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So I'm going to toss some cocoa and some black currants into a porter/stout I am making. Anyone have any experience on the quantity of currants to add? Should I add them thawed, or frozen? I have never done a fruit beer before and am just looking for subtle hints of currant. I was thinking 1/2# whole frozen currants, or should I blend? I am worried about shocking the yeast pitching frozen fruit into the beer.

Graham.C wrote:So I'm going to toss some cocoa and some black currants into a porter/stout I am making. Anyone have any experience on the quantity of currants to add? Should I add them thawed, or frozen? I have never done a fruit beer before and am just looking for subtle hints of currant. I was thinking 1/2# whole frozen currants, or should I blend? I am worried about shocking the yeast pitching frozen fruit into the beer.

I would definitely worry about shocking the yeast if you want to put it in the primary. otoh, I don't see much point to putting it in the primary. When I made my cassis, I added it to the keg. I used 1 liter of home-made syrup per keg (I actually tried 0.5, 1 and 1.5 and felt the middle amount was best). Of course, I was looking for a bit more than a subtle hint - and in a wheat beer - plus I have no idea what the equivalence would be in whole berries. I suspect, though, that my liter of syrup in a stout would be mighty subtle.

I think Kyle & Sean's experiments in fruit beers suggest that you need more than you think

I used around 2 kgs of Gooseberries in a Wheat ale, was a bit too much I think as the beer is pretty tart and sour. Hopefully it will mellow out over time. I added the berries into secondary, just thawed the frozen berries, brought them up to a boil and dumped the whole thing into a carboy, then I racked the wheat ale on top of the berries. I suspect a kg of berries would be enough to get a nice hint and some flavour to a darker beer.