Tropical Punch Red Ale

5 gallons, partial mash with fruit

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. toasted two-row pale malt
• 1 lb. crystal malt, 50° to 60° Lovibond
• 1 oz. roasted barley
• 1 lb. Munich malt
• 4 lbs. unhopped light dry malt
• 1 oz. Hallertauer Hersbrucker hop pellets (4% alpha acid), for 45 min.
• 1 oz. Tettnanger hop pellets (4% alpha acid), for 15 min.
• 10 to 14 g. Edme dry ale yeast
• 5 lbs. of tropical fruit
• 7/8 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Heat 1.5 gals. of water to 163° F. Mix in pale, crystal, and Munich malt and roasted barley (all crushed). The mash should settle at 150° to 152° F. Hold 90 minutes, run off, and sparge with 1.5 gals. of water at 168° F. To the kettle add enough water to make 3 gals. and bring the wort to a simmer. Simmer for 60 minutes, then bring to a boil and add dry malt and Hallertauer pellets. Boil 30 minutes. Add Tettnanger pellets. Boil 15 more minutes. Remove from heat and top off with chilled, pre-boiled water to make 5.25 gals. in primary fermenter.

At 68° F pitch a fruity, dry ale yeast. I use Edme's. Ferment at 68° F until initial fermentation cycle is complete. Rack to a secondary fermenter onto 5 lbs. of (your choice -- any combination is cool!) pineapple, mango, banana, guava, papaya, passionfruit, starfruit, kiwi, or orange. Secondary fermentation should last eight to 10 days, then re-rack to a third vessel to allow for clearing (a week or so should do it). Prime with corn sugar (add 1 or 2 oz. lactose if the beer seems too dry at this point). Bottle and age three to four weeks.

Alternatives and Options:

Obviously, the vast majority of alternatives in this recipe depend on your preferences for fruit. If it's fruit, you can use it. Just remember that the fruit will give a different element depending on how you use it. Fruit in the boil will give flavor but not much aroma. Fruit steeped in the cooling wort will contribute a little aroma but may or may not get adequately pasteurized. Fruit added to the primary will give good, fresh flavor (and will contribute fermentables, raising alcohol content slightly), but most of the aroma will bubble out with the CO2.

My favorite technique, mentioned above, is to pasteurize the fruit (I freeze it for several weeks and then microwave it to thaw it, which also kills a lot of bacteria), then put it into the bottom of my secondary. A 6-gal. carboy for a 5-gal. batch allows room for the fruit and renewed fermentation activity -- occasionally I even have to install a blowoff tube on the secondary if I'm using a lot of fruit.

I then rack the more or less finished beer onto the fruit after initial fermentation subsides. I almost always then rack it again to get the beer off the fruit and allow it to clear. You can enhance or add to fruit flavors by adding fruit essences, extracts, or liqueurs with your priming sugar.

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