Most of the threads i've read suggest adding fruit to the secondary since active fermentation drives off some of the flavors. What about adding the fruit to the primary, after fermentation is mostly complete? Call me lazy, but i don't feel like racking the beer to another container if i don't have to.
Fruit in primary, after fermetation is complete
- Thread starter Gritsak
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
rnrchemnerd
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2006
- Messages
- 100
- Reaction score
- 2
You're going to get a lot of conflicting responses, but let me start it off. Putting fruit in the primary AFTER the initial fermentation is the best way to go. There's less risk of contamination, because the entire healthy yeast cake is available to do it's job. If you were to rack to a secondary and then add the fruit, you would still get active fermentation. There would just be less yeast to compete with whatever "bugs" are in/on the fruit. The fruit flavors and aromas will still get scrubbed off by the CO2 produced whether in the primary or secondary. The only real difference is the infection risk...But, that's just my opinion. 
While pasteurizing the blackberries i realized that my 6.5g plastic fermenting bucket would probably be permanently stained purple if i put 4lbs of blackberries in there. I'm just going to transfer it all into a glass carboy.
