MIXIN' YA FRUITS

Since we started brewing as amateurs in 2012 and professionally in 2013 beer has already come an extremely long way. Brewers have maximised the efficiency and handling of their hops in order to bring out more of the vibrant citrus and tropical aromas. Filtration levels, guidelines on freshness (beer and hops), dry hopping procedures, etc, have all evolved to maximise the amount of aromatic hop oils in the beer.

Yet at the same time all brewers have the same hops at their disposal. This coupled with the fact that we believe too much hop oil in a beer can make the beer too oily in mouthfeel. We feel there is potential outside of just hops to keep packing our beer with the tropical fruity flavours that we love.

Cutting to the chase and using fruit directly in the beers therefore seemed like a fun and interesting avenue to explore! Last year we launched Everything’s Peachy, our Session IPA infused with natural peach extract.

For those interested in the process, we have a supplier for natural peach extract. At the farm peaches are taken, pulp is distilled - essentially leaving just the aroma and flavour compounds (exactly the bits we need!). We blend this distillate with the beer. As all the sugars and water are evaporated off, we don’t have to worry about adding massive amounts of sugary water at the end of fermentation.

ShinDigger Fruits fits in seamlessly with our ethos at ShinDigger of making delicious and flavoursome session beers, and is part of the range we will be growing in 2017.  Experimentation is currently underway and we aim to have an additional 2 beers joining Everything’s Peachy by springtime. You can expect bursts of mango, pineapple and watermelon.