Advice on Adding Fresh Fruit to Homebrew

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BuckysBeer

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This is my first post on this forum and I have made only two batches so far (one is still in bottle phase and second is ~96 hours into primary fermentation). Though I understand I need to get down the fundamentals of homebrewing, I have many questions and ideas that I want to try in future batches, one of which is adding fresh fruit to the beer.

I have found charts on how much fruit to add (varying depending on the fruit used) and have heard multiple sides on when to add it.

So, my first question is, when should I add the fruit during the procedure? After the wort has been cooled and added to the carboy? During the last five minutes of the boil? Some say during fermentation is best, but when and how?

Another question I had regarding this subject is has anyone experienced a noticeable difference when adding fruit to beer? If so, what kind of fruit and type of beer did you pair together and why? I am open to any advice and recipes that have been helpful for your future brews such as "No--adding fruit to beer is bad! Try XYZ instead." or "My best beer actually had fruit added during the brewing phase! Here's what I did:". I expect to have many questions in the future and appreciate any feedback received (also, please correct me if I misused/didn't use appropriate terminology--still learning).

Cheers!
 
When I add fruit, it's frozen fruit from the grocery store: blueberries, strawberries, etc. Best to add after fermentation, as the ferm process will strip out a lot of the flavor. The bagged frozen fruit (or cans of Oregon cherries, or whatever) you get from the grocery store have already been pasteurized and are safe to dump into the beer.
 
Thank you! Would there be a difference in taste when puréeing the fruit compared to directly adding the frozen fruit?
 
I've brewed quite a number of fruit beers. I've used cherries (added cherry pie filling at the end of the boil), blueberries (frozen fruit at the end of the boil), grapefruit (tried juice and also fresh fruit at the end of the boil. I've also added fruit juice directly to the fermenter.

I prefer adding fruit at the end of the boil. Sure some fruit flavor is likely lost during fermentation and from the residual heat of the wort, but I prefer that to worrying about bacteria and trub from the fruit in the fermenter.

It takes a LOT of fruit to give beer a nice fruit flavor. Take what you think you need and double or triple it. That's why many homebrewers use extract instead of real fruit. Fruit forward beers with not enough fruit tend to have a watery, slightly acidic taste to me.

This thread which I'm familiar with, has some good info on adding fruit in general, but I'm sure you can find many others as well.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/shiner-ruby-redbird-clone-recipe.275145/
Cheers and welcome to the forum.
 
When I add fruit, it's frozen fruit from the grocery store: blueberries, strawberries, etc. Best to add after fermentation, as the ferm process will strip out a lot of the flavor. The bagged frozen fruit (or cans of Oregon cherries, or whatever) you get from the grocery store have already been pasteurized and are safe to dump into the beer.
Have you ever combined fruit with dry hopping? If so, what order did you do that? I've got a pale ale in the fermenter right now. The recipe I came up with includes dry hopping Citra and Huell Melon, along with about 10 pounds of strawberries. I have no idea what to expect.
 
Fresh fruit has wild yeast and who knows what else on it. You can freeze it to ensure it breaks down easily upon thawing, but I would still dose it with metabisulfite to kill organisms and then add pectic enzyme so that the beer will end up clear. Then you can add to the fermenter.

If you add it at the end of the boil, it will get sterilized but it will also cost you some aromas and possibly set the pectins and make the beer cloudy.

I prefer aseptic purees or better yet concentrates (if you can find the variety you want) that you can add to the fermenter without contamination fears.
 
I use concentrates (from Coloma Frozen), added in a "fruit stand" at ~150 F. Passionfruit (gose, tripel) and apricot (gose, patersbier, rauchbier) gave me great (albeit cloudy) results, cherry (doppelbock) was just ok, banana (stout) wasn't even noticeable. Trying a mango gose on Friday.
 
Have you ever combined fruit with dry hopping? If so, what order did you do that? I've got a pale ale in the fermenter right now. The recipe I came up with includes dry hopping Citra and Huell Melon, along with about 10 pounds of strawberries. I have no idea what to expect.

I have and briefly a few years back that was a somewhat popular thing to do. I guess it's still a popular thing done with some of the smoothie beers but not advertised as a particular technique employed. Personally I wouldn't waste time or money adding regular strawberries to a beer. They don't have a lot of flavor to begin with and the flavor is driven by sweetness rather than acidity or bitterness. You may get even less flavor out of them or worse get that weird plastic flavor they sometimes produce.

To OP's question more generally I always add post fermentation. I don't want a cooked flavor nor do I want fermentation blowing off more delicate flavors. If you're worried about wild yeast or bacteria that's probably not a huge issue unless you intend to age the beer for a long time. The amount of yeast or bacteria on the fruit will be relatively low compared to the volume of brewing yeast so competition will prevent a lot of their growth in addition to the acidity and alcohol in the beer.
 
When I add fruit, it's frozen fruit from the grocery store: blueberries, strawberries, etc. Best to add after fermentation, as the ferm process will strip out a lot of the flavor. The bagged frozen fruit (or cans of Oregon cherries, or whatever) you get from the grocery store have already been pasteurized and are safe to dump into the beer.
Frozen fruit is not pasteurized, but the puree products are. Either way, the fermentation process will not be over when you add more fruit. The yeast will kick off and you'll still loose flavor/aroma. Once the fruit ferments, its not going to taste anything like the original fruit. Also, most fruit is more than 90% water, so if you use a large amount of fruit, you have to account for that. Once, I made a strong beer, over 12%, figuring the high ABV would keep fermentation from kicking off. I tossed in 6lbs of fruit and the fermentation started right away. That fruit contained almost a gallon of water that lowered the ABV. It didn't come out how I wanted, but I drank it all anyway.
If you want a fruit flavor in your beer, make a strong brew, like 6-7% ABV, then add a shot of fruit juice/concentrate to your glass of beer to taste. Commercial beers that actually have a fruit taste are likely using commercial flavor concentrates that don't ferment. You can also make tinctures using fruit with vodka or grain alcohol and then adding that to taste. This option is not something that commercial brewers can use.
 
The only time I use fresh fruit is if I grow it or pick it in season. My SOP is to clean and rinse then put it in a net bag, and dunk in sanitizer for a min or 2 ,let it drain then into a zip lok and freeze it. I take it out of the bag and thaw it in a sanitized fermenter and rack the wort on top.
 

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