and blow off a lot of aromatics. yeast drag down all sorts of compounds as they flocc out.

Ok so I would imagine that I would get an even better result if I cold crashed the beer after achieving FG and then adding apricot puree at this point to the primary for a week.

 

[CanAusBrewer]

I have brewed the beer and it smells amazing with the coriander and orange peel and I am debating adding the apricot but it comes at the request of SWMBO so I don't believe I can back out now.

SWMBO won't let me buy another fermenter until we have a bigger brewery...er apartment... so I have proposed n alternate method for adding fruit as well. I intend to wait until this American wheat has fully fermented out and reached FG, then cold crash to flocc the yeast and clear the beer and add my frozen pureed apricot block (which was blended in a sanitised blender and stored in a sanitised container) to a pre-boiled muslin sack and add to primary. I will then allow the beer to climb back to 17 deg C.

Fermentation will kick back in again and once I have again reached a steady FG I will bottle with a mixture of 50% strained apricot nectar and make up the other 50% with raw sugar. How does this sound? Will my crazy plan work?

 

[CanAusBrewer]

I should note that the purpose of the muslin sack is so I can easily bottle without having to deal with the pulp. I have a 30 l Copper Tun PE fermenter which has a tap at the base which draws from above. It has given me pretty clear beer in the past but I have always strained my wort and dry hopped in muslin sacks.

 

[sppeart]

So is it finished? How did it turn out?

Stephen...

 

[CanAusBrewer]

Turned out to be a very nice beer. It was enjoyed by many and is now nearly gone. It carbonated nicely and had a noticeable apricot flavor that complimented the light bitterness of the Hallertau MF hops. It didn't have much orange or coriander flavor at all. I would definitely make this one again but maybe add more orange and coriander as a dry hop style addition to get more of that flavor.

Thanks to everyone who helped me plan this beer.