Question about fruit - Page 2

homebrewer_99 · 07-24-2006, 09:03 PM

I NEVER recommend adding fruit to the primary (EDITED). You should make a good beer first before adding flavors.

REASON: What if your beer doesn't come out right? You've just lost all that $$$ on fruit.

God Emporer BillyBrew · 07-24-2006, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homebrewer_99

I NEVER recommend adding fruit to the secondary. You should make a good beer first before adding flavors.

REASON: What if your beer doesn't come out right? You've just lost all that $$$ on fruit.

So you mean add it at bottling time?

homebrewer_99 · 07-24-2006, 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by God Emporer BillyBrew

So you mean add it at bottling time?

Oops, My bad...I edited my reply...I meant to say I dont recommend adding fruit to the PRIMARY, not secondary...sorry.

clayof2day · 07-25-2006, 01:39 AM

I just did a raspberry wheat and I waited till primary fermentation slowed, took a sample to make sure it was OK, then I added my crushed raspberries to the primary and gave it a gentle stir. Seemed like it worked really well. FYI, I only have a 5 gal. primary and I got a pretty strong fermentation from the fruit, so its a good thing I did it in the bucket, otherwise I don't think there would have been room for everything.

Matt

Monk · 07-25-2006, 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by budbo

I've been told adding fruit to the primary will reduce the flavoring. The "violent" action of primary fermentation will "scrub" the flavor. It works in the secondary because it is going to ferment the sugars slower and not push the flavors out.

The question I have is why would you do both? I haven't tried but what do you gain from adding extract after flavoring with fresh fruit?

Flavor, man. I don't know much, but of this I'm certain: the natural flavoring addition definitely ups the potency of the fruit flavor. This can be good or bad, depending on what you like, I suppose. The Apricot cream ale I made had a real apricot punch to it, not just fruity, but apricot for sure, and a little tartness that I believe came from the whole fruit. Fruit beers I've made in the past (without the flavoring) had significantly less fruit identity. Good, but not the level of fruit flavor you'd find in a lambic, for instance.

cweston · 07-25-2006, 01:34 PM

A couple of thoughts about fruit in the primary...

Again, based on my one and only experience with fruit.

Having the fruit added at flameout and left in for the primary definitely produced a lot of fruit flavor, for me, anyway. I'm defeinitely skeptical of the "violent primary fermentation scrubbing away the fruit flavor" theory based on my experience.

About wanting to be sure the beer was good before adding expensive fruit. Yeah, I can see that. But every beer I've ever brewed has been good, so I guess I just don't worry much about that.

mysterio · 07-25-2006, 01:40 PM

I would be adding to the secondary purely to help avoid contamination. There will still be billions of yeast ready to ferment the fruit sugars. As the_bird says, a tertiary might be a good idea.

God Emporer BillyBrew · 07-25-2006, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homebrewer_99

Oops, My bad...I edited my reply...I meant to say I dont recommend adding fruit to the PRIMARY, not secondary...sorry.

OK, that makes more sense. Hey, you are 52 after all, I guess you're welcome to make a mistake now and then.