Using Fresh Fruit

So I'm trying my first "fruit flavored" summer beer. I made a nice pale ale and am planning on adding about 2# of fresh raspberries. I'm wondering if there is a common practice for adding fresh fruit to beer. I'm considering blanching them for a couple of minutes first. I'm also tempted to just throw them in raw... any suggestions?

Happy brewing, for when we brew, we can DRINK!!

Freeze them over night and then thaw them. Add pectin enzyme and campden tablet. Let set for 10 or so hours then add to secondary. Rack brew on top...That's what I'd do.

steep them in water 170-180 for 15 minutes. that's what i do, and never had problems. you throw them in as is, you'll get an infection. sustained temps higher than 160 for 10 minutes kill infections. 10 minutes works, so go 15. throw the water in too, if you feel like it. i do

Pectic enzyme helps extract more juice and prevents pectin haze, campden tablets kill the wild yeast and prevent oxidation. Freezing simply helps break down the cell walls of the fruit. This will give you much better juice extraction. Heating the fruit can actually harden the pectin walls in the fruit's cells and cause your beer to be cloudy. If its a cloudy wheat beer or you don't really care then it ain't no problem then! But I certainly wouldn't just throw them in there. oh and make sure they are ripe!

I get my methods from making fruit wines. I've never pasteurized my fruit and I've never had any problems. If you want to go an easy route you could just try fruit extracts.

Haha basically, there are a thousand ways to do anything and everything. Just pick what sounds best by researching and doing what you think makes sense. Just don't break any basic rules Like introducing contaminates to your brew and you'll be fine. I know some people that just throw fruit in a blender with vodka and dump the whole thing in. Good luck!

When I made my cherry wheat with fresh cherries, i just pitted/washed froze/thaw dumped them into secondary. RDWHAHB. No infections and the beer turned out great!

Boo-urns said:

When I made my cherry wheat with fresh cherries, i just pitted/washed froze/thaw dumped them into secondary. RDWHAHB. No infections and the beer turned out great!

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Since the beer is already fermented you don't have to worry too much about the wild yeast. Plus I would imagine healthy ripe fruit is mostly free of contaminants if washed thoroughly. The fruit produces its own natural antioxidants and preservatives such as vitamin c which protects it from infection.

Given that, I still use campden. One benefit of using campden tablets in wine making is to kill bacteria along with the wild yeast. This gives the wine yeast a huge leg up. It may not be 100% necessary in beer but I'm super cautious about adding anything to secondary. It's lower alcohol content and residual sugars makes it more susceptible to infections. At least a good soak in vodka to be safe. Then freeze and thaw.

Like Boo-urns said relax and don't worry. Whatever method you choose makes your beer unique to you. To me that's the fun part.

I second the use of campden tablets. I am currently sanitizing 48 oz of raspberries for my beer ...I crushed half a tablet and mixed it with warm water then poured it over the raspberries, put some foil on top and threw it in the fridge. I'll be racking tonight...24 hour duration is enough. The foil will allow the sulfites to evaporate off.

Does campden tablets turn the fruit white? I thought i heard an odd story about that, which is why I was chucked them in the secondary. I wasn't sure the correct method to use them.

Yeah, it does slightly turn them white. I just use a half tablet with 48 oz, and it should be fine. The flavors are still there. The last time I made my raspberry beer, the fruit was mostly white, but the smell and taste of the beer is delicious!

My fruit ended up completely white, after transferring to a keg I also added 3 oz extract to calm the tartiness down a bit, and adds a little color.

I wonder if there is any benefit to macerating the fruit with sugar for a day (and then freezing it) before using it.

I imagine this would be better than simply tossing in fresh, sliced strawberries.

>>So I'm trying my first "fruit flavored" summer beer. I made a nice pale ale and am planning on adding about 2# of fresh raspberries. I'm wondering if there is a common practice for adding fresh fruit to beer. I'm considering blanching them for a couple of minutes first. I'm also tempted to just throw them in raw... any suggestions?


I used canned (pasturized) raspberries, and the beer tasted and smelled like ... raspberries.

bobbrews said:

I wonder if there is any benefit to macerating the fruit with sugar for a day (and then freezing it) before using it.

I imagine this would be better than simply tossing in fresh, sliced strawberries.

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You could but depending on how much sugar you use it might take away from the style of beer you are making. Plus, That sugar will begin fermenting again so I would use as little as possible. That sounds like a great idea for wine though!

Who knows, for a dry IIPA with some peach character, maybe it would be genius to mix the sugar addition of the grist with the fruit and pitch it later in fermentation.

bobbrews said:

Who knows, for a dry IIPA with some peach character, maybe it would be genius to mix the sugar addition of the grist with the fruit and pitch it later in fermentation.

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That's not a bad idea. It should give you a good healthy fermentation as well. I'd still use campden and pectic enzyme. Along with freezing the fruit of course.

am adding cherries to a belgian golden ale abv about 9.5% have fermented now for 2 weeks.
should I place the cherries in a secondary rack the golden ale onto them and ferment another week and then transfer to glass (tertiary?) for aging? or add the cherries into the primary fermenter let it do it's thing and then transfer to secondary?

also what about washing with vodka to kill the bacteria and yeast? pour off the vodka and keep for other uses. this would also bump the abv up a little which is where I want it closer to 10

UnderThePorchBrewing said:

am adding cherries to a belgian golden ale abv about 9.5% have fermented now for 2 weeks.
should I place the cherries in a secondary rack the golden ale onto them and ferment another week and then transfer to glass (tertiary?) for aging? or add the cherries into the primary fermenter let it do it's thing and then transfer to secondary?

also what about washing with vodka to kill the bacteria and yeast? pour off the vodka and keep for other uses. this would also bump the abv up a little which is where I want it closer to 10

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Put the cherries in a 5 gal carboy and rack on top of it. Let it sit for a month or two, then rack to tertiary to clear.

usfmikeb said:

Put the cherries in a 5 gal carboy and rack on top of it. Let it sit for a month or two, then rack to tertiary to clear.

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thanks, this is what I thought but didn't know the time to keep in secondary. a month or so. OK. looking at it being a Christmas beer so this works well.

UnderThePorchBrewing said:

am adding cherries to a belgian golden ale abv about 9.5% have fermented now for 2 weeks.
should I place the cherries in a secondary rack the golden ale onto them and ferment another week and then transfer to glass (tertiary?) for aging? or add the cherries into the primary fermenter let it do it's thing and then transfer to secondary?

also what about washing with vodka to kill the bacteria and yeast? pour off the vodka and keep for other uses. this would also bump the abv up a little which is where I want it closer to 10

Click to expand...

I'd freeze them over night in a ziplock baggie and then pull them out to thaw pour a little vodka and pectic enzyme on top. mash them really well once thawed dump the whole thing into secondary and rack on top. it should settle out fine in secondary with the pectic enzyme. Vodka doesn't extract the flavor from berries very well make sure you crush them to get the juices out. Also in a five gallon batch the affect on your ABV won't be noticeable. Sounds good though!

what does the pectin enzyme do for the beer/fruit?
the recipe I have did not call for this.

UnderThePorchBrewing said:

what does the pectin enzyme do for the beer/fruit?
the recipe I have did not call for this.

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Prevents pectic haze and helps breakdown fruit cell walls. It's common practice when using fresh fruit in wine. Works great in beer as well.

I don't use campden tablets or heat pasteurization. I just wash the fruit thoroughly and remove any pieces which are damaged or look like they are starting to turn. I've done it many, many times and never had a problem with infection.

My first few times making fruit beers, I did make a puree and heat pasteurized it. The flavor I got from that was different from that of fresh fruit. Sort of like the difference between cherries in a cherry pie vs fresh cherries, I guess. I prefer the unheated version, personally. I usually cut up the fruit (or "distress" it in the case of blueberries, raspberries, etc.) and put the fruit in a sanitized container to freeze, then put the frozen fruit into a fine mesh bag (e.g. hops bag) when I put it in secondary.


So far as clarification is concerned, I had some problems with pectin haze when I did the heat pasteurization. Adding pectin enzyme didn't help very much to improve clarity. With fresh fruit, I use my standard whirlfloc in the boil, and a cold crash with gelatin addition after secondary. My fruit beer comes out crystal clear.