A practical guide to forecasting fruit purée needs, planning seasonal beer releases, and preparing your brewery for the year ahead.
A great beer starts long before brew day.
As breweries begin mapping out their 2027 production calendars, there are plenty of decisions to make: which seasonal favorites deserve another run, which new recipes are worth exploring, how much tank time to allocate, and when ingredients need to arrive.
For breweries producing fruit-forward beers, there's another important consideration: fruit purée supply.
Whether you're planning a raspberry sour, a tropical IPA, a peach wheat ale, or an entirely new release, getting ahead of your fruit purée requirements can make production planning more predictable.
Here's how to approach your 2027 brewing calendar with ingredient availability, production flexibility, and your brewery's goals in mind.
1. Start With What Worked in 2026
Before building next year's lineup, take a closer look at your current releases.
Which fruit-forward beers generated the most interest? Which sold through faster than anticipated? Were there seasonal releases customers asked you to bring back?
Sales data can provide a useful starting point, but production teams should also consider what happened behind the scenes.
Ask yourself:
- Which recipes delivered the flavor profiles and consistency you wanted?
- Were actual fruit purée requirements higher or lower than projected?
- Did ingredient lead times affect any scheduled brew days?
- Which limited releases have potential as recurring or year-round offerings?
- Were there opportunities to consolidate ingredient orders across multiple recipes?
- These insights can help turn last year's experience into a more informed production plan.
Brewer's tip: Keep a record of the fruit variety, pounds used per batch, finished batch volume, and final sensory results for each fruit-forward recipe. That information becomes especially valuable when scaling a successful release.
2. Map Your Seasonal Beer Releases Early
Seasonal brewing involves more than choosing flavors that fit the calendar. Production schedules need to account for fermentation, conditioning, quality control, packaging, and distribution.
For example, a summer fruit beer may need to enter production well before summer begins.
Start by organizing your 2027 lineup into three categories:
Returning favorites: Established recipes with historical sales and production data. These are often the easiest to forecast.
Seasonal and limited releases: Beers tied to specific release windows, taproom events, or distribution opportunities.
Experimental batches: New fruit combinations, pilot recipes, and small-batch releases that may evolve as development progresses.
Once your calendar begins taking shape, identify the fruit varieties each recipe requires and when those ingredients will be needed.
Even a preliminary schedule can help you identify overlapping demand, potential sourcing challenges, and opportunities to plan purchases more efficiently.
3. Forecast Fruit Purée Requirements by Batch
One of the most useful steps in brewery ingredient planning is translating your production schedule into estimated fruit purée quantities.
Instead of starting with a total annual number, calculate requirements by recipe and batch.
Consider:
- Planned batch volume
- Target fruit character and recipe formulation
- Expected purée addition rate
- Number of anticipated production runs
- Additional volume for trials or recipe adjustments
Example: Estimating Fruit Purée for a Seasonal Release
Suppose you're planning a 30-barrel fruit-forward beer with a tested recipe calling for 1.5 pounds of fruit purée per gallon.
Using approximately 31 gallons per barrel:
30 barrels × 31 gallons × 1.5 pounds = 1,395 pounds of fruit purée
For a product packaged in 44-lb bags:
1,395 ÷ 44 = approximately 32 bags
This is an illustrative planning calculation, not a recommended dosing rate. Actual usage depends on the fruit variety, beer style, desired flavor intensity, and your brewery's established formulation.
The important takeaway is that even preliminary production estimates can be translated into actionable ingredient forecasts.
And if you're planning multiple releases featuring the same fruit variety, combining those forecasts can give you a clearer picture of your anticipated annual requirements.
4. Consider Fruit Variety, Flavor Profile, and Technical Specifications
Not all fruit purées behave the same way in a beer formulation.
Beyond flavor and aroma, brewers should consider characteristics such as °Brix, pH, acidity, and how the fruit interacts with the base beer.
For example:
Raspberry and blackberry can contribute vibrant berry character and tartness to fruited sours, wheat beers, and other fruit-forward styles.
Mango, passion fruit, and guava offer opportunities for tropical flavor profiles in IPAs, sours, and experimental releases.
Peach and cherry can provide distinctive fruit character in seasonal ales, wheat beers, and specialty recipes.
These are starting points for recipe development, not fixed pairings. The best choice depends on the beer you're trying to create.
Fruit addition timing also matters. Adding purée during active fermentation can produce a different result than adding it later in the process. Fruit-derived fermentable sugars may also affect fermentation activity and final beer characteristics.
Before scaling a new recipe, review the purée's technical specifications and validate the addition rate and process through your brewery's own trials.
5. Build Ingredient Sourcing Into Your Production Calendar
A brewery's production schedule is only as reliable as the ingredients available when they're needed.
While brewers routinely plan ahead for malt, hops, yeast, and packaging materials, fruit purée deserves the same attention—particularly when a recipe depends on a specific variety.
When preparing your 2027 ingredient forecast, consider:
Variety-specific demand. Some releases depend on a particular fruit profile that may not be easily substituted without changing the recipe.
Production timing. Knowing when you'll need an ingredient is just as important as estimating how much you'll use.
Order quantities. Planning by batch and by variety can help you identify anticipated purchasing needs.
Recipe flexibility. New releases may change during development. Separate confirmed recipes from experimental concepts so your forecast reflects different levels of certainty.
Supplier communication. Sharing preliminary requirements early gives your ingredient supplier better visibility into your plans and an opportunity to discuss sourcing and timing.
Early planning doesn't eliminate every supply challenge, but it can reduce avoidable surprises as production dates approach.
6. Why Aseptic Fruit Purée Belongs in Your Brewing Plan
For breweries incorporating fruit into their recipes, ingredient format is another important production consideration.
Aseptic fruit purées offer a convenient alternative to processing whole fruit in-house, helping brewers work with a prepared ingredient while reducing some of the handling and preparation steps associated with raw fruit.
At Aseptic Fruit Purées (AFP), our product lineup includes a wide selection of fruit varieties for brewing and fermentation applications, with many available in 44-lb aseptic bags.
For brewery production teams, the advantages of planning around a consistent ingredient format can include:
- More straightforward recipe calculations using product weight
- Access to variety-specific technical specifications
- Less preparation compared with processing whole fruit
- Convenient ingredient planning for recurring and seasonal recipes
- Opportunities to coordinate anticipated needs with a supplier ahead of production
- Brewers should always follow product handling instructions and their established sanitation, fermentation, and quality-control procedures.
Explore AFP's fruit purées for brewing and fermentation: https://asepticfruitpurees.com/collections/brewing-and-fermentation
7. Share Your 2027 Fruit Purée Projections—Even if They're Preliminary
You don't need a finalized brewing calendar to start the conversation.
At AFP, we're beginning to gather anticipated fruit purée requirements from breweries planning their 2027 production.
Whether you're preparing for returning favorites, expanding a year-round lineup, or experimenting with new fruit-forward recipes, we'd like to hear what's on your brewing calendar.
Sharing your estimated fruit varieties, quantities, and production timelines helps us better understand upcoming demand and coordinate supply planning.
Your projections can include:
- Fruit varieties: What are you considering for next year's releases?
- Estimated quantities: Approximately how many pounds might you need?
- Production timelines: Which months or quarters are you targeting?
- Upcoming concepts: Are there new or returning beers you're planning around?
- Estimates are welcome. Submitting projections does not require a purchase commitment, and projections do not guarantee product availability or pricing.
What's Brewing at Your Brewery in 2027?
Your next standout release may still be in the early planning stages. That's exactly why now is a good time to think ahead.
From returning seasonal favorites to new fruit-forward experiments, a thoughtful production calendar can help connect your creative plans with the ingredients you'll need to bring them to life.
Let's plan your fruit purée supply together.
Connect with the AFP team to discuss your anticipated fruit purée needs for the year ahead.