Adding fruit to secondary, how to sanitize the fruit?

Mine is now in the bottle. I just finished cleaning up ten minutes ago (at which time I was tossed from the kitchen).

The yield was about what I expect - just over four gallons in the bottling bucket. It came out to 4.5 bottles short of two cases (12 ounce bottles). This is an all time low for me but was not unexpected. The half bottle I tried and even rough, sludgy and flat, it was tasty. It also tasted quite strong (as in, alcohol content). I was hoping for this.

The clarity is nice - a week in the primary, a week in the secondary with 36 ounces of blueberries, and a week in the tertiary (really, the secondary cleaned out and resanitized while my beer waited in my primary bucket). Plus Irish Moss, which I wanted to use because my last fruit beer, made using rice solids, was kind of cloudy.

If it tastes good, I will post the whole recipe. The last four bottles, I had to tilt the bottling bucket to get. No way I was leaving them in there!! These have a different cap from all the others and are my test bottles. I will probably pop one around Wednesday or Thursday.

Here's hoping!

i just bottled the fruitless counterpart and while I was bottling it I pulled a sample from the strawberry. It is clearing up, not clear yet, but it lets light thru where before it didnt. I still moved it to the basement for another week of clearing. so I am planning to forget about it till next weekend

Just racked my rasberry ale to teriary last night to get it off the berry debris. It is still a little cloudy, so it is going into the basement for a week, then upstairs for a day, then bottling. It tasted good, though I need more berries next time. It also came out fairly dry, but in a good way. All in all, a success so far. I picked up a 1G glass jug for next time, so that I don't waste what I need to take off the top to add fruit-that was a shame. It also is good for starters, one of which I have going right now!

I just finished bottling my Strawberry Ale.

After 15 days in teriary, it wasn't getting clear. It did have a couple inchs at the bottom that looked like the pulp in a glass of Lemonade, plus a little yeast around the edge of the carboy.

It sure tasted good, probably drank a pint that I caught as it dribbbled out of a leak in the bottling bucket. Sour, just about enough (remember I started with a sour mash). But not much strawberry flavor. Maybe blue/black/rasp- berries would retain flavor better? I primed with invert sugar that I cooked up yeasterday. FG was 1.006, I'm guesstimating about 3.5% ABV, I wanted to be able to drink lots of it on some hot day this summer, while I work on my Power Wagon.

I will definetely brew more fruit beers, and more sour beers too.

Anybody want to trade samples? PM me...

I took a look at mine last night. For the first time ever, I wished I had used one clear bottle to monitor how the beer is coming. It is darn hard to see color through a brown bottle, but it looks to me like it is clearing nicely. I am going to wait until the weekend to try my first one.

In the mean time, I need to find a "cappable" clear bottle for the next time.

I have been buying some soda in clear bottles (a nice micro brand black cherry soda), and I have kept the bottles for this specific purpose. They are screw tops, but for 1 bottle per batch, I am willing to risk it. I usually use a flashlight shining through to gauge the clearing process. It is not a perfect solution, but the soda bottles will be great. I have used plastic soda bottles to gauge carbonation in the past too.

Racked to a third carboy to clarify... it was pretty difficult because the siphon kept clogging up with cherry skins. I ended up switching to a funnel and a screen to transfer, even though I worried about splashing the beer like that.

By the time i finished, it looked like a cherry smoothie or something...

bazeballdadx said:

...By the time i finished, it looked like a cherry smoothie or something...

Click to expand...

I was thinking that cherry flavor might be a good one but this does not sound inviting!

Meantime, mine will be sample on Sunday evening - it looks clear already through the bottles, I will be drinking from a nice tall 14 ounce Pilsener that should show the color and (hoped for) clarity nicely.

my strawberry Ale has been in the basement for almost a week now and as of a few minutes ago it is still pretty cloudy. I am going to go ahead and bottled tonight or tomorrow and just chalk it up as a cloudy beer since it isnt getting much clearer down in colder temps.
it will have over a month to clarify and condition in the bottles so hopefully that helps some.

SteveM said:

The last four bottles, I had to tilt the bottling bucket to get. No way I was leaving them in there!! These have a different cap from all the others and are my test bottles. I will probably pop one around Wednesday or Thursday.

Click to expand...

The test bottles - well, at least one of them - will be opened tonight.

Meantime, today was an unplanned brew day. My wife and I foolishly went out of town and left the kids home. My daughter and her girlfriends (all of age) drank up half my house beer. Bah! This is why I always have commercial beers on hand. I like to show guests, by word and body language, that my beers are not up to commercial standards. Ah well, sometimes the secret gets out.

haha, well at least they were all of age you didnt come home to the aftermat of an underage house party!!!

I bottled mine this afternoon and must say it was clearer than I thought it was going to be. I didnt have a chance to get a clear bottle to check on clarity so I am going to have to test them now and then. I should have almost the entire month of April to clarify and condition in the bottle since I will be out of town. I had a glass of what was left at the bottom of the bottling bucket and it was delicious!

OK - so we tasted last night. My four test bottles, and four people - my wife and I, and my son and older daughter (the younger is away at school - and under age).

It was good. It did not leave me roaring for more, but it is only a month old and only been in a bottle a week and I know how to make it better next time (and it is good enough that there will be a next time - this is my second fruit beer). It is lightly hopped and pale (but read on) and there is just a light taste of the blueberries. It is very clear, though it picked up a bit of chill haze. As planned, we drank from these 14 ounce pilseners so we could really see the color and smell the beer. This was the best part - the color. It is a dark salmon color and the head is PINK!! It is just the dardnest thing. I never imagined that I would live long enough to see a beer with a pink head!

Head retention is only fair at this point, but that will improve, I expect.

So as promised, here is the recipe, and in parentheses, my suggestion for making it a notch better:

1.5 kg (3.3 lbs - one can) of Cooper's Light LME.

I lb Munton's Extra Light DME

1 lb rice solids (I forget the brand - it doesn't much matter in my opinion).

An hour boil.

.5 lb of 10 lovibond steeping grain, out before the boil.

2 oz Cascade Alpha 6%, half at the start of the boil and half with ten minutes left.

A teaspoon of Irish moss at 45 minutes.

Nottingham dry yeast.

In the primary for a week.

Rack to the secondary and add in 36 oz of frozen blueberries heated in spring water for fifteen minutes, just to the point of a boil. (And this is what I would change - I would do this during blueberry season, when they are not so incredibly expensive, and I would use at least three or four lbs of fresh blueberries).

One week in the secondary, then rack to the tertiary, discarding the trub and the floating blueberry debris. I threw in about a half cup of dextrose, just because I had some extra on hand.

One week in the tertiary and bottle. The yield was only forty four 12 oz bottles, four of which are already gone!

I would like to put this away and let it age - maybe one case of it will get stashed, because while I thought it was just "good" at this point, my wife and kids were wild over it. I would really like to see how this stuff ages, because I think by the time it is a month or two in the bottle, it will be off the charts.

Definitely making more blueberry beer.

My name's Vi. Now I'm a student in the University of Technology in VietNam. My' address mail is [email protected]. I am a new member of this forum. I'm interested in fruit beer very much so I hope to receiving and sharing information about fruit beer from other members.
Now I'm making a dissertation about fruit beer. But there are not any document about fruit beer in Viet Nam. If you have book, journals, any document or web about fruit beer, Could you assist me in doing my dissertation? Thanks a lot!
Cam Vi

Can't help you with your dissertation (technology degree... writing about beer?)... but so long as this thread's brought back up, I'll ask:

I made a cherry wheat a while ago. 6 lbs. of cherries left 3 weeks in the 2ndary, moved 2 weeks to another 2ndary to clear.

Tried a sample 2-3 weeks after carbonation. Although there was a bit of "dark cherry" aroma, the flavor was that of a... Belgian-ish Wheat? No cherry flavor at all, really. It tasted good, but the whole cherry process seemed like a waste.

6 lbs. was a LOT of cherries, I'm not sure if I would be able to add much more than that... does anyone know how to accent these flavors? Less alcohol content? Longer aging?

well since this thread is alive again I guess I will update my beer info.

I was away for the last 3 weeks so the beer had plenty of time to bottle condition. I am sorry to admit that I am not too proud of this beer. I think I used too many strawberries. The gallon of beer without the strawberries is delicious, but the 4 gallons with strawberries added is not so good. It has a very weird after taste that I am thinking is an overpowering strawberry flavor. You never really get a beer taste. And this is shocking for me to write because I LOVE strawberries! Now dont get me wrong, it is drinkable. No way I am dumping it, just not as good as I had hoped, especially after tasting the beer without the strawberries.


as far as the disertation goes, I never really found anything on fruit beers in print, just used what was found on this website and help from my local homebrew store.

kevy_kev said:

well since this thread is alive again I guess I will update my beer info.

I was away for the last 3 weeks so the beer had plenty of time to bottle condition. I am sorry to admit that I am not too proud of this beer. I think I used too many strawberries. The gallon of beer without the strawberries is delicious, but the 4 gallons with strawberries added is not so good. It has a very weird after taste that I am thinking is an overpowering strawberry flavor. You never really get a beer taste. And this is shocking for me to write because I LOVE strawberries! Now dont get me wrong, it is drinkable. No way I am dumping it, just not as good as I had hoped, especially after tasting the beer without the strawberries.


as far as the disertation goes, I never really found anything on fruit beers in print, just used what was found on this website and help from my local homebrew store.

Click to expand...

how many pounds of strawberries did you add? fresh, frozen, puree?
i used 7# for mine and it's still in tertiary... FWIW, i tasted it when i racked to tertiary and it didn't taste overpowering or "not so good" at all... i'll probably bottle next week, so i'll get another taste then.

I used 8lbs of frozen that i mixed with some water and heated up on the stove for a few minutes. It was really good before I bottled.
I put some more in the fridge before I left for work this morning to get a better taste this weekend. Flyers are on tonight so I will enjoy a few while watching the game

Again it is not undrinkable, just not what I was expecting. It has more strawberry flavor and less of a beer flavor. Was hoping for a good balance of the two.

kevy_kev said:

I used 8lbs of frozen that i mixed with some water and heated up on the stove for a few minutes. It was really good before I bottled.
I put some more in the fridge before I left for work this morning to get a better taste this weekend. Flyers are on tonight so I will enjoy a few while watching the game

Again it is not undrinkable, just not what I was expecting. It has more strawberry flavor and less of a beer flavor. Was hoping for a good balance of the two.

Click to expand...

what was your recipe?

My blueberry peaked early. It is still delicious but the blueberry flavor is much less pronounced. John at BYOB (my local HBS) advised me, when I brought some in for a tasting last weekend, that fruit beers will lose their fruit flavors pretty quickly. That's pretty much OK - it went real fast. I have only a dozen bottles left.

I have a black raspberry ale going into the secondary this weekend - probably tomorrow (Saturday) using a similar recipe as above, except more water (5.5 gallons more or less), an extra pound of DME and two pounds of rice. Oh, and no steeping grains. I will use probably about five pounds of black raspberries.

I know of no source for dissertation-level information on fruit beers, although this thread is a pretty good source of reference matetial.

Hi,
Beside SteveM successful recipe,pls share and post your other recipes with the explanation of colour and taste so that we can share and brew some great fruit beer.

Steep:
1/4 LB Melanoiden
1/3 LB 40L Crystal

Add:
6 LBs Muntons Extra Lite DME
3/4 oz Hersbrucker Hops
Boil 55 minutes

Add:
1 oz hersbrucker hops
Boil 5 minutes

cool in ice bath:

yeast: safale 56

1 week in primary
2 weeks in secondary, with 8lbs of strawberries added.
2 weeks in tertiary.
about a month in bottles.

had some more on Friday night and I think it is growing on me. If I do it again I would use maybe 6lbs of strawberries and more hops.

Update - I just bottled the most recent batch or Raspberry Ale. I had hoped (and brewed to) the use of black raspberries, but I could not find any and had to use red. It tastes very good - pretty unbelievable actually (I had a half a glass, the last out of the bottling bucket). Most of the time, the flat beer at the end is..., well, it takes a special person to really appreciate it. This was just plain good. The color was interesting. Since I made the basic brew so pale, the final product is a light salmon pink. It is going to be an odd batch for sure (I still haven't gotten over the purply, pink-headed blueberry ale, which is down to my last three bottles now).

Another update: Strawberry Tart

I started with a sour mash of about 20% of my grain. Pale Ale. 15 days in a teriary made it very clear, pinkish color. But 7# of strawberries on top of the sour mash is tart. Yesterday I poured it over ice, like a soda. Works good for thirst quenching in the heat while I restore my '53 Power Wagon. But it does have a bit of a plastic taste to it- even without the ice from an ancient batch in the freezer's open ice cube tray. Not contaminations since it's the same gear I've always used, I guess there is a reason that Hops and Strawberries are not often mixed?

Glad I tried it. Next batch of fruit beer will be ...cantalope? balckberry?

casebrew said:

Another update: Strawberry Tart

I started with a sour mash of about 20% of my grain. Pale Ale. 15 days in a teriary made it very clear, pinkish color. But 7# of strawberries on top of the sour mash is tart. Yesterday I poured it over ice, like a soda. Works good for thirst quenching in the heat while I restore my '53 Power Wagon. But it does have a bit of a plastic taste to it- even without the ice from an ancient batch in the freezer's open ice cube tray. Not contaminations since it's the same gear I've always used, I guess there is a reason that Hops and Strawberries are not often mixed?

Glad I tried it. Next batch of fruit beer will be ...cantalope? balckberry?

Click to expand...

i used 7lbs of strawberries in my SPA and it's fairly tart also....and i didn't use a sour mash so i can only imagine how tart yours must be.

Bump - keeping this in play because fruit beer questions come up all the time.

I was planning on using extracts for my fruit beer and bought a few flavors from my LHBS. I have a 10 ML titration setup and a calculation for the amount for 12 ounce. I tried each of the following by adding 2.2 ML to 12 ounces of a light lawnmower beer I have on hand.

Peach - Tasted peachlike but more artificial than the real thing.
Black Current - Tasted peachlike - I don't think whoever extracted this knew what a Black Current was and used peach in its place.
Black Cherry - Tasted like Luden's Black Cherry cough drops - Yuch!
Raspberry - This wasn't too bad. No aroma but a tangy flavor. Couldn't say it tasted really raspberry though.

Someone early in this thread said he use an extract in his keg and fruit was bottled. I would like to know where he got his extract - I must be better than what I got.

I am now considering using canned sour pie cherries. I love the taste of sour cherries and the can state that it has only cherries and water.
Anyone ever tried this?

I am also considering using Oregon Puree for raspberries unless I can find a source for extract which taste like the real thing.

Has anyone tried a bannana beer yet? I am going to try one this week, and have not decided if I'm adding them to primary or secondary, or how much to add. I was also thinking of adding the entire bannana -peel and all after puting it thru the blender. Any input is welcome.

I'm brewing a mild wheat beer and, due to some questions from a neighbors kid, am adding Pineapple to the secondary. Has anyone tried this before?

How much Pineapple would you add (I was going to go with 2#/gal).

How would you account for the amount of water in the pineapples?

Finally, I was thinking of adding something like Potassium Sorbate to the Pineapple in the secondary a day before or so to keep the yeast from fermenting all the pineapple and dropping the flavor.

Ideas? Suggestions? Laughs?

Jim

Thinking about adding some fresh mangos to my double ipa, My plan was to get 10-15fresh mangos from the grocery store peel them, de-pit them and cut into chunks. Put all cut pieces into a pan bring water to 160 for 15min to sterilize the fruit before adding it to my secondary fermenter (gonna put fruit in grain bag to prevent chunks from being everywhere) then rack my IPA onto the fruit for its last week of fermentation, i was also gonna add some gelatin filings during the last 3days of fermentation before bottling to help clear the beer up.

The ipa has been in the primary for 16days now, plan on racking with fresh mangos and letting it sit for another 7days

I have a couple pounds of fresh picked raspberries that are frozen that I plan to add to a wheat brew. My plan is to get some really cold water, add some sanitizer, and dump the frozen raspberries to the mix and let them sit for about 5 minutes. I want the raspberries to stay intact when I add them to the secondary and I don't want to heat them and break them down. I plan on starting this brew in a week when I free up some fermenter space and let everyone know if it works.

Kegged: Belgian Blonde; Madagascar Vanilla Bean Imperial Stout; Plain Old Wheat

Well if you don't mind the juice being separate from the actual fruit pieces, using a pressure cooker is a good way to easily remove the juice from basically any fruit. As far as sanitizing, I'm not sure on the exact amount of time it would take leaving the fruit in the pressure cooker, but it would also be a viable method for sanitizing the fruit as well.

I was planning on employing this method with fresh blueberries since they are so hard to get the flavor out. This simplifies everything.

Here's a link to a more in depth explanation on how to do this.

http://www.hippressurecooking.com/2011/08/blackberry-italian-soda-from-your.html

My wheat has been sitting in primary for about a week. After reading this thread I am thinking of adding fruit to the primary now and letting it sit for another 1.5-2 weeks then moving it over to secondary to clear. That way I can taste it and possibly add a little more fruit to the secondary if im not satisfied with the taste.

Wondering if that would be a good approach to it or if others have tried that before and dont recommend it? Not sure what adding more fruit will do as it ages. Like if it will be to overpowering at the end?

Thinking of going 4lbs cherries for my 5 gallon batch.

Seems this is an old thread and many people posted to it but not many provided results near the end.

I can't help much with the cherry wheat because it is still in the secondary but I will share what I did and try to get back here to post results.

I got about 3# of fresh cherries they said Reinier and they tasted sweet to me, not sour or tangy. Here are my notes-

8/18/12 Hugh Hefner Weizen (Cherry)
OG-1.054
1.012 gravity on 8/29/12 @65degrees. Racked to secondary with cherries after 11 days in primary - Bubbling had slowed to over a minute before racking

7.2lbs Wheat LME
8oz. Flaked Wheat, 8oz Flaked Oats
White Labs 320 American Hefeweisen Yeast

Added 3lbs of Rainier Cherries (sweet) $3/lb sale @Meijer. Soaked in pan with 1/2gal or more water with two crushed campden tablets in warm water for 3 hours. the cherries started splitting. Dried them in strainer, put in gallon ziplock and smashed with fingers. Froze in freezer for 24 hours. Racked to secondary BUCKET for space since cherries went to over 6 gallons ~ 6.25. Liquid beer was at 5.5 gallons before cherries added so account for the space (couldn't fit in carboy).

9/5/12 Now it is 7 days in secondary and still no bubbling that I notice from airlock. Many people said the fruit added much sugar and kicked in more fermentation. I think either the campden tabs ended it or it was just so far done when I racked to secondary that the suspended yeast didn't kick in for more. I have read stories of airlocks or lids blowing off after fruit, but not for me. When I added honey to my last batch in secondary it started re-fermenting for another 3 weeks!

Haven't read all this...but this is usually when I toss in this link http://hbd.org/brewery/library/SugAcid.html


As to sanitizing the fruit two words: Popov Vodka

(I don't know is Popov is a national brand, but in Jersey its the lowest priced vodka I have seen...comes in the lovely plastic jug with the handle)


I use that stuff for everything...blowoff tube/airlock "water"...quick rinse of spoon...cleaning cuts you name it


The idea is to float the fruit in the vodka for say a week then just use the vodka. I think its called an infussion or something like it.
I usually do it in mason jars...cause that's what mason jars are for (until you start distilling...but that's not legal )

Streeter said:

Seems this is an old thread and many people posted to it but not many provided results near the end.

I can't help much with the cherry wheat because it is still in the secondary but I will share what I did and try to get back here to post results.

I got about 3# of fresh cherries they said Reinier and they tasted sweet to me, not sour or tangy. Here are my notes-

8/18/12 Hugh Hefner Weizen (Cherry)
OG-1.054
1.012 gravity on 8/29/12 @65degrees. Racked to secondary with cherries after 11 days in primary - Bubbling had slowed to over a minute before racking

7.2lbs Wheat LME
8oz. Flaked Wheat, 8oz Flaked Oats
White Labs 320 American Hefeweisen Yeast

Added 3lbs of Rainier Cherries (sweet) $3/lb sale @Meijer. Soaked in pan with 1/2gal or more water with two crushed campden tablets in warm water for 3 hours. the cherries started splitting. Dried them in strainer, put in gallon ziplock and smashed with fingers. Froze in freezer for 24 hours. Racked to secondary BUCKET for space since cherries went to over 6 gallons ~ 6.25. Liquid beer was at 5.5 gallons before cherries added so account for the space (couldn't fit in carboy).

9/5/12 Now it is 7 days in secondary and still no bubbling that I notice from airlock. Many people said the fruit added much sugar and kicked in more fermentation. I think either the campden tabs ended it or it was just so far done when I racked to secondary that the suspended yeast didn't kick in for more. I have read stories of airlocks or lids blowing off after fruit, but not for me. When I added honey to my last batch in secondary it started re-fermenting for another 3 weeks!

Click to expand...

9/8/12- I checked gravity again and final is 1.010 so it did go down slightly even without noticeable bubbling. I bottled and got 54 bottles. It had a nice red tint to the beer and not a strong cherry flavor. It tasted somewhat sweet and not bitter or sour. I did add about an once of the LD Carlson Cherry extract flavoring (http://www.ldcarlson.com/images/3520.JPG) to it to make it a little stronger. I have heard the fruit flavors can dissipate over time and to generally bottle with them stronger.

I'll report back with taste in a few weeks. Overall it is impossible to tell if the Campden tablet method I used to sanitize the fruit was necessary since I added the fruit to already fermented beer that possibly could kill off any bacteria or yeast. This method worked well for me, but it may not have allowed the fruit to ferment more, which is a good thing or bad thing. In that regard, I'm not sure it would have fermented any more without the campden since it was basically done. Unless there was two control batches, no way to tell.

I know this thread is pretty old, but it was interesting to read through. Anyway, this is my first time posting...glad to be a member.

I'm brewing up one of my most experimental brews yet, using a wheat base, sour cherries, and a few ghost peppers. I'm thinking the heat will complement the tart, fruity flavor nicely.

Cheers!

So tried one of my cherry wheats today after bottling for a week... Tasted good. But not like cherry at all?

Streeter said:

9/8/12- I checked gravity again and final is 1.010 so it did go down slightly even without noticeable bubbling. I bottled and got 54 bottles. It had a nice red tint to the beer and not a strong cherry flavor. It tasted somewhat sweet and not bitter or sour. I did add about an once of the LD Carlson Cherry extract flavoring (http://www.ldcarlson.com/images/3520.JPG) to it to make it a little stronger. I have heard the fruit flavors can dissipate over time and to generally bottle with them stronger.

I'll report back with taste in a few weeks. Overall it is impossible to tell if the Campden tablet method I used to sanitize the fruit was necessary since I added the fruit to already fermented beer that possibly could kill off any bacteria or yeast. This method worked well for me, but it may not have allowed the fruit to ferment more, which is a good thing or bad thing. In that regard, I'm not sure it would have fermented any more without the campden since it was basically done. Unless there was two control batches, no way to tell.

Click to expand...

Well it has been in bottles about a month and I have about 15 bottles left of the 54. It is a good tasting German hefeweizen but unfortunately I can't really taste the cherries and the head retention was poor. It foams about the size of one finger and quickly dissipates. It has a slight pink hue to it and I really wish I had added some flavoring to it. To be honest, if I do this one again I probably won't mess with the cherries and will do flavoring as I did with my strawberry and raspberry with good results. I think more cherries are needed with a supplement of flavoring or just flavoring. Now I can't wait for my pumpkin beer to be done!
Cheers!

Yeah tried another today. Tastes nothing like cherry. Still good beer tho.

Used 5lbs of cherries.

I just racked mine to a tertiary. It's bright pink, almost wine-looking. Used 10 lbs of cherries. Tastes pretty good so far.