Adding juice to secondary

[h-bar]

I'm going to add pineapple juice to the secondary of my trippel. My concern is that the beer will be sickeningly sweet because the golden ale yeast will be not adapted to pineapple juice and the sugars that come with it. I have two ideas here: I could start some golden ale yeast in pineapple juice prior to adding juice to the secondary, or I could start some white wine or champagne yeast in the juice. The only reason I would consider wine yeast is its ability to process fruit sugars, I'm not sure if off flavors or excessive dryness would be a problem. Or perhaps the beer will be fine if I add no yeast. Which option would be best?

 

[newbies13]

From reading other fruit beer recipes, I think once you add the juice the residual yeast will wake up and begin their process again. I haven't seen people do anything fancy other than that.

I am not expert though, so maybe someone else has more experience on that matter. My opinion is that it would be fine with any old yeast that you would use for the flavor profile you want.

 

[h-bar]

Thanks. This is my first fruit beer, so I'm a bit inexperienced as well. I've made a melon wine, but that was fairly straight forward.

 

[TequilaMockingbird]

I recently made a batch of amber ale, and added a litre of lychee juice to the secondary. It went nuts, and I do mean nuts. Luckily I fitted a blow off, otherwise the secondary ferment would have went everywhere. Tasted quite sour and dry. Might try it in a wheat beer next time.

 

[h-bar]

Good to know! I hadn't considered that an airlock wouldn't have been okay.

 

[daksin]

I would skip the juice, the sugar will mostly ferment out and you're going to be left with bitter pith and TONS of acid.

 

[h-bar]

What should I do then? I know a pineapple beer made with the juice is possible because I had one from a local brewery. It wasn't bitter at all.

Also, pineapples don't have pith because they aren't hesperidia. I would agree that sourness could be an issue. I was also inspired by New Belgium's Feijoa Tripel, which was pleasantly tart from the fruit that was added. My plan is to add only a small volume of juice, wait a week, taste it, and decide how to proceed.

 

[daksin]

My plan is to add only a small volume of juice, wait a week, taste it, and decide how to proceed.

That may be the way to go. If I was making a beer with pineapple I'd probably use cut fruit rather than juice. My advice comes from several bad reports of use of orange juice in beer rather than cut fruit, which has been done successfully, and not on personal experience.

What should I do then? I know a pineapple beer made with the juice is possible because I had one from a local brewery. It wasn't bitter at all.

Also, pineapples don't have pith because they aren't hesperidia.

Now you're just being pedantic

 

[h-bar]

Yeah, orange juice would be a bad plan. I'm not sure how its acidity would compare to pineapple juice....I'll look into it.

 

[Oceantendency]

Hmm, well one of my favorite beers from Iron Fist Brewery is their Pineapple Express, it's a Belgian Tripel/IPA ( Uprising) with Pineapple, however if I listened correctly to Greg, they don't use the juice, more less the rhind with the green outer stuff cut off and enjoy the really juicey interior. Pineapple juice is very acidic, so go sparingly.

 

[h-bar]

If I'm understanding correctly, I should use the fruit nearest the rind? Or just the fruit in general?