Apricot Pale Ale

Made up my own recipe for a Pale Ale but decided to throw some quartered apricots in a muslin bag for the last 10 minutes of the boil to extract some flavor and aroma. I've also heard to achieve this you can add the fruit in during the secondary fermentation? Any thoughts on either method? The beer smells good though. Also, it's been in the primary for almost 2 weeks and the krausen has subsided but it is still bubbling a fair amount. Should I wait longer to transfer it to a secondary to condition? Thanks!

Don't secondary until primary fermentation is complete. "Secondary fermenter" is a misnomer.

From what I have read- You will likely lose most, if not all, of the fruit flavor from the boil. Fermentation will knock out a lot of it. Adding it to the secondary will work quite a bit better. I would taste it to see if it has enough flavor when you're ready to transfer it, and if not, add some more apricots.

I researched this quite a bit when I was looking into doing a cherry chocolate stout, which I still have not done yet.

thanks for the tips! now what's the best way to cram the apricots into the secondary? in a muslin bag or just throw them in? (obviously sanitized by boiling first)

you should be ok just chucking them in there... boil the apricots briefly in a bit of water, and then pitch all of that into your secondary. That way you'll end up with any flavor that got leached out of them in the boil. If you really want to get maximum flavor extraction, you could put the whole mess into a blender to churn it up really well, too.

One other question- you already used some apricots, were they sulfured or unsulfured? I don't know that this would have any major effects, but if I were to pick, I'd go with the unsulfured ones... less chance of off-flavors or any effects on fermentation. I'd be afraid of the sulfur dioxide killing it off completely, and leaving you with a really syrupy sweet beer.

I highly recommend oregon fruit puree. They make an apricot puree. There is no worries as to sanitation or losing flavors/aromas from sanitizing. 2 cans in your secondary fermenter, then rack onto it. That stuff is great.

thanks again everyone. to answer the question about being unsulfured; they were. and as far as throwing the puree in there, will that stuff just collect at the bottom so when it comes time to bottle, it will be easy to work around?

I made an apricot lager a while ago, I am currently drinking it.

It tastes better in a brown ale, any darker type of beer. It has an awesome aroma, but in light beers with a light body it really doesnt taste right IMO.

Yes, the puree settles very nicely. It is easy to rack off of it whether to a keg or bottling bucket.