How long with fruit?

Just racked onto 5 lbs of pureed muscat grapes and was wondering how long I should let the brew sit with them. I plan on racking the brew off and letting it settle out and finish up any residual sugars before bottling so I don't get any exploding bottles but I was wondering what a good time period would be to leave it with the fruit. Thanks

In the fruit beers I've done, I've always left the fruit in the primary for ~4 weeks, rack to another container for a week, cold crash, and bottle.

I think the time estimate depends on how well crushed the fruit is before adding it to the fermenting beer. The finer the fruit is crushed, the quicker the flavor absorption and secondary fermentation. If the crush is coarse or the fruit is left whole, additional time is needed to breakdown the fruit.

lamarguy said:

In the fruit beers I've done, I've always left the fruit in the primary for ~4 weeks, rack to another container for a week, cold crash, and bottle.

I think the time estimate depends on how well crushed the fruit is before adding it to the fermenting beer. The finer the fruit is crushed, the quicker the flavor absorption and secondary fermentation. If the crush is coarse or the fruit is left whole, additional time is needed to breakdown the fruit.

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Yeah, I pureed the grapes so they were not coarse at all. I tried to do it so leave some of the seeds and skins intact and not simply liquefy them.

Anyone else with any advice (bump)?

I've made several blackberry wheat batches, and I always put the fruit in the primary, and only left it for 7 days. If the berries (grapes included) are well pulverized, then the yeast doesn't have a problem getting to it, and the juices don't have a problem mixing with the wort.

I'm going to do a gravity check probably today or tomorrow. It has slowed down to bubbling less than twice a minute. I'll taste the gravity reading sample and if it has a sufficient muscadine flavor then I'm going to rack it and let it clear and condition before bottling.

When I did my strawberry blonde my schedule was as follows:

1 week in primary
2 weeks in primary (added fruit at beginning of 2 weeks)
2 weeks in secondary (racked off of fruit into secondary)

I recently made a honey wheat and transfered roughly 2 gallons of it on top of 10 oz of frozen raspberries. After 2 weeks, the berries were pale and looked dead so I figured they'd given up as much as they could give. It has been in the bottle a few weeks now and is great with a nice raspberry taste, nose, and even pinkish tone! Basically, my schedule was 2 weeks in primary and 2 in secondary on top of the fruit. I'm thinking that it may depend greatly on the fruit, beer type, and quantity of both. If I'd have put the entire batch on top of (more) raspberries, I'd have probably left it a bit longer.

The muscadines are already pale and lifeless and the beer has a very defined muscadine character. If it has the flavor I want should I go ahead and rack it? It is bubbling once every 45 seconds and the gravity is probably at about 1.020 from a rough OG of 1.080.

A question about adding fruit.

When I added my blackberries to the primary, I added the wort at about 180 F. This was to pasteurize the fruit. I picked my fruit myself, and had it stored in the freezer. It basically went from the horse pasture, to the freezer to the wort.

Was it necessary to pasteurize the fruit?

Got another question relating to fruit: I'm doing a raspberry stout next time around, and am going to use a can of the Oregon puree. So I was thinking about 3 weeks in the primary to let it totally ferment and condition a bit, then racking to a 5 gallon carboy on top of the puree for 2 weeks. Sound gravy?

Going from outdoors directly to a cooled wort could have potentially caused problems due to wild yeasts, bacteria, etc. I'd say you did the right thing by adding them to hot wort. It may mean losing a bit of flavor or character or even color but, in the end, you'll be more assured that no nasties got into your beer, right?

I'd imagine that 2 weeks is plenty with puree assuming the fermentation has totally stopped and the gravity isn't still dropping. It may be OK in a week since it is a puree but another week won't hurt a thing.