Fruit Puree In Secondary Question

Hey all....

I racked my latest batch over top of 49oz. of Oregon Apricot puree this evening and noticed that the fruit was not mixing as well with the beer as I thought it was going to. It's just kind of sitting there on the bottom of the fermentor. Should I have warmed it up prior to racking to make is less viscous? Will this affect the overall taste (e.g. will it be less "fruity" as a result)?

Also, for those of you who have done this type of beer before, how long to you recommend leaving it in the secondary?

Thanks,
Andrew

You need to mix the puree into the beer, otherwise it will contribute little or no flavor.

I did a belgian double with 5lb of cherries in the secondary. The cherries were frozen, so I heated them to about 160*, mashed with a potato masher and let them cool to room temp. Then threw them into the secondary and racked on top. I did stir one time during the racking to suspend the puree, but the majority of it settled.

I let mine sit in secondary 2 weeks, but would have gone 3 if I had time before the holiday.

It's a paint in the butt to rack off all of those cherry skins and chunks.
-J

Hmm...is there any way to stir the batch up that would not adversely affect the beer?

You can get a long spoon and stir it around gently without making bubbles and aerating the fermenting wort.
-J

Stirring gently is good. If you are using a carboy you can use the handle of a spoon to stir with (I have the long plastic spoons from the LHBS and the handle works great for stirring)

I've never stirred up a fruit beer secondary and I've done several and all were successful. If you let it sit long enough in secondary, I don't think it will matter much, but YMMV. I normally use raspberries, and fresh ones float rather than sink; this could be a factor. By the way, they get really butt ugly after a couple of weeks, as all the color drains out of them.

yeah, i use about 40-50 oz of dethawed raspberries in the secondary. i just rack right ontop of them. it looks like they wont get eaten but dont worry, the beastie yeasties will find them and bring them up to the top over time. no worries. they'll loose all of their color, or at least most. and they'll look like death. but with that amount in the secondary you'll DEFINATELY have some apricot flavor! just make sure that you only get organic fruit or at least read the label to make sure that they dont add any sugar to the fruit. thats a common thing with cheaper frozen fruit : ) good luck, i'm sure it'll taste GREAT!