Floating fruit dilemma

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Bobbys

Active Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
31
Reaction score
0
Location
Montreal
Hi guys, new brewer here with only a few extract brews done. so far all has gone well. My latest batch is Sam Calagione's Blood Orange Hefeweizen. (http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to-plans/beer-recipes-how-to-home-brew-hefeweizen) I tend to follow most recipes literally the first time and did the same with this brew. The recipe called for the addition of pasteurized fruit and peels to be added to the primary. Basically its been in the primary for 2 weeks now, fermentation is finished and there is still some pulp and peel floating on top. Normally I let my brews sit for 3 -4 weeks in the primary then rack to my bottling bucket. Should I leave this batch another week or two and try to rack from under the fruit to the bottling bucket or should I try to carefully rack the beer into a secondary so it's away from the fruit and possible mold attacks ? Would it be better to just use a sanitized strainer and carefully scoop out the fruity stuff and leave it in the primary to finish up ?
Thanks in advance.
 
Theoretically, if everything was sanitized like it was supposed to be, you shouldn't have any mold issues. I would let it sit another week, check your gravity and taste test. If it's good, bottle away.

For curiosity's sake, did you zest the peels or use the whole thing? The directions were a little misleading in that part.
 
For curiosity's sake, did you zest the peels or use the whole thing? The directions were a little misleading in that part.

I used all the fruit and half the peels as well as the zest from all the peels.

I opened it up and it still looks clean, took a gravity reading. Was also worried about racking some of the fruit over to the bottling bucket if its still floating.
 
Have you tried a sample yet? Just curious because the instructions sort of tell you not to use the inner part of the peel because it can lend a very bitter flavor, but it doesn't do a good job explaining that.

If you have a muslin bag or even sterilized panty hose or something to act as a filter over the end of your racking cane would work to minimize anything that tries to come through.
 
I am not sure what the issue or concern is from the OP exactly so pardon any tangents. I would taste it and see if it is fruity enough or has the desired taste from the fruit. If so keg/bottle away. If not, leave it longer. In regards to the fruit not dropping, I have only done beers with cherry additions in secondary (I am normally a 30 day primary guy as well). The cherries never sank and like you mentioned, I just pulled from beneath the fruit when I kegged it. If you are worried about floaties you could move it to a secondary and cold crash before bottling/kegging. That should drop most of the floaties out. You could also filter as twistr25 recommended.
 
I decided to check the gravity again and I believe its finished, still at 1.012 same as last week. Tasted it as well, has a slight orange aroma and quite bitter. Was conflicted about the instructions as well. I took it as using only the orange part for the zest and not to get into the white part underneath(pith) when zesting. Next time I won't be using any peels in the wort. There was no mold or anything weird looking but I decided to gently skim out the pulp and peels floating on top with sanitized strainer. Will leave it another week or two and then bottle. Wondering if I should add some more zest(soaked in vodka) to the bottling bucket to bring up the orange flavor or leave it as is. A little disappointed, this was my first batch using a liquid yeast- White Labs WLP 380 (used a starter) and am not noticing any of the banana or clove associated with this yeast.
 
I decided to check the gravity again and I believe its finished, still at 1.012 same as last week. Tasted it as well, has a slight orange aroma and quite bitter. Was conflicted about the instructions as well. I took it as using only the orange part for the zest and not to get into the white part underneath(pith) when zesting. Next time I won't be using any peels in the wort. There was no mold or anything weird looking but I decided to gently skim out the pulp and peels floating on top with sanitized strainer. Will leave it another week or two and then bottle. Wondering if I should add some more zest(soaked in vodka) to the bottling bucket to bring up the orange flavor or leave it as is. A little disappointed, this was my first batch using a liquid yeast- White Labs WLP 380 (used a starter) and am not noticing any of the banana or clove associated with this yeast.

If its anything like cider and some other fruit beers, the bitterness and tartness usually overpower the beer for several weeks. Bottle it and give it time to age a bit and those flavors should mellow out and you will get more of the orange. My Strawberry blonde w/ 8lbs of Strawberrys was almost undrinkably tart when it first went into the keg....now 3 weeks later its finally starting to get good.
 
I wanted to try this recipe, but couldn't find blood oranges anywhere. I don't know if they weren't in season or what. So I substituted some more exotic fruits - carambola (star fruit) and pomegranate. I used fresh pomegranate arils in lieu of a pre-package puree or juice. Steeped them and the sliced carambola like the recipe said to do with the blood oranges. Just bottled two days ago. Mold on the floating fruit was not an issue. For a hefe, this thing turned out dark. I attribute that to the color leached out from the arils. First sample flavor profile was delicate and floral, it seemed not alot of the fruit flavor was expressed. I expect it to develop of the next couple of weeks in the bottle.
 
Back
Top