Fruit Beer

This is my first time posting, second batch brewing. Hello to everyone.

The girlfriend insists I brew a raspberry wheat for my second batch of beer. I am going to buy a fruit puree to prevent contamination. When is it recommended that I add the fruit? I have seen/heard everything from when the wort is hot or cold and in the primary and secondary fermentor. Does anyone have any advise?

I too have made a batch of wine coolers for my girlfriend, and they turned out pretty well. I boiled my malt and everything as normal, but didn't add any hops. Then added the fruit to the primary, after I added the hot brew and about 1 gallon of water.(Just to let it cool a little) then added the remaining. It's still aging but I did sneak a few and were coming along quite nicely. Good Luck

I made a strawberry wheat with whole strawberry's which I steeped in the wort for 15 minutes @ 165 degrees. In The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, it suggests pasturizing any fruit for 15-20 min at 150-180 degrees.
Another route you could go is to just use fruit extract, most HB shops sell a variety of fruit extracts. A friend of mine that also brews made a raspberry wheat with just fruit extracts that was delicious.

Also, if you use real fruit you will have a very active fermentation that could easily clog a glass carboy, so whenever I make a fruit beer I do my primary ferment in a 7 gallon plastic bucket with an airtight lid and then transfer to my 5 gallon glass carboy for the secondary ferment (while leaving the fruit behind).

Add the fruit puree when you transfer to the secondary. Rack the beer on top of the rasperries. I recomend (If you have a full 5 gallons of beer) using a 6 or 6.5 gallon carboy with a blow off tube. Fermentation will start up again pretty quick & I made the mistake with my blueberry wheat of NOT using either of the above mentioned. I ended up losing about a gallon of brew bc the fruit took up a lot of space and beacause I kept getting over flow coming out the airlock!

On a side note: after making my blueberry wheat, I definetly would make a blueberry ALE next time. The flavors just didn't strike me as well as I think an ale would have. Just a consideration.

JillC25 said:

On a side note: after making my blueberry wheat, I definetly would make a blueberry ALE next time.

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If you do make a blueberry, I'd love to do a swap with you. I love blueberry's, so I think I'd love a BB ale.

Cheesefood said:

If you do make a blueberry, I'd love to do a swap with you. I love blueberry's, so I think I'd love a BB ale.

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I love blueberry ale. We went to Maine this summer to visit my bf's family. Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale is SOOO good. IF you like blueberries that is. By far the best fruit ale I've ever had.

I'll probably give it a shot next spring or summer...

Planted 8 bushes last spring & I'm hoping to get enough blueberries next year for a batch. Probably a MIld to let the fruit dominate.

I add fruit to the primary. A puree can just be added directly, any fresh fruit needs 30 minutes at 150F. This not only pasturizes the fruit, it aids in releasing the juice. I use a bucket for fermentation and put the fruit in a mesh bag.

I agree w/ the posters here. I have only made a raspberry wheat and I did it w/ an extract I found in a little bottle at the HBS. My wife waited a week after bottling and popped one open. She really liked it. I like it better now that it has aged for a few months. I think it has too much foam when it is poured, but that's just my opinion.

I would br VERY interested in recipe for a blueberry ale when you guys formulate one. So when formulated, please post recipe!!!
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Tim

Thank you very much for the advise on using a 6 1/2 gallon Carboy secondary. I had actually planned on adding it to the 5 gallon secondary I typically use. Everyone have different ideas for when to put in the puree, I think I'll end up adding it to the secondary.

The fruit puree in the cans is good to go as is. I always put fruit in the secondry.

I brewed on Sunday, today (Monday) I have great fermentation.... Sounds like secondary is the way to go. Thanks to eveyone for the help.

I tried a Mango beer recently that was lovely.