Saison question

[fulkrum78]

Hello!

I'm playing with a watermelon saison recipe and just about have it where I want it. Planning to go with wyeast 3711 for it, which should help the beer come out drier to balance the fruit a bit. My question is, how much fruit to add (puree) and when? And anything I should take into account to offset the sugars the fruit will bring to the mix?

[spiderwrangler]

It is actually probably going to dilute your beer, rather than add more sugars, since you would be adding a substantial amount of water as well. As far as preserving fruit aromatics, you would likely be best to add it during the tail end of fermentation.

[fulkrum78]

It is actually probably going to dilute your beer, rather than add more sugars, since you would be adding a substantial amount of water as well. As far as preserving fruit aromatics, you would likely be best to add it during the tail end of fermentation.

Good point. Think puree or just dropping in chunks or a combination thereof is a better option?

[spiderwrangler]

Not sure if you are going to gain anything from the pulp being in there, I'd probably puree it and strain it so that I could take a gravity reading on the juice to get an idea what it is going to do to the gravity of the finished beer.

[fulkrum78]

That part I had planned on. Thinking I will brew 11 gallons (accounting for loss and whatnot), ferment, then add puree via fine sieve. Then let it go for a bit. Just wondering how much watermelon it might take to be noticeable flavor wise.

Any "leftover" saison without the watermelon (10gl or so) will just get consumed without

[anday6]

If all the watermelon flavor ferments out (it might), there might be an extract out there to give some Jolly rancher-type watermelon flavor.

[brewinhard]

As Spider said, the watermelon is most likely going to dilute your beer more than anything, really. WY 3711 can really dry out a beer, almost too much IMO. I feel like even when using a high mash temp with no additional simple sugars, 3711 will still attenuate down to low single digits. This low FG combined with a "watery" fruit might leave your beer tasting pretty thin. I understand saisons should be dry, but you might be better off using a less attenuative saison strain (ie 3724).

As for adding the fruit, I think your best bet would be to add it to the secondary and let it sit for at least 3 weeks before having a taste and or packaging. Good luck, as this sounds like it could be a fantastic summer beer!

[koalasprint]

Slight hijack - sorry.

I have a different beer I am wanting to add watermelon 'juice' (strained, blended pulp) to.

It has an SG of 1.027.

How would I take this into account when adding it to a beer late in fermentation?

Cheers

Kev