Preservatives???
 

I could really use some help with an article printed in BYO magazine. I am strictly an extract brewer, however, my wife is pushing me to try wine or fruit beverages. I have had failed attempts at replicating hard lemon & hard lime brews. The article in BYO magazine was about apple cider. I am having a very difficult time finding apple cider that does not contain preservatives. Is there a way to overcome the preservatives so that they do not affect the champagne yeast? Also, does anybody have a good working clone recipe for a Mike's Hard Lime / Lemon? Your help would be much appreciated.

Hard Lemonaid (5 gallons)

1 lb Corn Sugar
3 lbs. extra light Dry Malt Extract
6 Cans Lemonade frozen concentrate
Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast
Boil the sugar and malt in 2-1/2 gallons of water for 15 minutes. Cool and add the frozen concentrate and 3 gallons of water(OG:1.046) Pitch yeast.

Hard Lemonaid II (3 Gallons)

This was for a 3 gallon recipe. I had the ingredients and I had just started a cider. I used the cider yeast from the primary fermenter after I transfered the cider to the secondary.

2 lbs. extra light Dry Malt Extract
5 Cans Lemonade frozen concentrate
White Labs British Cider Yeast (trub from primary)
Boil the malt in 1 gallon of water for 15 minutes. Cool and add the frozen concentrate and 2-1/2 gallons of water. Add to primary fermenter on top of the trub left from the cider. Transfered to secondary after active fermentation. Left one week and placed in a refrigerator for cold conditioning.

This yeast tended to leave more sweetness to the lemonade, and a more interesting character. The cider yeast smells more during fermentation but it goes away if you age it in the secondary.


These are some unusual porters and I thougt I should make mention of these.
Actually these are some simple recipes since they are based with extract.


Porters:
Autumn Candy Apple Porter
This is a good porter.

3.3 lbs. John Bull Dark Hopped Malt Extract
2.2 lb can Morgans Caramalt.
2-1/2 lbs. dried Dark Malt Extract
1 lb Crystal Malt
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 dozen apples
1 oz Willamette 60 mins
1 oz Cascades finishing
Ale Yeast

Add all malts, cinnamon, and water and bring to boil. Add boiling hops. At 60 minutes, reduce heat to low. Add peeled apples and finishing hops. Steep 30 minutes. Cool and transfer to primary bucket. Pitch yeast and transfer to secondary in about a week.

Candy Apple Porter II
This is a good porter.

3.3 lbs. John Bull Dark Malt Extract
2 lb Sunflower Honey
3 lbs. dried Dark Malt Extract
1 lb. dried Amber Malt Extract
1 lb Crystal Malt
1 lb Black Patent Malt
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 dozen apples
1 oz Willamette 60 mins
1/2 oz Cascades 60 mins
1/2 oz Cascades 5 mins
Ale Yeast
Similar to above recipe, only steep (not boil) the apples seperately in a large saucepan with enough water to cover apples. Mash when soft and strain into primary fermenter.
I never really thought the apple essence came through strong enough in either recipe. But they do make a good porter. Maybe adding cider to the recipe would be a good idea.

Washington Apple Ale

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Classification: fruit beer
This beer has a medium body with a hint of apple flavor. It is very smooth with little or no bitterness, but that can be changed by adding finishing hops.
Ingredients:
4 pounds, Telford's Yorkshire nut brown ale hopped malt
1 pound, honey
1/2 pound, corn sugar
1/2 pound, dark crystal malt
4 pounds, red apples
2 teaspoons, cinnamon
ale yeast
Procedure:
In cold water, place crushed dark crystal malt in a cheesecloth. Bring water to boil. When boiling commences, remove grain and add Telford's. Boil 15-20 minutes. Add sugar and honey and boil another 10 minutes. Reduce heat so that boiling stops. Add cinnamon and sliced apples and steep 15 minutes. Remove apples with strainer and transfer wort to primary.


Strawberry Beer

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Classification: fruit beer
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I just finished a strawberry beer that I love.
When I bottled it it tasted tart as hell -- but a week later I started drinking it and it was great! It's a bit bitter, but the strawberry is very noticeable and everyone seems to enjoy it (especially me!).

Ingredients:
6 lb. pale male extract
1 lb. amber malt extract
1 lb. light crystal malt
2 oz. hops (can't remember what kind I used, but 1 oz. was for 60 min. boiling and 1 oz for 15 min.)
9 pints fresh strawberries
1 pkg. WYEAST Belgian Ale
a little irish moss
about 3 tsp. pectin enzyme
Procedure:
I cleaned and pureed all the strawberries in a blender, added about half a gallon of water to them, and boiled them seperately from my wort for about 15 mins. (my pot wasn't big enough to fit 'em). Cooled them and my wort and added the rest of the water. Pithced the yeast. The blowoff was amazing! (I probably lost about 1 1/2 gallons of beer). Tons of it. I heated the pectin enzyme in a little water and added it to the secondary (to eliminate pectin haze). Let it sit in a secondary for three weeks. When I bottled it it tasted tart as hell -- but a week later I started drinking it and it was great! It's a bit bitter, but the strawberry is very noticeable and everyone seems to enjoy it (especially me!).


Ruby Tuesday

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Classification: fruit beer
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Color was absolutely phenomenal!! Ruby red and crystal clear. Not even chill haze. I was amazed at the clarity. Excellent raspberry nose and flavor, sort of like a raspberry wine. As the beer would sit in your glass, the raspberry aromatics would get stronger. Not sweet, kind of tart. Nice. On the down side, it was a little too raspberry for some, not enough beer character. Next time I will go for 9-10 pounds of extract.
I have a peach beer in the bottle a week now, based on the same recipe except using 12 pounds of peaches and pale malt instead of crystal. Excellent summertime beverages, the women (and I) love it.

Ingredients:
7 pounds, light malt extract syrup
7 pounds, fresh wild raspberries
1 pound, english crystal malt (had no lovibond rating on pkg, I'd guess ~40)
2/3 ounce, cascades whole hops (~3.5% alpha)
1 campden tablet
1 pack, Edme ale yeast (11.5g)
1/2 cup, corn sugar to prime
Procedure:
Brought 2--1/2 gallons water to boil with crystal malt in grain bag (removed grain bag when water was at 170 F). Added extract and brought to boil, boiled for 60 minutes. All of hops for 45 minutes.
Chilled wort to ~100 F and strained into carboy (prefilled with 2--1/2 gallons cold water). Rehydrated yeast in 90 F water for 15 minutes and pitched, topped off carboy with water, and mounted blowoff tube.

After two days of healthy ferment (~75 F) added fruit. Pureed raspber- ries with campden tablet, added to fresh carboy (better use a 6 or 7 gallon carboy if you got it, the fruit takes up space!), purged carboy with CO2, and racked beer into it. Swirled it around a little to mix it up (don't shake it up) and put blowoff tube back on. Let sit another week and bottle. I only used 1/2 cup corn sugar to prime, and it was plenty. Didn't take a final gravity.


Cranberry Beer

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Classification: fruit beer
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I am finding it very tasty. After a month it is somewhat sweet with a distince fruit flavor. I'm not sure that you can identify the flavor as cranberries without knowing which fruit it is.. It turned out somewhat cloudy but the color is a pretty rose.
Ingredients:
6 pounds, extra light dry malt extract
1 pound, Munich malt
1 ounce, Fuggles boiling
3 bags frozen cranberries
1 ounce, Fuggles as finishing hops
yeast
Procedure:
I thawed the berries and blended with enough water to make a little over 2 quarts of slush. Meanwhile I did a normal extract brew using the Munich malt as a specialty grain (i.e., put in a double layered pair of clean panty hose and stuck in the pot while I bring the cold water to a boil). At the end of the hour of boiling I put in the finishing hops and poured in the cranberry liquid for the final minute or two as I turned off the heat. I bottled after a week.

Cat's Claw Blackberry Ale

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Classification: fruit beer

This brew turned out quite well too with a nice blackberry nose complimented by a floral note from the Cascade hop tea added at bottling. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
6 pounds Alexander's Pale extract syrup
1 pound Orange Blossom Honey
1 pound ( 4 cups )Crystal Malt, 10L
1/4 pound ( 1 cup ) Victory Malt
1 ounce Cascade Pellets ( bittering - 60 mins )
1/2 ounce Cascade Pellets ( finishing )
1 pint WYeast #1084 Irish Ale Yeast ( recultured )
8 pounds Blackberries
2/3 cup Orange Blossom Honey ( for priming )
Procedure:
Place crushed grain in cold water and steep for 45 minutes at 155 degrees. Sparge into brewpot and bring to a boil. Add extract and bittering hops and boil for 50 minutes. During the boil, mash berries through a strainer to extract the juice. Add honey and boil for 10 more minutes, skimming off any scum that forms. Remove from heat and pour blackberry juice into the hot wort. Stir well and allow to steep for 15 minutes. Cool and pour into primary containing 3 gallons cold (previously boiled) water. Pitch yeast and aerate well. Rack to secondary when vigorous fermentation subsides. When fermentation completes, make a "hop tea" with the finishing hops. Cool, add to bottling bucket along with honey priming solution, and bottle.

Blackberry Stout

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Classification: stout, fruit beer
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This stuff is very tasty.
Ingredients:
6 pounds, dark DME
6-8 cups altogether, roasted barley, chocolate malt, black patent,crystal
1 ounce, Kent Goldings 60 minute boil
1/2 ounce, Fuggles 30 minute boil
1/2 ounce, Fuggles, dry hop
3 pounds, blackberries
Wyeast Irish Ale
Procedure:
I used frozen blackberries and put them in the bottom of a plastic primary, and poured the hot wort onto them to partially sterilize. No need to crush them up or anything; they were a faint pink by the time I racked to the secondary 5 days later. Leave in secondary fermentation for 2 weeks, bottle with 3/4 cup of corn sugar.


Blackberry Peach Lager

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Classification: fruit beer
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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. 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)
1/2 teaspoon, Irish Moss (15 min.)
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


Cherry Wheat

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Classification: cherry wheat beer
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Ingredients:
6.6 pounds wheat extract syrup
3 ounces Halletau hop pellets
2 teaspoons Irish Moss
4 ounces Carlson cherry extract
Wyeast American Ale yeast #1056
Procedure:
Add the extract and 2 ounces of Hallertau (for bittering) to 1.5 to 2 gallons of water. Boil for 45 minutes. Add the Irish Moss (to aid in clearing) and 1/2 ounce Hallertau (for flavor) and boil 15 minutes more. Sparge into your primary and add the yeast when under 80 degrees. I would make a yeast starter to increase your pitching rate. It's not neseccary but definetly recommended. Let ferment in primary for 7 days. Rack to secondary and let sit for 3 days. Add the remaining 1/2 ounce Hallertau pellets right into your secondary. (dry hopping). Let sit in the secondary for 7 more days. Add your cherry extract to your bottling bucket along with your normal 3/4 cup of prime sugar. Age at room temperature for 3 weeks. It will taste great after 4 or 5 weeks. One note, I used Carlson's cherry extract for the cherry flavor and aroma. I felt that 4 ounces was not enough. This stuff is so damn expensive. I would suggest using 8 ounces. I heard Hoptech makes a better concentrated cherry syrup. I also heard that you can also use 8-10 pounds of real cherries. Your supposed to freeze them until your ready to use them. Then put them in some water and heat them to 170 degrees. DON'T BOIL THEM unless you want cloudy beer. You add the cherries to your secondary 7 days before bottling.

sorry I got carried away..... You mentioned fruit beers as well as hard lemonaids

Thanks Otis. I am printing them off. I am sure my wife will be pleased with her choices.

thanks for the list otis! Fruit beers are notoriously hard to "nail down" so it's always good to see some tried and true recipies for them.

Yeah, thanks, Otis!

:D
Toney.

Fruit Beer
 

Thanks Otis!! I live in a area that grows cranberries, so I'll have to try that one. I can get fresh cran's for around 2 bits a pound. Or I can swap a few homebrews for a 5 gal bucket, brew a beer and still make cranberry sauce for thanksgiving.:D