Orange Goes Rotten?

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jayvee

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Hey folks. I am brewing a Orange Ginger Kolsch and woke up with a curious thought yesterday morning. I put the rind of four oranges, the juice of two oranges, and around 5ounces of fresh ground ginger to my brew liquor and now it has been fermenting for almost 3weeks. Since I used fresh ingredients will it not just rot in my carboy leaving rotten orange and ginger? My forethought was that these flavors would be amazing for a hot summer day but now I am concerned of just having rotten flavors in my brew. Also the ginger flavor grew a good bit but any ideas, hints, suggestions?
 
I make mead with oranges in it, which sat for a few months. It won't go rotten. It will impart a wonderful orange flavor. The oranges do get mushy after bit but they are not rotten. I have used oranges in beer too, they don't rot. Keep the cover on the fermentor and all will be good. You need a good blanket of CO2.

Sounds like a great beer
 
Rotting is a process that requires bacteria, and beer is able to keep the fruit from going bad the same way it's able to keep itself from going bad. Don't worry about it.
 
+1. Rotting isn't just a spontaneous process. It is the result of microorganisms breaking down the fruit. The only microbes that will be in your beer are hopefully the ones you chose to pitch into it. Don't worry about any bad "rotting" taking place if you were diligent about sanitation.
 
Yes, I should have added that putting fruit straight into the fermentor without somehow treating it can sometimes infect your beer, but not with the kind of bacteria that can decompose fruit, and definitely not anything that can make you sick.

Although even if you don't somehow sanitize the fruit, your beer will probably be totally fine as long as you let the beer ferment BEFORE adding it, as the bacteria on the fruit will have a much harder, if not impossible time reproducing in an acidic, alcoholic environment such as fermented beer. Not only does adding fruit into freshly brewed, completely unfermented wort - where there's no alcohol and it's not too acidic yet, but there's plenty of food available for the bacteria in the form of sugars - make it far easier for the bacteria to reproduce and gain a solid foothold before the yeast has a chance to create a much less hospitable environment, but also, all the CO2 generated during a vigorous primary fermentation can quite literally "scrub" much of the aroma and some of the more volatile flavor compounds from the fruit right out of the beer, making the fruit character much more subdued than it otherwise would be had you instead added it a couple weeks later.

But even if you added the fruit right away before giving the wort a chance to ferment, chances are your beer will *still* be fine, and not become infected. Either way, what's done is done and all you can really do is RDWHAHB.
 
Thanks this all seems reassuring. I added my fruit to the boil so that should cure the case of the unsanitized fruit and sanitation was of course accounted for with high regards. Let ya'll now how it turns out. Thanks to all
 
+1 to not rot. The bacteria will not be able to get to it, however some deterioration of the fruit will occur, because it's fruit. But because it deteriorates, didn't mean its rotting, just falling apart.
 
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