Blackberry Peach Lager

Classification: fruit beer, blackberry lager, peach lager, extract

Source: faye@plainfield.bypass.com, HBD Issue #1803, 8/9/95

I've received several requests for this recipe via private e, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it to the list for all you extract brewers (both in and out of closet). Papazian fans may recognize the skeleton of Rocky Racoon's Honey Lager. I have tried to be pretty detailed, for the benefit of those who have never brewed w/ fruit. As always, questions and/or suggestions for future attempts are welcome.

The biggest flaw of this brew is the lack of clarity -- I suspect this is due partly to the pectin of the fruit being "set" by the heat of the wort, and of course to the high percetnage of gross floating things that made it thru my racking tubing. If you're attached to crystal-clear beer, I guess you could try additives like Irish moss or PVP -- I don't know too much about their use, however. The best thing is the taste (clean, tart-sweet fruitiness offset nicely by the Cascade aroma, and v. refreshing on a hot summer's day), followed closely by the glorious peachy-purple color. Decent head, too (something I generally seem to have a problem getting). Enjoy!

Ingredients:

4 lbs. Laaglander extra light dried malt extract
2.5 lbs. clover honey
1.5 oz. Cascade hops (boiling)
.75 oz. Cascade hops (finishing -- final 4 minutes)
2 lbs. frozen blackberries (in retrospect, I would probably go w/ 2.5 - 3 lbs.)
3 lbs. fresh peaches (peeled, pitted & lightly mashed)
1 pkg. Yeast Lab European Lager yeast

Procedure:

Extracts, honey, and boiling hops to 1.5 gal boiling water; 1 hour boil. TURN OFF HEAT, allow wort to cool for a minutes (ideally to temps between 160 &180F), and add fruit, juice and all. Allow to steep. covered, for about 15 minutes; add finishing hops for final few minutes. Pour, unsparged, into 3 gal. cold water in primary fermenter. Pitch yeast when cool; O.G. 1.052 After 3-6 days fermentaion, rack beer into secondary fermenter. (I had big problems w/ this step due to chunks of fruit clogging up my siphon, and ended up losing like 1/2 a gallon of beer. Renee suggested this solution: a nylon stocking as a filter -- leave it to a gal, huh?) Then ya bottle the stuff. F.G. 1.018 . Pretty good after 12 days, better after 3 weeks, delicious after a month.

Specifics:

OG: 1.052
FG: 1.018