Fruit Beer Question

brittain · 01-26-2012, 06:29 PM

I brewed a Cherry Wheat beer. Partial Mash 3# 2 Row, 2# Wheat, 5# Wheat DME. Tettnang Hops. Trappist ale WLP 500.

Primary for 5 days the racked on top of a Cherry mixture (1 gallon of water, 1 lb Dextrose (Boiled) then added 7.5 lbs of Frozen Sour Cherries and had fun with a potato masher)

So this brew has been sitting on the cherries for about a week now. It seems to be starting to clear just a bit. Now here is my problem. I am about to go out of town for 6 weeks. What do I do? Leave it on the cherries for 6 more weeks or rack it off of the cherries and leave it in a tertiary for the 6 weeks?

ahoffman565 · 01-26-2012, 08:12 PM

I did a quick search on this for you and found this:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/how-long-do-you-keep-fruit-secondary-193742/

Even though not a whole lot of people chimed in, the majority didn't leave it past 3 weeks.

If it were me, I'd probably transfer and let it sit in tertiary to avoid any fruit decay issues. Besides, if you come back and taste it and the cherry flavor isn't where you like, you could always rack again onto more cherries!

Anyone else have an opinion?

**dsmith1279** · 02-08-2012, 02:23 AM

I agree rack to tertiary and let her sit. You can always add more cherries.

This summer i put pineapple in vodka and was to let it sit for 2 weeks. I let it sit for 6 and it came out skanky. Not good. Did it for 2 weeks and it was magic. There is such a thing as "too much".

ReverseApacheMaster · 02-08-2012, 03:31 AM

With sours those fruit can sit on the beer for months. A few weeks on a clean beer should not be a problem.

ReverseApacheMaster · 02-08-2012, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsmith1279

I agree rack to tertiary and let her sit. You can always add more cherries.

This summer i put pineapple in vodka and was to let it sit for 2 weeks. I let it sit for 6 and it came out skanky. Not good. Did it for 2 weeks and it was magic. There is such a thing as "too much".

You added sugar and water to the vodka, diluting it to the point that wild yeast and bacteria could chomp up the sugar and produce off flavors. That's a completely different environment than a beer with active yeast consuming all the sugar.