Adding fruit to Wit

[dawwwgs]

First Wit...question about adding fruit

I am trying my first Wit, recipe is as follows:

5.5 gallon batch
6.75 gallon pre boil

6 lbs Ida Pils
3 lbs White Wheat Malt
2.5 lbs Wheat flaked

.75 oz Tettnang 60 min
.75 oz Tettnang 10 min
.75 oz bitter/sweet orange peel

Wyeast 3944 smack pack

Question is, I want to add blackberry to it, but when ???
end of boil, after fermentation, ...and how much to add if I use fresh blackberry's
Any help is very much appreciated

 

[avidhomebrewer]

I would add it at the tail end of the secondary. That way, you don't have too much of the aromas escaping during the fermentation. As for how much, it depends upon your personal preference. From my tastes, I like about 10# of fresh fruit per 5 gallon batch.

 

[JasonToews]

Depends how strong you want the blackberry flavor to be. I Just did a 7% wheat ale which i added 5 lbs of strawberry to. The flavor was very balanced. When adding fruit, you should always add to secondary, in my personal expierence.

 

[beerspitnight]

With a near 50/50 split on grain and wheat, are you not concerned that your mash will turn to glue?
Let me know what you end up doing and how it turns out as I am trying to prepare a recipe for a honey orange wit and need to figure out where and when and how much orange to add.

 

[AmsterdamBrew]

Make sure you pasteurize the fruit before putting it in the secondary. You may also want to rack again after that fermentation is complete to let it settle out the berry particles. I've heard of people putting pectin in with the fruit to help settle out the haze, but with a Wit beer the cloudiness is expected anyway.

 

[EBloom97]

Blackberry is kind of a delicate flavor, so it seems like it would go great with a wit, but it is also a strong color. To add enough blackberries to be able to taste it, say 5 lbs minimum, you're going to be effecting your color in a way that is very uncharacteristic of a wit. I would try find a concentrated blackberry extract if I really had my heart set on a blackberry flavor in my wit.

 

[Mysticmead]

here's my thoughts on using fresh fruit. to break the cells walls down and get the most juice it needs to be frozen and then thawed. might as well use frozen fruit to begin with. when adding fruit to my mead, I thaw the fruit, add a little water, heat to pasteurize then add it to the secondary WITH pectic enzyme (keeps the pectin from congealing) if I were to add fruit to a beer, I would follow the same steps. also, when adding to secondary, be prepared for it to start fermenting again. in some cases it can get pretty vigorous

 

[Hebby]

I just made a blood orange hefeweizen which turned out great. I zested the skins of the oranges, then cut off the pith(white part between the skin and fruit), then I chopped the fruit and put it and the zest in a small pot and added a few cups of water. I heated it to 170 to pasteurize it and mashed it a little with a fork. I poured the juice/water into the primary and put the oranges and zest in a hop strainer bag and tossed that into the primary as well. The orange is there but not the primary flavor. It's subtle and you notice it on the back end. I would definitely make it again. I would assume doing something like that would probably work with blackberries as well. Since I was making a hefe there is no secondary needed.

 

[autoferret]

I usually get frozen berry's like Mysticmead had said, and put them in the secondary. I had great results w/ raspberry and strawberry.

 

[Mysticmead]

I just made a blood orange hefeweizen which turned out great. I zested the skins of the oranges, then cut off the pith(white part between the skin and fruit), then I chopped the fruit and put it and the zest in a small pot and added a few cups of water. I heated it to 170 to pasteurize it and mashed it a little with a fork. I poured the juice/water into the primary and put the oranges and zest in a hop strainer bag and tossed that into the primary as well. The orange is there but not the primary flavor. It's subtle and you notice it on the back end. I would definitely make it again. I would assume doing something like that would probably work with blackberries as well. Since I was making a hefe there is no secondary needed.

if you soak the zest in a little (a couple ounces) cheap vodka for a few days you'll extract a lot of the orange aroma and flavor strain it, add the zest to primary (or secondary) and add the tincture at bottling time.

 

[Mikey_Dawg]

I just did a Strawberry Blonde and used 8lbs of fresh strawberries which I pasteurized, froze, and added them in a muslin bag to the PRIMARY about 5-6 days after putting the beer in the PRIMARY. (Basically after fermentation was complete). I use a 5gallon glass carboy for secondary so there was no way to add the fruit to the secondary and I also thought it was better to rack off the fruit into the secondary to let it sit a few days off the fruit.

I've tried a few different methods for adding fruit to the beer and I believe this is the best method so far. The aroma and freshness came out the best using this method. Of course, if I had a larger secondary, I could have just added the fruit then but I still like the idea of racking off the fruit to let the beer sit in the secondary. Hope this helps.

 

[dawwwgs]

Thanks for all the help....decided to go with Rasberries as they are less potent and wont affect the color of the beer....brewed today, no stuck sparge as what that was my biggest concern..... initial taste was great....cant wait to add Raspberries

 

[autoferret]

rice hauls are your friend!

 

[Unibrow]

Maybe get this thread resurrected here...?

I just did a partial mash wit - and I want to do a fruit addition. I was thinking to pour in a large can of oregon fruit puree (either blackberry, apricot or plum) into the primary after 2 weeks fermentation. Then let it sit another 2 weeks.

My other option would be to rack the beer onto the fruit puree in secondary. And another 2 weeks in the secondary.

Does anybody have advice on this front? I've never used the Orgeon fruit before but it seems like a good idea to add a fruit flavor to the wit. Thanks!!!

 

[xj_sparky]

A couple of months ago I made 6 gallons of Wit and split in secondary into two 3 gal batches. When I transferred to secondary I pitches raspberries in one and blackberries in the other. I used fresh berries in both, washed and froze the berries, then thawed before pitching. I did not pasteurize since I wanted to loose no flavor/aroma. I figured the alcohol in the beer would kill off anything that I didn't want in my beer. I added into secondary with a 1 tsp. of ascorbic acid (for good measure) in each 3 gal batch. Both turned out great! I will add a bit more blackberries next time (too subtle), but the raspberry was perfect for what I was aiming for.