I am new to brewing and was thinking of trying to brew a fruit beer. I saw that there were watermelons for sale cheap at my local green grocers and wondered:
Clones of 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon wheat beer tend to add it late in primary or in secondary. Make your beer about 1/8th watermelon, and add everything.
I just made a watermelon wheat that came out great. The process involved first juicing the watermelon to separate the pulp. Then I added the juice to my sparge water so the watermelon flavor and sugars would be incorporated into the boil. The pulp was later added to the secondary to impart even more watermelon flavor. Overall, it was a lot of work but worth it if you really like watermelon. I used 40 (yes, forty!) pounds of seedless watermelon to produce a 5 gallon batch.
We brew a watermelon wheat as well. We add the strained watermelon juice at kegging. You couldn't bottle this way (refermentation = bottle bombs), but for kegging, it's the solution we've found works best.
I personally not. Some friends say that, none melon flavor in the finished beer. I saw tries using the melon juice since the boiling until the first fermentation. Nobody that I know could get the melon flavor neither the color in beers.
I'm interested in cases that caught it!
