What is craft beer, and why are fruit additives so often used in beers during winter? More and more craft breweries are using fruit concentrates to naturally enhance the profile of their beers, giving them sweetness and complexity without artificial additives. Discover how to build the flavour of winter craft beer and the role modern fruit concentrates play in the process. Read the article and create winter craft beer that stands out for its flavour and character!
What is winter craft beer?
Winter craft beers are styles created with the colder months in mind, when consumers expect full flavour, higher extractivity and richer aroma. These beers are often darker, with a higher alcohol content, offering chocolate, caramel, spicy or fruity notes. In winter, people are keen to choose beers dedicated to celebration – festive, warming, often enriched with natural sweetness resulting from the use of fruit concentrates.
The craft beer market shows that consumers are more likely to choose ‘comfort taste’ products in winter, i.e. beers that evoke associations with home baking, winter tea or preserves. Fruit concentrates for beer help to achieve this effect in a natural and stable way.
How to achieve the natural flavour and fruity aroma of craft beer in winter?
The key is the use of fruit concentrate or concentrated juice, which serves two purposes.
- It enhances the fruity aroma already at the fermentation or ageing stage.
- It adds natural sweetness that rounds out the flavour profile.
Concentrates such as cherry, cranberry, apple, currant or orange are perfect for winter beers. Products such as concentrated juices give beer a seasonal character – they allow you to build a distinctive aroma even in dark styles, where special malts often dominate over subtle fruity notes.
A properly selected concentrate can also reduce the perception of alcohol and bitterness, making beer more accessible to a wider group of consumers. This allows breweries to create winter variants without the need for synthetic additives, which is a huge advantage in the craft segment. Additionally, it creates a ‘label friendly’ product.
What are the most popular craft beer styles during the winter season?
Winter is dominated by styles with a stronger character. Below we present the most popular ones!
Baltic Porter
Full-bodied, dessert beer with notes of dried fruit. Plum or cherry concentrate perfectly emphasises its depth.
Stouts (including pastry stouts)
Chocolate, coffee, vanilla, caramel – natural, concentrated juices added cold bring juiciness and break the heaviness of the style. The addition of lactose increases the fullness and adds milky smoothness.
Winter ale/Christmas ale
In this type of beer, fruit concentrates are often combined with spices such as cinnamon, cloves and ginger. This creates a typically festive beer.
Mulled beer/base for mulled beer
The ideal ingredient for mulled beer is orange or apple concentrate, which enhances the natural sweetness when heated and does not lose its aromatic quality.
Why is craft beer with added fruit juice concentrate the perfect choice for winter?
Winter beer should be complex, aromatic and comforting. Adding fruit concentrate from a producer specialising in fruit concentrates for alcohol makes it possible to achieve this effect without burdening the product with artificial flavourings. For brewers, this means:
- full control over the intensity of the aroma,
- natural sweetness, without the need to boost the extract with sugar,
- sensory consistency in the entire series,
- the ability to create limited winter variants in a short time.
Fruit concentrates are also more economical than fresh fruit in winter, easier to source, microbiologically stable and allow production to be scaled. In the craft segment, where authenticity, natural flavour and product history are important, this is an advantage that cannot be overestimated.
You already know what craft beer means in practice. Winter craft beers show that carefully selected fruit concentrates can become not just an addition, but a full-fledged element that builds the character of the drink. For consumers, this is a clear sign of quality and a conscious approach to brewing, and for breweries – a space for creativity and standing out in the market.
If you are wondering where to buy craft beer, the best choices are regional craft beer shops and offers directly from breweries, which, especially in winter, offer limited, seasonal editions that are worth checking out!