Tropical fruit

[Andres Falconer]

After a long Covid-related hiatus, I was finally able to visit my home country of Brazil, to see family and friends.

I was delighted to find some interesting beers in the supermarket shelf, displacing the local AB InBev usuals, as well as the overpriced uninteresting imports (often InBev “premium/craft” brands.) InBev rules in Brazil, but a thriving artisanal scene is starting to make a dent.

My harvest: a maracujá (passion fruit) IPA, umbu (Spondias tuberosa - Wikipedia) and cajá (Spondias mombin - Wikipedia) sours, a mandioca (cassava/manioc) lager, and an acerola wheat. None of them disappointed, and the passion fruit and cajá were really good!

I don’t have any more information on these beers but would like to learn about their brewing process. These fruit/adjuncts are actually easily available in the US: they’re sold as frozen pulps in the better Latino shops that cater to Brazilian communities. Any tips about the brewing process/recipes? How are fruit adjuncts/flavorings typically added? I would imagine they’re added toward the end or at the very end of fermentation rather than in the wort or mash, to preserve the actual fruit flavor.

I’ll start digging for recipes in the forums, but I’d love to hear your thoughts/experiences/tips with tropical fruit and adjuncts such as cassava.

 

[hotbeer]

I started brewing recently and one of my early brews was a ale with grapefruit flesh and zest added near the end of boil. I liked that a lot and made several other that had that wonderful grapefruit flavor come through.

Then I made a another ale that had the best grapefruit flavor of them all. And guess what. It had no grapefruit. Just a combination of different hops that gave it it's strong grapefruit flavor.

So don't just think you have to put fruit in them to get fruit flavors. Hops of many different types have many unique flavor notes they can add. I just did one that has a bannana flavor. From just the hops... Jarrylo. That took some getting use too, but I like it.

Otherwise, fruits and other things can be used at both the boil and fermenting stages. But your results might not be what you expect all the time.