Using avocado in beer?

Question

I've had a weird urge to make some sort of avocado beer for quite some time. I've heard rumors of some commerical styles that have incorporated the avocado, but have not been able to unearth either a recipe or any details. I was thinking the creamy flavor might pair well with a stout or other low-carbonated heavier style.

I have no idea how much avocado I would have to use for 5G, or if the result would even approach drinkable. I am also worried about the natural oils in the avocado wreaking havoc with head retention and the fermentation.

Has anyone here ever attempted, or heard of anyone attempting, such a feat? The fact that I can't find any recipes online means either it has been done before with horrid results, or no one wants to waste perfectly good beer finding out if this is a ridiculous idea or not :)

Looking forward to seeing what everyone thinks.

Answer 1

It looks like you can boil the avocado, and skim the oil off of the top of the water, I'm not sure of the pectin content in avocado, as this could give your beer a permanent haze, so I would recommend mixing some pectic enzyme in with your "avocado extract" when adding it to your secondary to help get rid of the pectin. I found this article which seems to show how to remove oil from just about anything. I hope this helps. https://web.archive.org/web/20061120183656/http://www.itdg.org/html/technical_enquiries/docs/oil_extraction.pdf

Answer 2

If you made a stout (or wheat?!?) type of beer you may be able could get away with it being a bit cloudy. (Something with a creamy mouth feel already)

• I would boil up your mash as normal, leave to cool.
• Prepare your must, add to wort (like normal)
• Cap and wait for the bubbles to get going (one day?)
• Blend up a few avocados (with a little lemon juice, to stop browning) until they are really smooth
• Mix in your avocado
• Brew like normal
• When you get to racking off you may need to rack off the lees first, leave it to stand, and then reverse rack off (take every thing from the bottom) leaving any floating oil etc.

I imagine many fining agents will not work very well; you will need to experiment. Also adding an emulsifier (like lecithin) may help prevent the oils from separating out.

Answer 3

You could also try soaking it in vodka, or a similar neutral spirit then using a cheese clothe, or honestly, those grain bags sometimes have finer mesh than cheese clothe, to extract the liquid. This wouldn't solve the issue of haze or oil, but might maximize flavor. Have you or anyone tried any of the ideas above yet?

Answer 4

I'm brewing an avocado saison today. Prior to brewing I'm going to make some mashed pulp with as much oil removed as possible. I'm going to start by blending the flesh, then adding coconut cream, heating the mixture until the oils start to separate, then press the oils out through muslin. I'll keep the pulp and add it to the boil with about 15 minutes left. (I've used this technique before to make avocado oil and it works fairly well).