Soured Fruit Beer

The acidity and fruity characteristics in many mixed-fermentation beers make them good candidates for fruit additions. It is not recommended to put fruit into a beer to cover up some major flaw or off character. Fruit can complement a good beer but it will likely not fix problems. Quality fruit is expensive and you'll want to start from a good base if you are going to invest the time and money in good fruit for a beer.

2nd steepings - ref Jester King, Upright, Rare Barrel...

Fruit Varieties

• Cherries
• Raspberries
• Plums - Tilquin keeps ages lambic on plums for 4 months for their Quetsche Tilquin Facebook Post 22-Sept-15
• Apricots
• Peaches
• Grapes -
• Rhubarb - I know, it's not a fruit. Too bad. We're going to give you some suggestions here anyway.

Aging Vessels

In wood or steel (or glass or plastic)?

Forms of Fruit

(in progress)

Fruit is available to the brewer in multiple different forms.

• Whole or sliced fresh -
• Whole or sliced frozen - Freezing fruit has a few main potential benefits. First, freezing fruit helps to break down cell walls, which may make the fruit easier to access for yeast and bacteria in the beer. Freezing fruit can also knock back the microbes present on the fruit. Note however that freezing does not kill all the microbes on the fruit. Finally, freezing fruit allows the brewer (especially the homebrewer) to take advantage of local and seasonal fruits when they may not have a use ready for those fruits in season. IQF - Individually quick frozen ref Jester King
• Pureed fresh
• Aseptic puree
• Concentrates and extracts

Methods of Adding

(in progress)

Amount Suggestions

• Click here and comment on the MTF thread to add your recommendations to this wiki!
• Click here to convert pounds per gallon to grams per liter.

Fruit	Juice	Concentrate	Purée	Dried	Whole	Contact Time*	Notes
Tart Cherry			0.5 lb/gal		1-2 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks	Optional: leave pits in for some or all fruit.
Raspberry					1-2 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks
Apricot					1-2 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks
Nectarine					1-2 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks
Strawberry			0.5-1 lbs/gal		2-3 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks
Blueberry					2-3 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks
Blackberry					2-3 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks	Adds citric acidity; milder flavor compared to raspberries. Works well mixed with cherries.
Elderberry			0.5 lbs/gal			6-8 weeks
Plum					2-3 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks
Peach			0.5-2 lb/gal		1-2 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks
Rhubarb			0.5 lb/gal			6-8 weeks
Pear						6-8 weeks
Guava			1-2 lbs/gal			6-8 weeks
Grape (Table)
Grape (Wine)
Zante Currant				0.2-0.4 lbs/gal		4-8 months
Passion Fruit					1-1.5 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks	When using whole fruit, use pulp only.
Autumn Olive (Autumn Fruit)			1-1.5 lbs/gal		2 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks	found in eastern US
Pomegranate	8 fl oz/gal					6-8 weeks
Pineapple					1 pineapple/gal	6-8 weeks	Chopped; leave skin out
Cantaloupe			0.5 lb/gal			6-8 weeks
Prickly Pear			0.5 lb/gal			6-8 weeks
Apple			0.5 lb/gal			6-8 weeks
Watermelon	64 fl oz/gal					6-8 weeks
Loquat					2 lbs/gal	6-8 weeks	Leave out pits.
Fuyu Persimmons			2.5 lbs/gal			12 weeks	Works well with fruity Brett character.

* Contact time is for mixed fermentations with Brettanomyces. Kettle sours or beers that do not contain live Brett can have a much shorter fruit contact time (generally 1-2 weeks). All contact times are assumed to be applied in secondary, and at the end of aging. The base beer's characteristics such as abv, flavor profile, acidity levels, etc. should be taken into consideration when considering how much fruit to add.