WATCH: The fruits of this father and son’s labour

• Local brewery uses puree in brewing
• Brewing with real fruit has its ups and downs

From bustling markets to grocery stores, the Okanagan is famous for its fruit, and a father and son duo think its worth the extra effort and expense to brew with it.

“You can definitely get a lot of really great fruit flavour from yeast and the different ways you treat beer without adding fruit,” Andrew McKay, co-head brewer at The Office Brewery told Kelowna10. “But we like really hammering it home with the actual fruit itself because it just brings out so, so much.”

He and his father Bruce released the latest in a series of ‘vacation in a glass’, beers using organic puree. It’s a guava infused drink called ‘No Red Tape’.

They also order blueberry, boysenberry, mango, and coconut puree from a company out of Vancouver for other drinks in the series.

While many breweries use concentrates like syrups for flavour, the Office avoids them as the primary taste because they can get ‘out of hand’. Using too much can easily overpower a batch while the puree is more forgiving while still providing the sweetness.

“The reason we chose purees is because it’s got that big punch but if you overdo it, you can’t really go too far,” Andrew said. “In our business, being mad scientists, going too far happens all the time.”

The McKay’s chose a pale ale as the base for the fruit beers, favouring the full-bodied feel as a compliment to the sweetness.

The No Red Tape has the mild sweetness of guava but finishes with the distinct hoppiness you might expect from IPAs or other pales.

Bruce is a retired school principal of over three decades and actually once taught the now owner of the business, who asked them to take their passion project to a commercial scale.

“We learned by milling our own grain and going through that brewing process at home, driving the family nuts with the smell of brewing beer in the kitchen,” Bruce said. “But after 30, 40 batches of beer, we learned a thing or two and we were actually starting to produce some decent beer.”

Their focus of the past eight months has been fruit beers.

Brewing with purees does have its downsides. It’s messy and doesn’t move through the lines easily from one tank to the next.

Plus, it’s costly. Brewing a lager costs less than a dollar per litre. Fruit beers cost over three dollars a litre.

Andrew calls this series of drinks ‘patio smashers’ and said outdoors is the best way to enjoy them and hopefully with a chilled glass.

“I always hated pouring beer into a room temperature or a warm glass,” he said. “So, pop a glass in the fridge for a couple of minutes before you pour your beer.”