adding fruit to kit

[afss]

i picked up a couple of kits, a wheat and a cream ale both with the idea of adding fruit to them.

I was thinking about maybe raspberry to half of the wheat and maybe appricot or peach or something else (open to suggestions) to the second half.

I was also thinking about blue berry to half of the cream ale as well as another fruit to the other half, again open to suggestions

I keg so puting half batches in the keg is quick and easy.

I was planing on starting the batches as per normal and then racking them around 4-5 days into halfs and adding the fruit at this time.

Can i just add the fruit?

Do i still start the kits with the recomended sugars at the start?

do i need to add other things to help balance the acids etc in the fruit when i add it?

Thanks for any pointers.

 

[enkamania]

I've made watermelon wheat and a strawberry cream ale. I ferment for a week and add the fruit. For the watermelon, I add the chunks to a paint strainer bag and throw in the fermenter. I puree the strawberry and throw it in.

 

[JimRausch]

Ferment as usual. Then when fermentation is complete, rack onto the fruit. Or just add it to primary all depending on where you sit on that topic. Fermentation will kick back in, so I let it sit for usually another week before cold crashing and preparing for packaging.
I've used frozen blueberries(OK, should have used more than 14oz per gallon)
frozen raspberries(very good at 14oz per gallon)
frozen cranberries(very good at 1lb per 5G Graf)
frozen cherries(horrible, had to dump after waiting 6 months for it to become drinkable)
extract apricot(good)- 4oz bottle at bottling
extract cherry( not so good, but better than the frozen cherries)- 4 oz bottle at bottling
The fermentation will eat all the sugars from the fruit, yielding good color, some aroma, and a little flavor. If you want a lot of fruit flavor, you might have to add some unfermentable sugar. A lot of fruit flavor is actually sugar.

 

[troypolla]

I added raspberry with about 5 minutes left in the boil to a wheat kit. Still have a week left in the fermenter so not sure on the outcome yet.