You heard that right, some beers are actually exploding causing a mess and the loss of a great beer.
Obviously, exploding cans of fruit beer isn’t the goal so let’s learn more about these beers and what’s happening inside the can. And most importantly, let’s see if this risk is something you should worry about and how we can prevent it because these beers are too good to let them go to waste.
What Is A Fruit Beer?
The fruit can be added at many different stages of brewing and can be in many different forms. From fresh to frozen from preserves to flavor extracts; breweries use many different forms of fruit to get the right flavor into their beer.
Want To Know More? Read This Article About Fruit Beer
Putting fruit into beer has been a common practice for a very long time. But like most things, we like to push the limits. Creating beers that are just as much fruit as they are beer is the current goal of some breweries. These beers are moving closer to fruit juice and away from what most consider to be beer.
For the purpose of this article, I want to focus in on fruit beers that have fruit added post fermentation; aka adding fruit to ready to drink beer. This is not the way most fruit beer is made as it presents the risk of re-fermentation. We’ll discuss that in detail later.
In most cases, breweries are using the Berliner Weisse or Gose style beer to create this type of fruit beer. It is being called many different things including: Slurpy, Popsicle, Smoothie, etc. These beers create an intensely fruit-forward beer with a pulp texture.
For those that have had the ability to try one; you’ll know that these beers are truly pushing the limits of beer and redefining what it can be.
Why Cans Of Fruit Beer Explode
Part of the process is called fermentation. In this step, yeast convert sugar into ethanol (alcohol). CO2 is also a result of this step. Yeast have specific temperatures that they must be kept at to ensure they remain alive and active to allow for fermentation.
This typically takes place in very large metal vats where the CO2 can escape so pressure doesn’t build up.
Traditional fruit beers have the fruit added during fermentation. The yeast eat the sugar in the fruit producing new flavors along with the alcohol and CO2. When fermentation is complete, the beer is packaged so it can be consumed.
These new fruit beers do things a little bit differently. The fruit is being added after the beer has completed fermentation and just before it is packaged (can, keg, crowler, etc). This allows the maximum amount of fruit flavor into the beer and to the customer.
If this happens, the yeast will produce CO2 as part of the fermentation process. The CO2 will build up pressure in the can and may result in an explosion.
It is worth noting that the only way for the yeast to become active is for the can of fruit beer to warm up. Yeast will remain dormant if kept cold.
Bottom line, if the can gets warm, yeast will wake up and eat sugar, produce CO2 and the can might explode.
Learn More: Midwest Fruit Tart Ale
Can We Prevent Exploding Cans Of Fruit Beer?
The brewery could alter their process and add fruit during fermentation. But that would not yield the same result that customers are wanting.
They could also look into making it stable via chemicals or pasteurization. This would prevent the yeast from becoming active and eating the sugar from the fruit.
I’m not an expert so I don’t know if there would be flavor changes but I am sure that this would cause extra costs that would be passed on to the customer.
Another option is to not can these beers. Some breweries are opting to make this style but only offer it on draft at their taproom. These breweries are able to control the temperature and prevent any issues. However, it also prevents most people from trying this new style.
Either way, the customer can’t control how the beer is made. They can only control whether or not they decide to purchase it and how they handle it while they wait to drink it.
Hear are a few tips to prevent exploding cans of fruit beer:
- Keep It Cold – Low temperatures prevent yeast from becoming active
- Drink It Fresh – Like most beer, it is best to drink ASAP.
- Listen To The Brewery – Breweries making these fruit “bombs” should be provide warnings
- Know What You Are Buying – Learn about the beer styles that you are lining up to purchase
If you line up to buy beer then it is worth the time to learn about what you are buying. I don’t know of any brewery distributing these beers to local grocery stores. You have to be “in the know” to get these beers so we all need to ensure that these beers are being handled appropriately after purchase.
While I know some want to blame the brewery for exploding cans of fruit beer, I’m convinced that both the customer and brewery are responsible. The brewery should be very clear in setting expectations for how to handle these cans. Then the customer must follow through and accept that there is risk in purchasing these heavily fruited beers.
Conclusion
Instead, you’ll need to visit one of the select breweries that is willing to make these fruit-filled beers. I’ve been lucky enough to try many of the Slurpy beers from 450 North Brewing as well as a few beers from The Answer – who even make their cans looks like dynamite to make light of the situation.
Some New England IPAs are even adding fruit to the finished beer to increase the fruit flavors and making them susceptible to exploding.
To date, I haven’t had any issues with cans of fruit beer exploding but there’s many that have so it’s a growing concern. Why haven’t my cans exploded? Maybe I am lucky or maybe keeping them cold is all that is really needed.
Either way, these are amazing beers so I hope that more breweries are willing and able to make them. They aren’t what you would expect from a beer but there’s nothing wrong with expanding what the word “beer” can mean.