Adding fruit for flavor and aroma

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horrorclause

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Hello,

I just brewed a 5 gallon Amber Ale that I want to add some fruit additions to in secondary. I was thinking blackberries and raspberries. How would I measure out the proportions for a good aroma and nice flavoring after taste? I was thinking of keeping it in secondary for two weeks before bottling and how would that affect the sugar content for priming?
 
You can use fruit puree in a can (I recommend 2-3lbs), or fresh/frozen fruit (4-6lbs). If you use fresh/frozen, make sure you sanitize the fruit by pasteurizing or soaking in starsan.

Depending on your grain bill, if you simply put fruit in it, you may end up with a beer that is too tart to drink without months of conditioning.

Either way, you'll end up with a stronger beer due to additional sugar. You can try using hopville or similar to see if it can calculate the additional sugar content.
 
I add 72oz frozen Raspberries. For a 5 gallon batch. I add to secondary the last 4 days. Always comes out just right.
Thaw the frozen raspberries out. And smash them really good in the bag. Sanitize the outside of the bag. And dump them in.
 
What works for me is to start on the low end and adjust the amount of fruit added every other day or so until you reach the desired flavor and aroma you are looking for. I just brewed a Raspberry Wit to which I added 3 lbs of Raspberries which I put through the blender. I added another 1 lb 2 days later along with a 1/4 oz of extract which worked out great. Not a fan of fruit beers myself but this came out fantastic.
 
norsk said:
What works for me is to start on the low end and adjust the amount of fruit added every other day or so until you reach the desired flavor and aroma you are looking for. I just brewed a Raspberry Wit to which I added 3 lbs of Raspberries which I put through the blender. I added another 1 lb 2 days later along with a 1/4 oz of extract which worked out great. Not a fan of fruit beers myself but this came out fantastic.

Yea but by doing that your risking oxidizing your beer every time you add more fruit. Easier and safer to just do it once and be done IMO. Not knocking your results, just sayin.
 
Here's a data point for what it's worth.
I have a cherry wheat that is almost ready to bottle. I used 1 49 oz can of Vintner's Harvest Cherry Puree. It has been in secondary for about 12 days.

It still has some bubbles on top but I am pretty sure that it is done. SG at 1.007. IBU's are near 45 - fairly well bittered.

The cherry taste is faint, but it is there. And I think it works for me, though it would suit my taste if it had more. I have had a number of craft cherry beers and they seem to be a bit overkill for my tastes.

I have read that raspberries and blackberries pack more punch than other fruits since they are more concentrated naturally.
 
jethro55 said:
Here's a data point for what it's worth.
I have a cherry wheat that is almost ready to bottle. I used 1 49 oz can of Vintner's Harvest Cherry Puree. It has been in secondary for about 12 days.

It still has some bubbles on top but I am pretty sure that it is done. SG at 1.007. IBU's are near 45 - fairly well bittered.

The cherry taste is faint, but it is there. And I think it works for me, though it would suit my taste if it had more. I have had a number of craft cherry beers and they seem to be a bit overkill for my tastes.

I have read that raspberries and blackberries pack more punch than other fruits since they are more concentrated naturally.

I was thinking of leaving it in primary for 14 days and then racking on top of about 4 lbs. blackberries and 2 lbs of raspberries. I'm looking for a nice blackberry aftertaste with a hint of raspberries. I read that the best method for adding fruit is to freeze the fruit to burst the cell walls, then soak in vodka for a day to sanitize then rack on top. And I would leave that in secondary for another 2 weeks and then bottle condition for 3-4 weeks. Any thoughts on that?
 
horrorclause said:
I was thinking of leaving it in primary for 14 days and then racking on top of about 4 lbs. blackberries and 2 lbs of raspberries. I'm looking for a nice blackberry aftertaste with a hint of raspberries. I read that the best method for adding fruit is to freeze the fruit to burst the cell walls, then soak in vodka for a day to sanitize then rack on top. And I would leave that in secondary for another 2 weeks and then bottle condition for 3-4 weeks. Any thoughts on that?

Sounds about right. You only have to let it sit on the fruit long enough for the secondary fermentation to finish and to let the yeast settle back out. At that point you proceed like you would any other batch of beer.
 
Yea but by doing that your risking oxidizing your beer every time you add more fruit. Easier and safer to just do it once and be done IMO. Not knocking your results, just sayin.

My sense is that it is much more difficult to oxidize beer on the home brew scale than people think. Difficult to do it all at once until you figure out what level of fruit and aroma you want. I prefer just a nuance of flavor and aroma myself... the person I was brewing this for likes it very fruity. Just kept adding fruit and extract until it was where I thought he would like it. Now that I have a sense of how much fruit and or extract results in what flavor/aroma profile... adding them all at once would be the way to go...
 
norsk said:
My sense is that it is much more difficult to oxidize beer on the home brew scale than people think. Difficult to do it all at once until you figure out what level of fruit and aroma you want. I prefer just a nuance of flavor and aroma myself... the person I was brewing this for likes it very fruity. Just kept adding fruit and extract until it was where I thought he would like it. Now that I have a sense of how much fruit and or extract results in what flavor/aroma profile... adding them all at once would be the way to go...

From some interesting experiences Ive had I agree. It's not as easy to oxidize your beer as people make it out to be. Everyones got there way of doing things, as long as it works it works. As my dad would say, there's more than one way to skin a cat.
What I can say from doing my blue raspberry 4th of July beer is that raspberry is pretty strong and it doesn't take much to get a noticeable flavor.
 
Resurrecting an old thread....

I'm brewing a raspberry saison this weekend, my first kick at using fruit additions. I'm planning to use 0.5 lb raspberries per gallon, pasteurized, added post-primary. My question is, do I really need to secondary the fruit, or can I add directly to the primary? I'd like to avoid having to use a second vessel and just rack once to help minimize oxidation.

Thanks in advance.
 
You can probably get away with adding to the primary after fermentation is complete. If it's added too early, the co2 being released will basically scrub away most of the fruit flavor.
 
I like to add the fruit to secondary and rack onto the purée. Adding it to primary splashes too much plus I like to harvest my yeast cakes. Racking onto fruit in a secondary seems a bit more gentle plus the fermentation should make oxidation more of a non issue. This is how I've been doing my mango cream ale and it comes out insanely good.
 
My experience with making fruit beers based on 5 different beers

1) Fruit puree will create a sludge zone at the bottom that you don't want in your finished beer. What I do is gently pour the puree into the primary a week after pitching the yeast. I don't add puree to the secondary. I don't harvest yeast from the primary so it's not a problem for me.

2) You will see fermentation start up again and you will hear an occasional glug several weeks later, but you don't need to wait that long.

3) Cold crash in the primary then rack to a secondary, trying to avoid taking in too much sludge, but some will be inevitable.

3) Let it sit a number of hours, until the sediment settles, then bottle or keg. You will get much less sediment than if you add fruit to the primary.

4) Puree contains water and has bulk and doesn't really increase ABV, it's not like adding sugar. It can add tartness if it's acidic though.
 
Thanks everyone. Brewing mashing for my raspberry saison right now. I going to do as you suggest ArcLight and transer to a secondary pale for a few hours right before brewing.
 
Well I bottled my raspberry saison today. 99% of the fruit was on top so I just skimmed it off with a sanitized slotted spoon. No gunk otherwise, so I siphoned directly to the bottling bucket. Most of the raspberry bits I did pick up settled to the bottom of the bottling bucket anyway so only the very last beer got chunks in it. Turned out well and I'm looking forward to sampling in a couple weeks. Thanks all.
 
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