Priming with fruit extract and corking questions

Hey fellow homebrewers!

I have two quick questions -

1) I am sitting on 7 gallons of a lilikoi beer which has just reached final gravity. I was going to add in the Likikoi (passion fruit) juice that I squeezed and froze before I bottled it. Will it serve as the sugar that I need to add for priming or should I go out and do the 3/4ths of corn sugar as well? (and this is the right time to add the fruit concentrate right??)

2) I have a corker - and was thinking of bottling some of my beer in wine bottles and then corking them instead of capping them. Can anyone tell me how this might change or effect things? Is it a bad idea?

Thanks!!

1) the problem with priming with that juice is that you don't know the sugar content of that juice, so your beer could end up undercarbed or even worse you could create bottle bombs.

2) I would not recommend bottling beer in wine bottles and corking - that is not designed to withstand carbonation.

Wrathbone said:

1) the problem with priming with that juice is that you don't know the sugar content of that juice, so your beer could end up undercarbed or even worse you could create bottle bombs.

2) I would not recommend bottling beer in wine bottles and corking - that is not designed to withstand carbonation.

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Can't do beer in a wine bottle....The carbonation will push the corks out and make a very nice fountain of beer.
Big Belgian bottles with corks and wires are very cool though.

ok - I'll nix the wine bottle idea. I thought it would be cool, but I definatly don't want it to be exploding!!

So I should still use roughly 3/4th corn sugar AND put in my passion fruit extract before bottling?

No. Put the juice in the fermenter and let it ferment out. Then bottle and prime normally.

Oh crap - I thought I was supposed to wait with the concentrate until bottling - I just went down and added it now.

Any idea how this will change the gravity or how much time I should now wait before bottling it?

its been fermenting without it for about 2 and a half weeks already. Maybe it just won't have a strong lilikoi taste?

Thanks!

You said you juiced the fruit yourself, so it's not concentrate, it's juice. It has sugar. The sugar needs to ferment before you bottle, or you're setting yourself up for carbonation issues or bottle bombs. Add the juice, wait for the fermentation to subside again (another 5-7 days, minimum), then bottle normally. An additional week or two won't significantly impact the overall flavor of the finished beer.

OK! Thanks a lot for clearing that up! I appreciate it!