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Cranberry Honey Brown Ale
My wife requested that I make a cranberry beer. Well, I really didn't want to make something that was just another ____(name your fruit)____ wheat beer, so I was toying with the idea of doing a cranberry honey brown ale.
Rather than try to concoct a recipe on my own, I bought a kit from Northern Brewer. Here is the recipe:
Specialty Grains
.25 lbs Simpons Chocolate Malt
.25 lbs Dingemans Special B
.25 lbs Dingemans Biscuit
.25 lbs Briess Special Roast
Fermentables
6 lbs Gold Malt Syrup
Hops
1 oz Challenger (60 min)
1oz Kent Goldings (15 min)
Additional Boil Additions
1lb Honey (0min)
Wyeast 1056 (American)
What I am thinking of doing is making this beer as is and when I transfer it to the secondary racking it onto 4 lbs of bruised cranberries. Any reason to think I am being crazy?
I made a cranberry infused wheat a few years ago and liked it, I should dig that out and brew it again....
Anyhow
I think your base recipe looks good.
I think 4 pounds of cranberries is a bit much. Try 2 instead. And rather than bruise them, go ahead and pulse them in the food processor a couple times to actually cut them up.
When I made mine the beer sat on a crude relish of cranberries.
2lbs berries, 1 green apple, 2 small oranges. I put the whole lot (stems, peels, rinds and all) in the food processor until I had a rough relish like consistancy. It was a great blend. the taste was all cranberry but the apple and orange help to take some of that super sharp tartness off the berries.
The good thing about cranberries is that they are so acidic, there is no need to pasturize or worry about wild yeasties. Once you crush them up good you are all set to go right to the beer with it in secondary.
FWIW, I think I used a little pectic enzyme to cut any potential pectic haze too.
I've also been thinking of making a cranberry beer to serve with Thanksgiving dinner. I also didn't want to make a wheat fruit beer with no malt bill. I was thinking of an amber ale, but I think the honey brown is a solid idea. The sweetness will balance out the tartness of the cranberriess well. I'm with brewchez here; toss the cranberries in a blender, a puree or relish always gets the best results (though it's a little messy sometimes).
Brewchez- Is there virtually no threat of contamination with all acidic fuits and berries? I've always either made a puree then heated it or diced fruit, boiled it and then pureed it. It's nice to know that I can skip the boiling.
My understanding is that cranberries are incredibly acidic.
Now I haven't experimented with other berries, but as examples I don't think that strawberries, blueberries or black berries are acidic enough.
Really what I am talking about here is that once the cranberries are blended up and sitting in there own juices as a relish (before the beer step) that high acid creates a static environment and the wild yeasts, bacteria or mold on the berries gets stunted (maybe killed). I don't think a puree of the other berries listed would be that acidic once pureed.
Adding this fruit relish to the beer probably dilutes the acid quite a bit so the static nature of the relish is now gone, but you are putting it in a finished beer. As long as you don't try and age it for 6 months you probably wouldn't notice any contaminating issues (gushers, etc etc)
I think 1n1mg is a microbiologist, maybe he can shed some light on this. Or maybe he can say; "Brewchez, your full of it"
Freeze the cranberries first to split the cell walls. That will impart more bang for less berries. To kill of wild yeast and mold you can just nuke the bowl of berry relish for a few minutes. Won't hurt the fruite, affect the flavor or nuthin. It'll just zap the critters. I use the microwave a lot to sterilize fruits and what not for my mead. Works like a charm.
im a microbiologist too.. and to be honest.. im not sure.. but wat i do agree with is the nuking part, i usually just zap em for 30secs and no prob
So -- I've been doing some brews with wild berries. Pasteurizing them by putting in a pot w/ water bringing it up to 180F, then turning it off, add pectic enzyme, let cool, & then into the secondary.
Do I understand that I can eliminate that process & just nuke them in the microwave?
How many minutes/pound do you usually do?
Do you use the pectic enzyme?
I never really thought about the microwave as a way to kill critters in fruit but now that you have mentioned it, I can see that it would work. Wow, thanks for that great little tip, it'll save me a lot of time or effort.
I zap my fruit for 30 seconds. Stir well with a sterile spoon. Then 30 more seconds. The key is to not cook the fruit. My dad did research work for Hughes Aircraft and NASA on the effects of microwaves on cellular structure/biology. Albeit he was the designer of the microwave not the biologist. But he said in the study that single cell and simple multi cell organisms can't handle more than a few seconds of concentrated microwave bombardment. The maximum and bacteria survived in there study was 25 seconds in a device my old man swears is no stronger than our common household microwave. The 30/stir/30 is just a safe guard to ensure no little beasties were chillin at the bottom of the dish.
Webby... may I suggest 2 pounds of honey. You can never go wrong with honey.
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