So this magazine has asked me to write an article about home brewing. Basically I need to become a whiz kid and make a (preferably) shit hot fruit beer within about a month and a half.
Yesterday I set off my first practice ale just to see how the process goes and get comfortable with it. I’m using this badboy and it all seems fine, so far.
So if it tastes alright in about 2 weeks time, I’m hoping to kick off the fruit beer by following this recipe a friend came across:
Coopers Canadian Blonde (light beer)
1 kg of dextrose.
approx 250gms of loganberries/raspberies.
1 teaspoon of Cinnamon.
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and cloves.
All the measurements for the fruit and teaspoons are ridiculously small and I expect I’ll need three times as much. But my idea is to basically find a decent homebrew mix, probably the one listed above, and use it as a foundation. Then I’ll apply fruit before the 2nd fermentation, maybe using less sugar in the mix to offset any in the fruit, and add some stuff (Pectin, I think?) to reduce cloudiness, and… hopefully… hey presto.
So, battle hardened homebrew warriors, on this current path am I going to have to write an article about how I failed miserably, or am I golden?
That homebrew kit looks pretty basic, but enough to get started on your homebrewing adventures. I would skip the kit-and-kilo kits, personally. I’ve heard from people that tried them the excess sugar just makes the end product thin and watery tasting. At the very least use two of the Coopers Canadian Blonde kits and skip the sugar, leave everything else the same. You will get a better end product. Do NOT use more than the recommended amount of spices!!! I’ll say it again DO NOT USE MORE THAN THE RECOMMENDED AMOUNT OF SPICES. Those numbers are small for a reason. A little goes a long, LONG way in beer. It’s better to have it be too weak than too strong. The spice will taste even stronger the longer the beer ages. With fruit you can add a lot more though.
If you want a really simple recipe, here’s my recipe for McMenamin’s Ruby beer. McMenamin’s is a chain of brewpubs in the Portland area.
Boil the LME and hops for one hour, and with 5 minutes left in the boil add the raspberries. Strain out the hops and fruit, cool and rack into the fermenter and add your yeast.