First Fruit Secondary

RAWhiteFSU · 02-04-2012, 05:19 PM

SWMBO has expressed interest in a fruity beer. I think I am going to do an extract kit with secondary fermentation on some fruit puree in the interest of simplicity my first time.

I am not a big fan of hoppy beers. Need I use a wheat extract kit? Might, given my preferences, I be better off with some kind of light or amber ale?

At my LHBS: http://store.homebrewden.com/lighthouse-ale-recipe-kit-p255.aspx

Furthermore, I am thinking one week in primary and two weeks in secondary. Does this sound about right?

**voodoocurt** · 02-04-2012, 09:35 PM

I have done both a blonde ale and wheat and used fruit extract. You have to use SO much fruit to get a small amount of fruit flavor that in the end,for me, it just wasn't worth it. It also creates a huge mess and crazy trub. I used AHS's blonde ale with their strawberry extract and it turned out magnificent. I tried a small batch of blueberries, my parents have a small orchard of them, with a wheat. Tasted good but the weird color was very off putting. So I went back to the extract. In the end I think it's the way to go. Good luck.

V

**voodoocurt** · 02-04-2012, 09:39 PM

BTW. From what I've read it seems that most use a blonde ale or wheat because it imparts the least "beer" taste or it's more neutral and allows the fruit to be more dominate. You also have to make sure you sterilze the fruit before adding it. There are some threads on this somewhere.
What fruit were you thinking? let me know if you have any questions I still have all my notes

Voo

**ardonthorn5** · 02-05-2012, 03:06 AM

I've done a few fruit beers, a cherry dunkleweizen and a blueberry oatmeal stout. I basically just followed the fermentation times on the kit. I will say this....i think the general rule is like one pound of fruit/gallon. but, it's really dependant on the beer. the blueberry oatmeal stout tasted very .... juicy. If you can, use frozen fruit.