Adding to Primary

[tslayer]

Newbie and I am a little confused.

I have read that keeping your primary fermentation carboy or bucket sealed is an absolute must. If you break the seal and add oxygen you are inviting bacteria to invade your brew. Then I read in another book that it is ok to add fruit or other ingredients to your primary tank several days after initial fermentation.

Confused, please help!

 

[jaycount]

From what I've gathered, it's ok to add things to the primary after fermentation under a few conditions:

You're certain that whatever you add isn't harboring bacteria (must be pasteurized or otherwise handled to elimiate bacteria)

You sanitize the lid and the bucket around the lid and any utensils that will even come close to the brew in the primary when you make the addition

You're careful not to oxidize (splash, churn) the beer when you add the ingredients.

I added some peaches to my primary last week because I didn't have a secondary fermenter and figured the chance of oxidation when racking to a secondary was so high.

 

[shamrockdoc]

Sanitize all utensils going into bucket

no need to worry about hop and/or adjunct additions the Alcohol will kill the germ ninjas.

Add additions after aggressive fermentation is over in like 3-5 days

And always remember the monks fermented in open buckets. Germs and infections are not ninjas infiltrating your beer. RDWHAHB!

 

[Kahuna]

In general, people add things to the secondary, instead of the primary. The first three days have pretty aggressive fermentation that tend to blow off the aromatics of anything you add.

If you are going to secondary anyway, I'd just add whatever you are going to put in there.

If you are leaving the batch in a long primary, you can wait until after the initial fermentation settles down and then introduce dry hops, etc. I keep a spray bottle with Star San solution in it to spray down all surfaces before I put anything in there.