adding fruit

[mtk6006]

Getting ready to brew a ipa and im adding some lemon zest at end of boil but was thinking why not some fruit too? I got cranberries stuck in my head for some reason. Im in expieramental mode jist willing to try anything. Might be good might be bad who knows. What s the method for doing the fruit thing? Again its just 2 gallon expierment. Gotta start somewhere and theres no time like now. Next question for a 2gallon ipa and oz of hops enough? Or bump it to atleast two?

 

[BamaRooster]

You can search posts here on this forum and get allot of info on fruit additions. I personally wait until primary fermentation has completed and then add my crushed fruit to the secondary vessel, then rack the beer on top of the fruit. I always pasteurize my fruit by gently heating it to 190 degrees. There are many who will say this is not required and they may be correct. I have never been able to get up the courage to try after I added some un-sanitized vanilla powder to a batch at bottling and it introduced an infection that showed up at about the 5 week mark. Before that the beer was amazing but after the 5 week martk it began to sour and become over carbonated. Just my $.02 worth.

 

[drlars]

Glad you started this thread. I've decided that my next will be a cranberry ale as well. (Although I'm having trouble finding any fresh cranberries at the markets yet... hopefully they'll have them soon). (BTW this would be for 5 gal)

Here is my plan w/resp to the fruit:
- 1/2 cranberries (haven't decided as to total weight yet... will likely eyeball it) frozen/thawed then smashed, steeped in a muslin bag alongside the specialty grains.
- I do a partial boil, so I will add 32 oz of organic 100% cranberry juice into the cold water in the fermenter that I add the wort to (or else sparge with it into my strainer funnel after the wort has been transferred)
- 1/2 cranberries frozen/thawed then light smash and sanitized with Stoli Cranberry vodka, added to primary after the first few days and fermentation is starting to settle down a little
- 2 oz cranberry extract flavoring (Nature's Flavors) at bottling
- pectinase at bottling to help with poss solids formed by steeping the first half of the cranberries
- still undecided/considering w/resp/to a.) ascorbic acid at bottling to assist with tartness, like I've heard is good with fruit beers, and b.) 1/2 lb. of lactic acid for a hint of sweetness?

As to your hop question, I assume if its an IPA that you'll want some significant hop character, including both bittering hops (entire boil) as well as finishing hop additions. It would depend on how hoppy you like'em.
The interesting thing here is the choice of cranberries for an IPA, as cranberries also tend to be a little bitter themselves, no? It might be interesting to watch the cranberries and hops fight it out.