I had recently placed my honey weizen into secondary fermentation inside a carboy. The wort was placed on top of two pounds of apricots along with a few ounces of honey. I had noticed that a new krausen had formed. I suppose long short here is, will all the yeast end up being used? Will I have to add more yeast when bottling to achieve carbonation? Any thoughts or input would be appreciated. Gravity readings were BG 1.055 FG 1.010<--- when I moved to secondary.
Secondary Fermentation
- Thread starter kaniatron
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DrummerBoySeth
Well-Known Member
No, this will not cause the yeast to be "used" up. Yeast are alive, and will continue to eat sugar as long as they are healthy, and there is sugar available for them to eat. Since you racked onto fruit and honey, you have added sugar to the beer. This has just caused the yeast to "wake up" and start a small second fermentaton of the sugars from the fruit and the honey. Unless your beer is extremely high gravity (more than 10%), then you will still have plenty of yeast left alive to produce carbonation. Let it sit in secondary for at least one week to allow the yeast to eat all the added fruit/honey sugar, then bottle as usual. You will have no problems at all.
Thanks for the quick reply I sure do appreciate the insight. I have never gone about this method with fruit in secondary. I posted a photo of the action if your interested in taking a look.
DrummerBoySeth
Well-Known Member
That definitely looks like a healthy fermentation. Just make sure to leave it alone long enough to let that fermentation finish and "clean up". I think one week in the secondary carboy will probably do the trick.
scoundrel
Well-Known Member
Realize that by adding the apricots and honey you've bumped the gravity back up again. It isn't 1.010 anymore. It looks awesome and I wish I could have one. One more thing, a tip, the apricots will give it a real nice natural flavor, but consider adding a little apricot extract for the aroma. Fruit does wonders for flavor but is a bit lacking when it comes to aroma... just a thought. It looks great!!!
I was just sitting here pondering that exact thought. I also forgot to take a gravity reading after I added the fruit. Duh I guess the excitement got to me. I wonder if there is a way to account the difference hmm
scoundrel
Well-Known Member
The honey part is easy. Assuming its a 5 gallon batch, 1 pound would be 7 gravity points. So, if you put in a 1/2 pound of honey, it went from 1.010 to 1.014, rounded up. The fruit part is trickier. I'm sure there are calculations out there but I'm sure they are only a broad guideline.
scoundrel
Well-Known Member
Yes it is true because the sugar in fruit any honey is pretty much fully fermentable. In beer there are long chain dextrins that yeast can't break down. It's these residual sugars that give more body, unlike say wine that ferments out dry in most cases. Yeast strain also has a factor in the overall dryness of your beer. I expect it will be somewhat dry but not ad dry as wine.
scoundrel
Well-Known Member
Be careful telling your friends its 6.6% since (1.072-1.009)*131= roughly 8.25%. With the extra fermentables you added, 8.25% sounds more realistic. The good news is that since you added them after the boil there is probably very little to no hot alcohol taste. I bet it's gonna taste awesome! I wish I could try one!
scoundrel said:
I tried beer after 4 days it was carbonated much to my surprise. . . It was quite delicious lots apricot flavor and a little pulp in each bottle. It turned out better then my expectations. I added a little apricot essence to my batch I think next time I would use less. My wife seem to notice it which isn't good but she has sensitive palette oh well.
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