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Yes, figs. Already turned 3kg into jam, my Mum did the same, my partners Mum did the same. So i figured i would dry some, eat some, figure out a few recipes to use them in and whack a bucketload into a simple ale. I reckon i could pick several bucketloads of the tree and you wouldnt notice. Bloody tree is bigger than the house!

Recipe i am thinking about is this

3.50 kg Pale Malt, Ale (Barrett Burston) (5.9 EBC) Grain 73.68 %
1.00 kg Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 21.05 %
0.25 kg Caramalt (Joe White) (49.3 EBC) Grain 5.26 %
15.00 gm Newport [11.00 %] (60 min) Hops 20.0 IBU
0.50 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
3.00 kg Fig (Secondary 7.0 days) Misc
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

21L, OG 1.050, 20 IBUs

Planning on putting figs into a food processor then warming to ca. 70C and holding it there for 10-15 mins then allow to cool and freeze it. Thaw it out till it approx the same temp as the beer and add it to secondary for 7 days.

Will be bottling this beast. Anyone used figs in brewing? I wonder if it would work in a dark ale? Figs go really well with blue cheese, they cut thru the richness so i wonder how they would go in a beer with choc/carafa? Hmmmmmm.

Comments please gents.
DrSmurto

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Doc, you've really sparked my imagination. I'm a big fan of figs - jam or raw, skin and all, 'whites' or 'blacks' as they're referred to in dad's old country. Brings back childhood memories of my all-time favourite jam - fig with walnuts.

My instinct would have been to go with an ale on the dark side, but I'd love to hear how a pale version turns out. Perhaps a pale will allow the figs to stand out more. In the meantime, I better secure a batch from the FIL and freeze for later! Are you planning to skin the figs or go hollus bollus?

Good stuff.

Was planning on throwing them into the blender whole.

Had hoped for more responses from those who have made fruit beers as to the treatment of the fruit prior to dumping into secondary. Could i add some to the boil as well or is that just silly?

Ok... well the idea is that you don't boil because you'll release pectin which will make your beer cloudy. But you could boil and add pectinase if you want. I think you haven't gotten many responses because your technique is sound.

Dr, I'd be careful about blending the figs. If you add pulp to the fermenter, it just doesn't separate from the beer for months and even then it never settles out completely. I know nothing at all about figs, but is there some way you can get the fruit to split and add them like that? With things like cherries and raspberries you can freeze and then add them to near boiling water in a zip-lock bag which splits the outer skin open. On occasion, I've had to carefully split cherries with a masher.

Cheers, Ed

Figs tend to hold their shape pretty well Ed so you may be on to something. I followed a recipe for my fig jam which said to only quarter the figs. Massive chunks of figs in the jam now!Maybe if i do the same?

Freeze then thaw with boiling water? Instead of heating them prior to freezing?

everything that ive read about adding fruit to beer is as follows:

- freeze the fruit, this ruptures the cell membranes releasing all the goodies
- only add it to the secondary because primary fermentation tends to carry off the flavours with the CO2.

but you've mentioned that you going to do both of those things so sounds like you already know these things.

I would also recommend blending. i've done a cherry stout where i didnt blend the cherrys and after a week in the secondary they were still floating around in the brew and it was a bitch to rack into my bottling vessel because the cherrys kept clogging the tap. The result was next to no cherry flavour coming thru, mind you it was a pretty hefty stout and there were alot of other intense flavours going on.

I've also done an black berry amarillo ale where i blended about 600gms of black berries and put them in the secondary. The brew turned bright red but after a week the colour settled down alot and after a couple of weeks in the bottle it was a golden strawberry colour and settled out completely clear, unlike what Ed has previously suggested.

Yeah rupturing is fine, but blending leads to problems unless you can filter it all out after. Have a look at the kg's of figs there, it's a whole lot different to 600g. Check out a pure orange juice. You needs loads of cherries to notice cherry flavour, at least 2kg's worth in around 20 litres. With raspberries you can get away with around a kilo. I have added fruit to both primary and secondary and can't say I notice much difference between the 2 methods except that there's a frightening krausen if added to the the primary which usually threatens to, or blows out of the breather . Dogger is probably the one who makes the most fruit beers out of anyone I know and he always adds to primary.

Not knowing about figs though, buggered if I know what I'd do and maybe blending would work with them? But I did once do a fruit beer where I blended the fruit (around 3 kilos worth) and it ended up looking like natural OJ Chucked it in the end after persevering for a while.

Let us know what you end up doing how it goes please Dr.

Cheers, Ed