A smoothie beer is just like it sounds. It’s simply adding fruit to the fermenting beer. The fruit is typical of the frozen variety, but fresh can be used as well. Just make sure to sanitize before adding to the fermenter so as to not contaminate your beer.
Beer is the world’s oldest alcoholic drink and has been consumed by humans since at least the stone age. The first known brewery was in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) and was established in the early Neolithic period around 5000 BC. (1) The beers are usually tart, but not so much that they make your face pucker. They’re often fruity and sometimes brewed with unusual ingredients like rhubarb and strawberries.
Beer is made by fermentation of a cereal starch source (commonly malted barley or wheat) by a diastatic enzyme called amyloglucosidase that comes from the malted barley mash. The sugars in the malt are then later converted by yeast into ethanol and carbon dioxide. There are many different types of fermentable sugars including glucose, fructose, and sucrose. (2)
Beverage companies experiment with the types of sugars they want to use in their beers for different reasons. This often dictates the type of yeast and hops they use to produce certain flavors and aromas.
The color of beer varies from very light yellow to dark brown and has a variety of appearances including bright, clear, cloudy, and turbid (hazy like you get in unfiltered beers).
This is from the yeast and proteins that are present in the unfermented beer which changes over time, especially with elevated fermentation temperatures.
The longer the beer is left with these proteins, the more cloudy it becomes and this will also come down to the personal preference of the consumer.
Some beer styles are named after their cloudiness for example & Hefeweizen (wheat beers) are cloudy and witbier’ (wheat beers) are also cloudy due to the presence of yeast.
Beer can be made using any cereal grain but it is most commonly barley. It can also be made using maize, rice, and sorghum. (3)
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Smoothie beers are made using cereal grains in the form of fruit
This was first seen in 1994 in Brazil with a beer called Batida’ which is made from maize and cashew fruit. (4)
In 2012, a company in Australia called Two Birds Brewing released a beer called Golden Axe’ which is made from sweet potato, cassava, and yam.
In 2014, a company in Germany called Einstok made a beer called Oll’ which is made from rye bread.
Smoothie beers are becoming more popular due to their originality and they often contain more nutrients than their conventional counterparts.
Smoothie beers have become increasingly popular among brewers, largely due to the increased interest in gluten-free beer amongst those with celiac disease.
As more and more brewers are beginning to understand, gluten is not the only difficulty facing celiac sufferers. Some of the other difficulties may be lactose intolerance, high levels of sweeteners such as sorbitol and mannitol, and also an alpha-amylase enzyme in beer that breaks down starch into sugars.
A “smoothie” beer is a type of gluten-free beer that has been made using ingredients such as soy, rice, buckwheat, and other gluten-free ingredients that have a low starch content. However, there is some confusion as to whether smoothie beers are gluten-free.
These smoothies are great because they can be made with many different flavors, types of beer, and other ingredients that give the drink its color. Other ingredients that are put into the smoothie are ice cream, milk, or yogurt which gives it a nice texture.
- A reason that drinking smoothie beers are good for you is that it is a great hangover cure.
- You can gain benefits by drinking smoothies because they hydrate your body.
- A reason that you should drink these is that they can lower your bad cholesterol.
- These smoothies help with weight loss and can help you shed pounds.
- Another reason that these beers can help you is that it is good for your skin and makes your skin look more radiant.
How do I make a smoothie beer?
The first thing you will need to do is sanitize your fruit. If you are using frozen fruit, make sure to thaw it out. Thawed frozen fruit can be used as well. The best thing to do would be to thaw the fruit and place it in another sanitized container. This is because you may have yeast or mold growing on the fruit that may not be apparent. Once the fruit is sanitized, pour it into your beer and ferment as normal.
What type of fruit works best For Smoothie Beer?
- Bananas taste great in a brown ale but don’t ferment too well. The starch to sugar conversion isn’t as good for this fruit.
- Peaches are perfect for wheat beers, but also ferment well in other styles too.
- Strawberries are great for IPA’s. The hoppy nature of the beer complements this fruit very well.
- Blueberries are great in any kind of beer but tend to be very strong.
One thing to remember is that fruit infusions tend to work better with lighter beers. It’s easy to overpower a more harsh beer with fruit.
There are many different styles of beer, but the most common ingredients are water, barley malt, hops, and yeast.
The number of ingredients in a beer can vary greatly, and therefore there are different kinds of beers.
Beer’s alcohol content and its many taste factors such as bitterness, sweetness, and fruitiness can be affected by the choice of ingredients.
Different amounts of malt will result in different taste characteristics from a beer.
Beer can be made at home without any special equipment, but there are also breweries that produce beer on a large scale.
Brewing the beer at home can be simple and fun, but it requires a good understanding of the process and some equipment.
Smoothie beers are a great way to spice up a homebrewers recipe arsenal and I’m sure you will find one to enjoy this summer. Let’s get together sometime soon, cheers!
