Critique my fruit additions!

First off, I've been lurking here a few months and am amazed by all the great info & advice around here.

About a week ago I brewed up a 5gal partial mash american wheat recipe. In my effort to understand flavors, I want to split it up 5 ways and add different fruit to each 1gal batch for secondary... Here is the plan in my head:

1gal "Control" batch with no additions.
1gal with ~1lb fresh Raspberry
1gal with ~1lb fresh Strawberry
1gal with ~1lb fresh Blueberry
1gal with ~1lb fresh Cucumber

Some questions:
-I'm thinking 1lb might be a little too much, based on what some other people have said and tried. Would anybody recommend dialing it back to .75lb? I'm also sure different fruit will flavor differently at the same weight, so that's something to consider. Maybe 1lb of cuke but only .6lb of raspberry. Might just wing it here as a first timer and keep notes, then adjust... but I'd appreciate some advice.
-I'm thinking puree (or otherwise mush up, finely chop the cuke) the fruit, add to .5cup water and hold it at ~160* for 20 minutes, then add to secondary, then rack on top. Is this sanitation step completely necessary for secondary ferm? Do I really need to mash up the fruit? What about concerns with seeds? Do I need to filter before I bottle?
-I'll let sit on secondary for 7-10 days... thoughts here?
-Should I rig up all these on blowoff tubes, or is airlock fine?

Sorry for all the questions but thanks for advice!

This is an awesome idea. You have to report back upon tasting!

The only fruit I have experience with is strawberry, where 1lb is definitely not too much for 1 gallon. I used a slightly higher ratio and got an excellent, but not overpowering strawberry flavor in a recent wheat beer.

For the others, you might consider Jamil's opinion.

Jamil said:

A good starting point is about 0.5lb of fruit puree per gallon, whether you are using a mild fruit in a mild beer or a bold fruit in a bold beer. If you are adding a milder fruit to a bold beer, using 2 to 4 times the amount of fruit is not unreasonable. If you are using a bold fruit in a mild beer, you might cut the amount of fruit in half.

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I think the rest of your process is fine. Blowoff is probably not necessary, but it can't hurt if your containers are exceptionally full.

Thanks! I'll definitely report back. I want to keep doing this in the future with other ideas by brewing up 5gal of something fairly neutral then racking it onto different additions for secondary. Fruit + Wheat seemed like a good place to start things off.

I'll be using 1gal carboys for each so the space may be pretty tight...

Well I did the deed last night. Little worried that the original 5gal batch tasted sour when I sampled it before splitting it up, but it had been only 8 days in primary so hopefully it's just real green and not infected. Ended up using 1lb each for 1gal. Came down this morning and my strawberry had blown the airlock off, blueberry and cucumber were pretty damn close to blowing up too. I think I filled the carboys a little too much. Raspberry was goin good though. I drained some off those 3 and cleaned/refit the airlocks. I'll keep an eye on it today.

For future reference you might look at mead brewing techniques for using fruits. One thing that seems to be common in brewing meads is to freeze and then thaw the fruit, sometimes multiple times, the help break down the cell walls and release more juice.

Excellent advice about freezing and thawing fresh fruit. Plus you can buy it in bulk when its in season and leave it frozen for months.

I only recently learned about the freeze - thaw - crush method with fresh fruit. I will definitely give that a shot next time. I think I'll take the best beer out of these 4 and make a full 5gal of it using the freeze method.

Strawberries are weak. Raspberries are strong. I have no beer-related experience with bluberries or cucumbers. Blackberries and cherries are both great. I am so in favor of the freeze and thaw method that I buy frozen fruit and let it thaw in the beer.

kingwood-kid said:

Strawberries are weak. Raspberries are strong. I have no beer-related experience with bluberries or cucumbers.

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That's what I'm hoping to find out!

Any tips for bottling? I'm trying to think of a way to put a small screen or filter around my racking cane so I don't get seeds in the bottles and so that my tubing doesn't clog up.

I just started using gelatin to clear my beer and drop everything to the bottom. I've only used it on 1 fruit beer, but it made everything sink right to the bottom, then I just racked from a little above the fruit and layer of trub and yeast. Crystal clear beer for about fifteen cents.

My tip is to not worry about it. You'll leave most of the seeds behind with the trub when you rack. The rest are small enough that you probably won't notice them while you drink. Your method sounds good too, though. I find the cucumber idea fascinating in a thank-god-that's-his-beer-and-not-mine sort of way, but that could just be the cucumber-lime Gatorade talking.

kingwood-kid said:

I find the cucumber idea fascinating in a thank-god-that's-his-beer-and-not-mine sort of way

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I'm totally with you. Of course, if he has good things to say, I could be tempted into giving this a whirl...

Cucumbers don't have a real assertive flavor, so I'm thinking they won't add much anyways. I've put some unusual ingredients in my beer, and it's worked out more often than not to my taste, so maybe cucumber ale will be good. I admire the experimental attitude very much.

KISS Brew said:

I'm totally with you. Of course, if he has good things to say, I could be tempted into giving this a whirl...

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The cucumber was inspired by this thread. Sounds like they had a good outcome. Honestly, the cucumber smelled the best when I was sanitizing all the additions. I'll give a report back on mine, and if it's no good it was only 1 gallon anyway.

I'll probably just bottle like normal without worrying about seeds/clogging. I'm anticipating a bit of a hassle with clearing out the cane and bottle wand every gallon and I didn't want additional hassle with clogged tubes. If it turns out to be a big deal I'll check out gelatin for the next batch.

Thanks for all the replies guys!

High quality gourmet organic fruit puree work well and add gravity...Add to the late stages of boil. Subtle fruit tones can be a powerful combo with the right hops. I can't critique your beer without trying it

I just finished my first all grain batch as well as my first fruit batch. Did 5G American Wheat with 5lb's of frozen raspberry made into a puree and dumped into secondary for 2 weeks. Learned a couple things. Airlock on a 6 gallon carboy with 5 gallons of beer and 5lbs of raspberry puree will make one heck of a mess. When transferring to bottling bucket you don't really need anything to filter out the random chunks. It will mostly drop out. Lastly after bottling i let it sit for a month before trying a bottle. Taste and color were both amazing however i was hoping for a little sweeter of a taste. Next round im planning on filtering out the yeast before i add the fruit to get more of the sweet taste from the raspberry sugars rather then the yeast eating it.

burtonboarder230 said:

Next round im planning on filtering out the yeast before i add the fruit to get more of the sweet taste from the raspberry sugars rather then the yeast eating it.

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This won't work. There will still be plenty of yeast in suspension, and they will multiply when they eat the raspberries. If you're bottling, you will have to adjust your recipe by adding caramel malts, lactose, splenda, etc... If you're kegging and force-carbing, I'd still let the berries ferment, then I'd sorbate and back-sweeten.

burtonboarder230 said:

I just finished my first all grain batch as well as my first fruit batch. Did 5G American Wheat with 5lb's of frozen raspberry made into a puree and dumped into secondary for 2 weeks. Learned a couple things. Airlock on a 6 gallon carboy with 5 gallons of beer and 5lbs of raspberry puree will make one heck of a mess. When transferring to bottling bucket you don't really need anything to filter out the random chunks. It will mostly drop out. Lastly after bottling i let it sit for a month before trying a bottle. Taste and color were both amazing however i was hoping for a little sweeter of a taste. Next round im planning on filtering out the yeast before i add the fruit to get more of the sweet taste from the raspberry sugars rather then the yeast eating it.

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I used lactose sugar in a raspberry porter i brewed. 3# of frozen raspberry was overwhelming. It mellowed out with age and now tastes and smells great. Lactose sugar gave it some sweetness but ended up being a little too hot early on. Aging really helped it out. Maybe try cold crashing and raspberry extract at bottling with a touch of lactose sugar...hmmmm.