Fruit Beer is a generic term which is used for flavored beer. However, some breweries actually use real veggies or fruits, while others extract processed flavor or extract in order to give the desired effect.
Fruit Beer is usually ales which are normally unbalanced and less ale character to them. Malt flavor in Fruit Beer is typically hidden with low bitterness of hops in order to allow the vegetable or fruit character to dominate.
Making of Fruit Beer
While beer itself is one of the most diverse alcoholic drinks in the world, opportunities for flavoring the beverage do not just come from yeast, malt & hops. There are plenty of other ingredients which can be added to the making of beer including items like wits, fruits & spices which go in the making of Floris Beer.
Floris Beer unlike Lambics, is brewed normally prior to being blended with fruit juices which are added along with all types of exciting flavors.
Multiple Stage Fermentation Process for Fruit Beer
All types of Lambic beers like Flemish Old Brown Beer, Belgian Amber & Belgian Golden Ale usually go through a multi-stage fermentation procedure. Sugar is typically added and the beer is re-fermented on wooden casks after first fermentation of the wort. Subsequently, fruit, fruit juice or fruit syrup is added to the first brew and re-fermented.
Beers made in this way are termed as Fruit Beers or Fruit Lambics depending upon the type of first brew. However, beers that add fruit lemonade or fruit syrup after the final stage of fermentation as flavoring are not Fruit Beers but are known as ‘Radlers’ or ‘Shandy’ in the United Kingdom.
Fruit Beer in Belgium
Beer made with added fruits as flavor or an adjunct is popularly known as Lambics in Belgium. Original Lambics Fruit Beer is produced in the valley of Zenne, which is around Brussels in Belgium, but is now also copied in many other parts of the world.
This popular beer is re-fermented with cherries in order to make Kriek or fermented with raspberries so as to make Framboise.
