Puree's in primary

[richlong8020]

Hey I wanted to run this by everyone. I was wondering when is the best time to add fruit puree's. My plan was to add the purée just before I pitch the yeast and wort into the primary bucket. I think that is a very good time to get a full fermentation including the fruit. I also thought that the 3 week primary would be a good amount of time for the wort with the added fruit to go through fermentation and settle out at the end of the fermentation time. Can you guys tell if my thinking is sound.

 

[RM-MN]

I might wait until the fermentation slowed down to add the fruit. Your yeast like to ferment simple sugars which your fruit contains and may not want to do the harder work of fermenting the malt sugars. If you make the do the malt sugars first, they won't know about the easy sugars until you add the fruit and you may get better attenuation of them on the malt sugars. When you add the fruit, the yeast will quickly ferment that.

With all that said, I may be wrong and if so I hope someone with more experience corrects me.

 

[JBOGAN]

Made one fruit beer and I agree with the above on letting things come to a slow before adding fruit. If you are doing a puree like I did think about using some pectic enzyme. My beer had a fantastic taste but was also thick and syrup like, lesson learned.

 

[falkaveli]

Though I have never pitched in the primary on day 1, I have had good success with pitching about 10 days into fermentation. Definitely use pectic enzyme...it's cheap and necessary for many fruit purees. I made a guava blonde one time without pectic enzyme and it never cleared.

 

[richlong8020]

So I usually go for a 3 week primary just in case I need to dry hop or add anything. I think I'll add the purée after the first week of primary has finished. That way I still have 2 weeks for the trub and pulp to fall out.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

As others said i would do it after fermentation is done, then let it sit for a few more days to possibly ferment out the puree sugars.

It wont ruin it if you have to throw it all in at once for whatever reason, but i would think that a lot of the aroma would be off gassed during fermentation. The same reason you dry hop after fermentation is over.

 

[falkaveli]

If you like to brew fruit beers, this will be the best one hour and 11 minutes that you've ever spent on brewing. http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/990

 

[richlong8020]

So I bit the bullet and added it to primary with my yeast starter and my addition of some yeast nutrient. Did this all on 4-4-15 and checked it this morning. Started to bust out of the air lock lol. So cleaned it up and added my blow off tube. Really looking forward to this brew. The smell is great. Gonna be a long 3 weeks but worth it.