Apricot Wheat

[Pale_Ale]

Putting down an Apricot Wheat on the weekend, should turn out ok...

1.7kg Morgans Golden Sheaf Wheat
1.5kg Coopers Wheat Malt Extract
2.5Kg Apricots added to secondary
15g Hallertau @ 5 minutes
15g Goldings @ 15 minutes

Will leave it in the secondary for 2 weeks

Q1 Any improvements to the recipe that can be made?

Q2 Yeast? Am thinking of just pitching hte Morgans as I figure it ill probably be equivalent or better than K97. Which leads on to

Q3 Ferment temp?

Q4 Hop schedule? Any improvements?

Looking forward to this one.

Cheers


Edit: Added hop schedule

[timmy]

mmmm - great timing Pale.

I've got some Wyeast weizen on the way ATM so am planning on using this in my Apricot Wheat.

I presume you'll be sterilising the fruit before adding? I was going to add mine to the primary and then pour the boiling wort over them. Should also help to drop the wort temp, particularly if they're frozen....

Can't wait to hear about the results...

Cheers,

Tim

[Pale_Ale]

I'll be thawing overnight, cutting up, then 'steeping' in some hot water for 10 minutes or so. Should get rid of all the nasties without pectin haze.

Then I plan to chuck the lot into the secondary, I'll probably rack before final gravity though. Don't intend to put any fruit in initally.

[Pale_Ale]

Since I'll be putting this one down tomorrow, does anyone have any last minute suggestions on changes?

[Chris]

You MAY find goldings may overpower the apricots a bit- especially since you are only using 2.5kg. I'd go a noble hop for flavour. That's just an opinion though.

Aside from that, I'd homogenise the fruit for 20mins. 2 reasons- firstly, it makes it safer. Remember that more bacteria et. al. live in your fridge/freezer than in your toilet or dog's bed.

Secondly, it gives the fruit a chance to release the flavours prior to fermenting. It also breaks it up a bit better, so the yeast can REALLY get inside the fruit and ferment it.

One last thing, consider adding the fruit to 2ndary, as the CO2 bubbles in primary can scrub a lot of the very delicate fruit esters out of the mixture, and lose them out your airlock!

[drsmurto]

http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/BeerOTM ... rs_wit.htm

Note that for wheats he is suggesting that hops are only used for bitterness and so i suspect that if you want to bring out the apricot flavour, the kit may already be bittered enough?

PA - is this your first fruit beer? If so, then my suggestion (since its what i will be doing for my blackberry wheat) is to maybe leave hops alone the first time and then make adjustments the next time you do it.

[Pale_Ale]

Thanks for the advice guys,

I think I will take the advice given and remove the Goldings. I don't think I'll subsitute with anything so thefruit flavour can come out a bit more. I will use saaz or hallertau for aroma and maybe a touch of flavour (5 minutes or so).

Chris, I am not adding any fruit to primary - all secondary. By homogenise, do you mean just leave in hot water? This is my plan.

Dr, I have made a strwaberry before but this is my first decent effort with fruit.

Hopefully it will turn out well!

Cheers

[timmy]

Homogenise in this context would be something like running it through a blender so it's homogeneous (?), meaning the same all the way through (e.g no lumps)

I think the guys here are talking about pasteurisation. heating stuff up to kill nasties.

Easy to get them mixed up because they do both to milk. To homogenise milk they run it through a squirter nozzle (IIRC) and it breaks up and/or removes the creamy bits.

[Balls]

Hi Pale, I think Chris meant pasteurise. You can do that by putting them in a bag and place in a pan of hot water for 15mins at approx 80c. That way you won't be adding any water. Cheers

[Chris]

Yeah, PASTEURISE!!! Wasn't thinking. Louis must be homogenising in his grave!

And yeah, you should put in a pot for ~20-30min with water between 70-75*C. This way, you get the maximum heat in, and no pectin out.

[Pale_Ale]

Yeah, PASTEURISE!!! Wasn't thinking. Louis must be homogenising in his grave!

And yeah, you should put in a pot for ~20-30min with water between 70-75*C. This way, you get the maximum heat in, and no pectin out.

LOL

I put this down today, have set to 18C and with an ambient temp of 37.7C in the room it's in, it is struggling to cool the wort down!

When I add fruit next week I will pasteurise. I will also mash it up a bit beforehand so it can penetrate the fruit.

Ended up going with 5g Saaz for 10 and 10g Saaz 2 minutes.

[Chris]

Yeah. Sounds like a good hop-balance for this one.

[Pale_Ale]

I think it's going to work out pretty well.

I'll put the fruit in this weekend. After pastuerising of course.

The damn fermenter isn't bubbling; I've got a leake damnit and I can't get it to seal off. Oh well, it's fermenting.

[Pale_Ale]

Fruit went in today. Once I took out all the pips, 2.045Kg of overripe apricots. Hopefully the yeast will be able to chomp it's way through.

[Pale_Ale]

Wow. I have an apricot volcano on my hands. It is spewing out the airlock at a frightening rate. It's making a proper mess in my fridge.

[KEG]

Hopefully the yeast will be able to chomp it's way through.

seems like that's not an issue

[Pale_Ale]

Yes, assuming it's not some extremely tough wild yeast that made it through a 30 minute soaking in hot water.

[steve_n]

pale_ale, are there any apricot wheat beers on the market? i'm intrigued as to the final flavour of the brew!

[Pale_Ale]

Steve, don't think there are any real comercials in Australia but some microbreweries do them. Wheat beer with fruit is a natrual pairing IMO.

So far the brew smells like a good combination of saaz and apricot. Apricot is the dominating aroma. Hopefully as it ferments it will retain it's apricot aroma and flavour.

While I cannot hope to measure the alcohol percentage I am guessing this will be well over 6% and somewhere between 6-8%.

[steve_n]

sounds alright, pale_ale. can you post tasting notes once you get to enjoy it?