Beer Style: Fruit Beer
Brewing Fruited Beers
There are many approaches to adding fruit flavors to beer. Depending on the form — fresh, frozen, juice, puree, dried, concentrate, or extract — and the point at which it’s added during the brewing process, the impact can range from being the star of the show to playing a fine supporting role.
Dole Whip Tripel
Dole Whip Tripel (5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)OG = 1.082 FG = 1.013 IBU = 27 SRM = 4 ABV = 9.1% Ingredients13 lbs. (5.9 kg) Weyermann Pilsner malt2 lbs. (0.9 kg) fonio
Fontana Farms’ Orange Mountain Pale Ale clone
Here’s the clone recipe from a farm brewery in Indiana for their blood orange pale ale that packs a citrusy punch
Catharina Sour
Catharina sour — the fruited sour beer style that originated in Brazil — has continued to evolve and catch the attention of brewers across the world since hitting the international national stage just a few years ago. Learn to brew your own Catharina sour in time for summer with standard kettle-souring techniques and a whole lot of fresh fruit.
Prairie Artisan Ales’ Slush clone
A bright red, kettle-soured ale made with strawberry and raspberry fruit puree complemented with dried sweet orange peel and dried lemon peel.
Gordon Strong’s Grape Ale
This grape ale example is based on the version I made with Cervejaria 4 Árvores in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2018.
Grape Ale: Pyment’s beery cousin
While the combination of wine grapes and beer dates back millennia, up until the last decade or so the modern craft beer movement has largely overlooked it. Get the scoop on grape ales and how Italian brewers helped pioneer the style.
Fruited Beer
Spring is the time to start planning your beers for summer and nothing says summer like a fruited beer. Get some pointers on brewing one.
Smoothie Sours
Like a fruited Berliner weisse on steroids, smoothie sours are loaded with fruits, adjuncts, and over-the-top flavor. They have become some of the most sought-after beers being produced today, and are among the most fun beer styles to brew. With ingredients such as soft-serve ice cream mix, marshmallows, graham crackers, and cheesecake mix paired with your favorite fruits and Lactobacillus to provide a balancing sourness, get ready for the new dessert in a glass.
One Drop Brewing Co’s Double Mango Passionfruit Sorbet
One Drop Brewing Co’s Double Mango Passionfruit Sorbet (7 gallons/26.5 L, all-grain)OG = 1.074 (pre-souring) FG = 1.025IBU = 5 ABV = 7% A full-bodied and thick imperial smoothie style sour showcasing
Ciphering Fruit Beers
Calculating the impact a fruit addition will have on a beer’s ABV is tricky — so much so that even commercial brewers have gotten in trouble for miscalculating their influence on gravity. We take a closer look at the math required to get it right.
Boysenberry Crème Blonde Ale
Boysenberry Crème Blonde Ale (5 gallons/19 L, all-grain) OG = 1.065 FG = 1.024IBU = 15 SRM = 5 ABV = 5% This fruit beer straddles the line between decadent and quaffable.
