adding Fruits

[obtuce]

Hey everyone,

i am new to HBing and i started 2 5 gallons of Festabrew with a buddy of mine. he did a wheat and i did a cream ale.

we used the standard primary, secondary format to ferment.

when we switched over to the secondary, the wheat called for dried orange peels and coriander, both of which was purchased at the beer store.

my question is, for my next batch, i'd love to add in some herbs and or fruits to give my beer a unique flavor but i wanted to ask if it's best to always add in the secondary VS adding in the primary. also, does the fruit need to be dried first or can fresh store bough fruit be ok ??

what about ganga? same deal ?? in the secondary ?

thanks so much !!

 

[Biscuits]

my question is, for my next batch, i'd love to add in some herbs and or fruits to give my beer a unique flavor but i wanted to ask if it's best to always add in the secondary VS adding in the primary. also, does the fruit need to be dried first or can fresh store bough fruit be ok ??

what about ganga? same deal ?? in the secondary ?

thanks so much !!

First off, welcome to the site and to home-brewing. Now on to your questions.

Adding to either primary or secondary is fine, as you will learn the more you read, most people skip the secondary all together and leave the wort in primary until bottle/keg. Seconday is more of a preference thing, you either do or you don't...I, personally, don't...it's less work for me, it is less risk of infection, and there is really no reason I can think of to do a secondary. Again, it is your choice...there is no wrong answer.

You can add fruit in any form, dried, fresh, frozen, whatever. And again, much the same as anything else in homebrewing, some people prefer it a certain way and have different techniques to sterilize, whether it is freezing, boiling, heating, rinsing, etc, etc. Do what you think is best.

As far as ganga...which I am assuming you mean marijuana...I have no idea.

 

[Joe_CraftBeerTraders]

Welcome

Biscuits covered it pretty well. You as a home brewer can do it however you want. With my fruit beers I personally leave everything in primary. Reason being is for loss. I let all the yeast and fruit sediment fall to the bottom and clear in a single vessel because I think I would get less loss. (just a speculation on my part)

as far as your second question if you are looking for the flavor or the smell there are plenty of hops that can replicate that "dank" smell. Hops and marijuana are from them same genome so they are very similar to each other.

 

[Calder]

Herbs and spices - boil, primary or secondary. I would steep in some vodka for a couple of days before adding post boil (and add the vodka too).

Fruit - usually added after fermentation has slowed down to preserve some of the flavor. I like to pasteurize the fruit, some people trust the alcohol to prevent infection, others use campden tablets. Dried or fresh is fine.

For your other question, THC is not soluble in water, so you will get very little from it just adding to the fermenter.

 

[AQUILAS]

I hate to piggy back off of this thread, but I figured I'd just bump this instead of creating my own since it's pretty similar.

I'll be adding passion fruit to my 5.5 gal wheat beer that's been sitting in the primary for over a week now. Originally, I wanted to add the pulp of a lot of passion fruit, but the only market that sells passion fruit near me sells it at $1.99 per fruit. I expected to buy a lot of passion fruit, but I wasn't expecting to spend $20-30 just on passion fruit. Anyways, my next best option is Welch's Passion Fruit juice (made with passion fruit juice and other juices, no preservatives, pasteurized). I have not been able to locate another grocery store that sells passion fruit or passion fruit extract or pure passion fruit juice.

What would be the best way to go about adding the juice? Just toss it in the primary as well and wait another week or so? I'm thinking of adding the entire carton.

 

[obtuce]

thanks for the responses. from what i understand, if i choose to use a secondary, it would be best to add it at that point as it might loose some flavors to the primary fermentation process. i also like the idea of letting it soak in vodka (or gin he he) which should also add a special aroma. should be starting a 2nd batch this weekend after bottling our first run. maybe i'll get all fruity for the new batch.