Adding fruit to boil and secondary

GregBrews88 · 05-04-2009, 04:52 AM

Would it be a good idea to add some fruit to the boil as well as the secondary? Does anyone have any experience doing this and how would the flavor and aroma be affected?Thanks.

OrvilleOrdinary · 05-04-2009, 07:19 AM

Your procedures will vary depending on the type of fruit you're using, but generally I add the fruit at flameout -- right when I kill the heat to the kettle after the full hour boil. Then I cover and let it sit for half and hour to 45 mins. If you add the fruit to the boil, you'll chance extracting pectins that you don't want... Putting the fruit in right after the boil pasturizes the fruit and reduces the risk of extracting those pectins. I strain the fruit out when I go into primary.

And then, yeah, for good measure I secondary with the fruit as well. Especially for fruit with milder flavor profiles like peaches, mangoes, etc... I did this with my apple and peach ales to great effect.

boydak · 05-04-2009, 09:13 AM

Any fruit beer I have made I add it at flame out. Even when I juice it first.

RhettStrika · 01-24-2011, 03:18 PM

I totally agree with all of the above! Only add fruit at flame out. I love adding fruit to secondary. If you are using fresh fruit I would recommend freezing it so it ruptures the cell walls ensuring they juices to flow more easily. I've never had any issue with adding straight frozen fruit to secondary. I usually let the frozen fruit thaw and then puree it, i find that this releases much more flavor (especially in Stawberries). After it sits in secondary for about 2-3 weeks I trasfur it into one more aging carboy to let more settle out. This makes the beer a tad clearer. I have heard that stirring the beer every few days with the fruit infused into it in the secondary carboy helps but i would be afraid of producing off flavors by putting to much oxygen into the beer. What do you think???

**Captain Damage** · 01-24-2011, 10:27 PM

Boiling fruit is how they make jam. First off you'll be boiling off a lot of the fresh fruit flavor. Additionally you'll be setting the pectin, causing a permanent haze in your beer.

djonas · 01-31-2011, 07:33 AM

In the past I have made a cherry Saison by adding a massive amounts of crushed cherries and pits at flameout, for the reasons mentioned above. I did not cover and let it sit, however; I just cooled as usual and transferred the fruit and pits into the primary where the beer sat for about two months. The final product had a wonderful cherry scent and flavor but it was not cloying. Oh, the addition of pectic enzyme when I pitched the yeast resulted in a crystal clear beer.

Recently I had a batch of wheat beer sitting on a gargantuan amount of frozen strawberries that I added to the secondary. It sat for two months on the fruit but it pretty much turned into wine. I guess certain fruits, when fermented, need to be watched more closely than others.

A few days ago I tried my hand at brewing with dried cranberries. Before the last 10 minutes of the boil, I threw the fruit into the blender with some hot wort and pureed it, then added the solution back into the kettle. I did add some pectic enzyme to the wort but it is currently fermenting so I am not sure how the final product will be!

cactusgarrett · 01-31-2011, 12:27 PM

Fruit in the secondary. Do an extensive search; the reasons/results for adding in the secondary completely outweigh those when added to the boil or during primary, IMHO.