Backsweetening with Fruit

[antiteam]

I've used fruit in the secondary on several occasions with mixed results. The yeast always does what yeast does (read: ferments all of the fructose out of the fruit) and a little bit of the fruit flavor ends up in the beer. I've most recently used blueberries (frozen) and cherries (puree) to similar ends.

I started wondering the other day - what if I were to do a wheat, put it through primary, then through secondary (to get rid of as much suspended yeast as possible), then stabilize (I'm thinking potassium sorbate) and rack onto fruit in a tertiary. Leave it on the fruit for a week or two to let the sugars and flavors steep into the beer, then keg.

Anyone ever tried this? Any thoughts? I'm hoping this might result in a sweeter, fruitier beer.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Why not just increase the amount of fruit you add in the secondary?

 

[bovineblitz]

Why not just increase the amount of fruit you add in the secondary?

well all the sugar would get eaten up anyways.

Maybe if you used gelatin you could pull out most of the yeast and avoid the sugars being gobbled up.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

well all the sugar would get eaten up anyways.

Maybe if you used gelatin you could pull out most of the yeast and avoid the sugars being gobbled up.

Right, but you would still keep part of the flavor that doesn't come from the fructose. I guess if the OP is trying to go for a really strong fruit flavor and is willing to keg or carb by carb pills he would want to drop all the yeast out and then add the fruit, but I think this would result in too sweet of a beer.

 

[jessup]

... I think this would result in too sweet of a beer.

lindemans centrifuges then adds fruit and you see how sweet that is. you should double up by cold crashing & using Ksorbate or gelatin>Ksorbate.

 

[antiteam]

Right, but you would still keep part of the flavor that doesn't come from the fructose. I guess if the OP is trying to go for a really strong fruit flavor and is willing to keg or carb by carb pills he would want to drop all the yeast out and then add the fruit, but I think this would result in too sweet of a beer.

Too sweet wouldn't be that bad, since I could dial the amount of fruit back in the next batch (or brew another batch minus fruit and blend). The key is in getting rid of as much of the yeast as possible before adding the fruit.

Jessup's suggestion of cold crashing and ksorbate seems like a great idea! I'll stay away from gelatin (i'm a vegetarian and prefer not to use it in my beers).

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

lindemans centrifuges then adds fruit and you see how sweet that is. you should double up by cold crashing & using Ksorbate or gelatin>Ksorbate.

Good point, however I think adding fruit to a tart lambic gives you a very different result from adding fruit, without fermentation, to a wheat beer.