Fruit in beer question

Hey guys

I made 10 gallons worth of beer, currently in primary. For secondary I want to add fruit (grapefruit for 1 half, lemon ginger for the other).

My plan is to mix the beer with fresh squeezed fruit juice for 3 or 4 days in secondary, then bottle.

The first question is, how much fruit do I need? Will 3 grapefruits and 5 lemons be enough? Too much?

Second question, should i do more then 3 or 4 days? Yeast would have a chance to eat some of that sugar.

And lastly, should I reduce priming sugar? How much?

Any insight would be great

Thx

 

The amount to add is highly subjective, depending on what you're expecting from the final product. Most of the time I see people using whole fruit instead of juices, as well as adding extracts to really round the flavor out

A VERY general rule seems to be about 1.5 lb per gallon of beer, so your amounts seem really low. Some say to pull a sample, put in a measured amount, and then scale up, but to me, that is almost as much of a crapshoot as guessing, as the amount you will scale up can be off by quite a bit if you're off by a fraction in the sampling. I had a chart in a book somewhere, but can't find it right now

When I fruit beer, I usually leave it for at least a week, if not more. Shouldn't be a need to reduce priming sugar unless you use a short interval like you're saying, and how much to reduce is tough to say. I'd just leave it in there a week plus and prime as normal.

I went from just fruit to fruit and extract, as sometimes fruit alone doesn't give it the flavor I was looking for, normally the sweetness level.

 

Thanks. This is great information.
I will def let is sit longer...1.5lb per gallon of beer will be tricky, that adds almost a gallon of volume, which my secondary will struggle with holding. Maybe I just add it to primary...

 

You can do less fruit, and more extract? You won't be able to split for the 2 types though in 1 primary.

Just to make sure, I wouldn't add the rinds of the fruit, just the pulp. Lemon zest or a lemon tincture might be a better option for the lemon, but probably not the grapefruit.