American Wheat Question...

[NHbeerscene]

So I am re-brewing Jami's american wheat. I was thinking of splitting the batch and adding dried apples that I dehydrated last fall to one half. Has anyone worked with dried apples before, I am wondering about the flavor contribution and how dried fruit reacts in beer.

My thoughts so far:
1. Up the IBU's a bit to balance the sweetness from the apples
2. Dry appling for a week or so to allow for re-fermentation.

Can you think of anything else I might be missing.

[spiderwrangler]

1. The sugars from your apples should be highly fermentable, so I don't think that you will get much residual sweetness you need to account for.

2. I'd base it off when fermenation is finished rather than any time scale.

3. How did you dry your apples? Depending, you may have apple slices that are covered with a nice layer of wild yeast and bacteria that could end up creating a funk in your beer.

[NHbeerscene]

I didn't think about the yeasties and beasties, the apples were dried on a dehydrator and then stored in airtight jars in our basement. Thanks spider, something to think about.

[spiderwrangler]

Star san should take care of the surface critters, and not affect the beer. Or you could boil, which would set the pectins in the apples, but not sure how much would leave the apple slice itself. Could boil, cover and allow to cool, add some pectic enzyme, then pitch water and all into the beer...

[NHbeerscene]

I will have to see what I have for apples, I think I have 2 qts at least.