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Dried Fruit Weizen
The lovely lady REALLY liked the Pyramid Apricot Weizen at some friends place the other night, and I have been encouraged to clone same said concoction.
So I'm wondering about using dried apricots. Lots of concentrated flavor. I'm concerned about wild yeasts & other such nasty bits. I was thinking about rehydrating by boiling or should I soak & put in some camden tablets.
Actually, I think I'll split the a base honey/weizen into an apricot & a raspberry in the secondaries.
Any experience or advice in brewing with dried fruit?
I always shyed away from dried fruit for the reason you stated. I have used liquid fruit extracts and they worked fine for me. Seems that would work well for you if you added it late in teh secondary especially with a flavor as pungent as apricot.
Some dried fruits have sulphites and the like to preserve color when dried.
These things may result in weird unpredicted flavors when used in beer.
But a 2 gallon test batch may be a good way to test that out.
Ok, another off the wall idea. 
I read the ingredients on a jar of "No Preservatives Added" Apricot preserves.
Apricots,Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup,Apricot Puree Concentrate, Sugar, Pectin, Citric Acid.
What about brewing a modest ABV weizen, then warm up 3 or 4 pounds of this stuff in enough water to get it liquid, and into the secondary?
There is an apricot extract out there to be had. If you want to use "fresh" fruit then use over ripe apricots.
Brewski wrote:
Ok, another off the wall idea.
I read the ingredients on a jar of "No Preservatives Added" Apricot preserves.
Apricots,Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup,Apricot Puree Concentrate, Sugar, Pectin, Citric Acid.
What about brewing a modest ABV weizen, then warm up 3 or 4 pounds of this stuff in enough water to get it liquid, and into the secondary?
Try it!
brewskinewbski wrote:
There is an apricot extract out there to be had. If you want to use "fresh" fruit then use over ripe apricots.
That's what I would do. I think ultimately extract lend more control and consistancy batch to batch. Some extract of some fruits can have bed flavors. If that's the case then just find a different brand for that type of fruit.
I like the extract into the secondary idea. A summer or 2 ago I experimented with a nectarine pilsner that ended up ok BUT : The problem was in the primary.....Like a dope I had no scale as the quantity of fresh fruit to batch. So, I took a whole big handful of local nectarines and put them into a juicer and then boiled at a lower heat with some water added to sterilize. What a foaming mess out the airlock !!!!
From the experience gained on this site I now know to rack over the fruit into my secondary.
From what I'm seeing lately ,I think just for ease and cleanliness, I'm going to go the extract route.
Another thing to consider is using frozen juice concentrate. As long as there aren't preservatives in it it should work fine and you can get it at any store and not have to travel to LHBS or order online and wait. I've used frozen apple juice to make apple wine and it was fantastic. And since they're frozen they've probably been pasturized so no need to worry about contamination.
DC
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