Fruit beer, size of carboy for secondary

[cmoe25027]

Hi all, I'm sure this has been answered but I can't seem to find it so here goes:

My next beer will be made with peaches. I plan to mash up 4-6 lbs of frozen precut peaches, place them in a carboy and rack on top of them. I have a 6.5 gallon carboy already but should I go with a smaller size to cut out headspace or am I going to end up kicking back into a strong fermentation from the peach sugars. I feel like a 5 ga would be too small after adding the bulk of the peaches so I'm thinking it would just be a choice btwn a 6 and a 6.5 gallon. Thanks in advance for any help!

Cheers,
Collin

 

[NWAleDad]

You want as much room as possible, 6.5

 

[gomb]

I do all my fruit additions in a bucket. You will not enjoy trying to clean that carboy after racking off the fruit.

 

[rigglet]

I do all my fruit additions in a bucket. You will not enjoy trying to clean that carboy after racking off the fruit.

+1 on the bucket. I did 4 lbs of strawberry and 2 lbs of rhubarb in a Belgian blond and after seeing the mess in the bottom I was glad I used a bucket and not a carboy. I would not have wanted to try and get that mess out of a little hole in the top.

 

[teetee523]

+1 on the bucket. I did 4 lbs of strawberry and 2 lbs of rhubarb in a Belgian blond and after seeing the mess in the bottom I was glad I used a bucket and not a carboy. I would not have wanted to try and get that mess out of a little hole in the top.

Wow, that sounds really delicious, how did it turn out?

 

[cmoe25027]

Excellent point about the cleaning, thank you!

Cheers,
Collin

 

[rigglet]

Wow, that sounds really delicious, how did it turn out?

It's has only been bottled about 4 weeks, but so far it is OK. The strawberry is not quite were I'd like it to be. The rhubarb came through fine, but the strawberry is a little weak. I'm going to give it another few weeks before I pass final judgment. It's definitely drinkable, but just not quite what I envisioned.

 

[usfmikeb]

Sorry, I'm still averse to using plastic. I use a 5 gallon carboy for fruit in my secondary. Haven't had a real bad issue with cleaning it up, and you don't really build up a big krausen in secondary.

 

[davefleck]

Get over it. Use the bucket.

 

[upperNY01brewer]

I use a bucket when Im adding fruit, its just easier than sticking chunks into a tiny hole.

 

[ironcash]

I was wondering about racking onto the fruit in the secondary as well, so 5 gal is sufficient? I'm kinda worried about losing a bulk of my beer to a strawberry explosion in the secondary.

Also if using 5 gal for secondary is sufficient would using 6.5 be detrimental? causing harmful oxidizing or anything if beer is fermenting in there for a few weeks?

 

[NWAleDad]

Using a 6.5 gal is fine; i used a 6.5 gallon for a strawberry blond and had no issues. The beer sat on 7lbs of berries for a week.

The strawberries won't soak up much of the beer. I transferred to a tertiary after sitting on the berries and let the yeast clean up the beer for another week. Since i transferred to a tertiary this allowed me to actually pour the remaining beer left in the secondary that was left behind from the auto siphon.

When I bottled I had exactly 47 bottles. Good luck!

 

[ThePearsonFam]

I use a 6.5gal primary, rack onto the fruit in a 6.5gal secondary and then into a 5gal bright tank to get rid of chunks of fruit. That's the only time I really use a bright tank at all.

 

[ironcash]

alright thank you, I'm planning on a strawberry blonde as soon as I get moved to portland at the end of the month

 

[NWAleDad]

If you need a great recipe i recommend this one https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/succulent-strawberry-blonde-132423/

 

[BrewForMe]

I brewed a 5 gallon batch of strawberry blonde. I recently racked the 5 gallons onto 8# of frozen strawberries and it filled my 6.5 gallon bucket to the brim. Dont underestimate how much space your fruit will take up, i havent had any problems with excessive fermentation after 4 days in there so hopefully i am homefree.

 

[upperNY01brewer]

I use a 6.5 plastic bucket for any fruit additions along with sticking the fruits into a bag, drop in pull out.

 

[ironcash]

alright I've been reading up on that strawberry blonde I think thats my recipe, once I get to portland (and hopefully have a place to stay) I'm a start on it. Worse come to worse I could always brew it in the storage unit im getting

 

[NWAleDad]

You won't regret the choice for the strawberry blond. Freaking awesome!

 

[UnfixedShihTzu]

If you need a great recipe i recommend this one https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/succulent-strawberry-blonde-132423/

Haha, that caught my eye and is my next brew. Good to know it will be worth it.

 

[cmoe25027]

So thanks for the tip everyone, I ended up using 6lb frozen peaches in an ale pail for ten days then added 5 grams of redstar champagne yeast right before bottling.

Three weeks after bottling I tried it-disgusting! It tasted like rotten fruit mixed with crappy beer! 4 weeks after that I got my beer fridge and placed it in there at around 34ish degrees. Tried another one a week after that, 8 weeks total, and it's fantastic! Not perfect but pretty dang good. The peach flavor and aroma are very light and the carbonation is a little high but very drinkable, especially for the summer! Of the three beers I've brewed this one has the most fans.

Cheers,
Collin

 

[blackbear219]

I've got that succulent strawberry blonde recipe in primary right now! Can't wait :rockin: