Flavor Additions to Secondary

[Frenchy]

I'm planning a brew with some syrup added to it (not malt extract). I read that it would be best added to a secondary to retain as much aroma and flavor as possible. So I have 2 questions..1) For sanitary concerns, how should I go about adding sugar or other flavor additives to a secondary? 2) If I'm adding sugar, is there enough yeast suspended in the wort when I transfer to get ferment the sugar?

 

[ACbrewer]

1) if it is a commercial product that is unopened? then it is already clean. They wouldn't sell it if it isn't. If it is 'fresh fruit' then you should perform some sort of sanitation on it. This can be tricky because if you heat it you can drive of the very flavors you want to keep. But you said 'syrup' so I'm guessing either a fruit flavor addative or maple or honey or something. Those are good to just add in.
2) sugar v yeast.. well in general there is enough yeast in the 2ndary to take care of sugars, unless you add a lot - then you want a blowoff tube anyhow- but even with that, I racked a lambic once on to some raspberries and still enough yeast for it all, even without adding more. Generally I've put the addative down, then racked on to it (to help stir it up) although you can do it the reverse and stir it up.

If you are adding a thick syrup (maple, honey, etc) then I'd strongly suggest adding it to a cup or 2 or water (or beer) and getting it disolved and more runny first. As pure syrup, they will drop to the bottom of your fermentor and just sit there and be a pain to stir in. I have trouble with my tea and honey sometimes, don't want to consider a 1lb of maple at the bottle of my carboy and needing to stir it up. Eventaully through diffusion and yeast action, the syrup would be converted to alcohol, but it will take longer.

 

[Frenchy]

Thanks, that was a good point about the syrup. I forgot about the fact that commercial syrup would already be pasturized. I was figuring I'd need to add it to water to thin it down but wasn't sure if I need to boil the water & syrup. What about adding fresh fruit? It had crossed my mind to try a strawberry blonde ale.

 

[usfmikeb]

Some folks swear that you can throw fresh fruit directly into the carboy without pasteurizing at all, but I guess I'm a bit more conservative. If I use fresh fruit, I add it to water, heat it to 160 degrees F, and hold it at that temp for 15 minutes or so. Don't boil it, you'll produce pectin, creating a hazy beer.

 

[Lazarous]

What about just giving the fruit a good wash in some star San? Or is there some reason not to do that

 

[ACbrewer]

If you are going to do the fruit and 'clean it' I recomend planing a head and using some metabisulfite or the campden tablets (same stuff different name)... basically what the wine makers do is that they crush the fruit and make the must and put in some metabisulfate wait 24 hours for the sufler compounds to gass off and then pitch yeast....

Do the same with the fresh fruit add to your beer, use a little water+ meta and put it in a container with an airlock (or some other venting method - bacteria comes in through dust which generally falls down, so a bag or lid over the fruit can work even if it isn't tight...)...

If you are making a lambic or belgian style sour, then a direct pitch of the fruit is considered ok... As for the Star San or Idaphor wash of the fruit - I don't see why you couldn't do that.

incase you don't know
wort = malt in water usually has hops and sometimes other stuff - but you probably know this
must = juice planed for wine - also applies to thined honey for mead. it is basically the not yet fermented product, like wort is for beer.

 

[ACbrewer]

@Frenchy - just occured to me, when you get hte syrup check for preservatives... they will kill your yeast which may or may not be a problem. If you are kegging/force carbing it probably won't be. The one to watch out for is potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate... if it is a sulfate (usually metabisulfate) that is ok, but you will need to thin it and let it sit for 24 hours or it will kill the yeast.