Addind Fruit ?

[jstrausss]

What is a good Tip , or Peoples experience to adding fruit to a brew ? When should I add it within the Boil Process ?

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by jstrausss
What is a good Tip , or Peoples experience to adding fruit to a brew ? When should I add it within the Boil Process ?

my tip is:

DON'T DO IT!!!!! AAAEEEEOODIIIOOIIIIIIIIA NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

:D j/k


i don't like fruity beers so i really can't help you.

[Tweek]

that depends on waht you want to get out of the fruit. If you want it to have a sort fo cooked flavor then adding it in the boil is the way to go. And certainly adding anything to the boil is the safest way to go.

That being said, if you want it to have a fresh fruit taste there are a tons of schools of thought on this. Here are a few that I have tried with success.

1. Fruit with a peel like lemons- blanch them with the peel on, what this means is put them whole into boiling water for about 1 minute (most of the critters will be living on the peel and the boiling will kill them, the peel will also keep the innnards from getting to cooked leaving them fresh) Then juice or add whole to fermenter.

2. Berrys- There is a solution that you can buy from your local homebrew shop, sorry cant remember the name but someone else on this board will or you can just ask your local homebrew shop, that you soak your berries in. This solution kills off the bugs. You can then add them to the fermenter.

3. Peels add these to the boil or you can use either of the other methods to sterilize them and then add them.


One piece of advice that I can give you is that be frugal with the amount of fruit that you add. It will come through what I have done a few times is split my batch into two fermenters then add fruit to one of them. Then blended appropriately once it was done fermenting. I lemon wheat that is drinking perfectly right now. I made 10 gallons of wheat beer then adding the juice of approximately 25 myer lemons (these are a sweeter variety) to one of the 5 gallon fermenters. It actually came out so good I didnt need to blend it down.

Anyways good luck with your trials. With fruit beer it really is win some lose some just be careful about how much fruit you add and watch your fermenter (best to use a blow off tube when doing fruit beers)

Cheers

[b3s]

well, the first thing i'd do is probably freeze the fruit after washing. the act of freezing is known to break down the cell walls of fruit better than anything.

after that, i guess there are two routes you could go.

you could add the fruit to the wort boil, although i'd do this during the last 15-30 minutes (15 minimum for sterilzation). my fear here is that from the boil you may lose some flavor and sugars. and while steeping at pasteurization temps may be adequate, your wort won't chill fast enough.

you could always soak the defrosted fruit in a sulfite solution and add to your secondary fermenter prior to racking, similar to dry hopping. this is how the mead people tend to handle it.

fwiw, papazian's recipes that call for fruit, herbs, spices, etc. all seem to use the first method. otoh, papazian also suggests tossing some oak chips in the secondary for an ipa to get that authentic barrel flavor.

almost all of the references for mead that i've seen use the second one.

my guess is: go to it, good luck, and report back with results :D

[blevfamily]

Hi Jstrauss,

Making a beer with fruit is definitely fun & interesting. I made a beer last year with cherries & it didn't last long at my house. The thing was I hardly got to drink any of it, my friends were freaking out over that beer. I couldn't believe it.

What I did was added the FROZEN fruit at the end of the boil as I turned off the heat. Also I suggest that you use a secondary fermenter when you use fruit.

Good Luck & Have Fun Experimenting............Blev

[paul84043]

Fruit is also available online or at your local homebrew shop as a sterilized puree that can be added to the primary.

Definitely keep an eye on it, if using a carboy, use a blowoff! The extra sugar creates an extremely active fermentation.
The stronger the fruit used, the longer it will need to age to smooth out. My brother in law made a cherry beer that was horrible when it was a few weeks old, but after about two months it was fantastic.