adding fruit to beer

[kevinholbrook]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum and also brewing. That being said I wanted to make and apple ale and on my first one I added and apple mash to the secondary fermantation. We yielded a very low fg and alcohol with the beer, I'm thinking about doing another batch and I was wondering if it would be better to add the fruit during the boil or do the same as the last one and add more yeast?

 

[bigbeergeek]

I'd skip the apples in the boil. You don't want boiled apple flavor. Add more apples to your secondary fermentor than you used last time. Selece a lower-attenuating (british?) yeast. Consider infusing some vodka with apples (a homemade "apple extract") and dosing your bottling bucket to taste. A small addition of commercial apple extract will really bring home the apple taste. Apples are a mild flavored fruit, it's a tough flavor to deliver. Good luck.

 

[kevinholbrook]

Hey beergeek thanks, we were supposed to bottle this past sunday and after finding out our issues we left it in the fermentor for a little longer would you recommend repitching more yeast and let it sit for another week or are these sugars no longer fermentable?

 

[user 103238]

About a year ago I made an amber ale, and ended up putting a couple pounds of apples into secondary after I sliced them up and roasted them in the oven. After letting them sit for about a week I bottled it. It had a great flavor, akin to apple pie.

I wouldn't worry about the additional sugars, they should have minimal contributions to the beer.

 

[bigbeergeek]

How long has the beer been in contact with the apples?

 

[kevinholbrook]

They have only been in contact with the apples for a week and two days.