Bottling Fruit Beer

[countercultureferments]

Hey all,
I am bottling for the first time in about two years after getting kegs. Bottling a cherry Sour for a friend. Going through fermentation right now and racking the beer onto the Cherry's prior to bottle transfer. Do i need to add carb drops or sugar to the mixture to ensure carbonation in bottles? And what of over carbonation? Is that a concern with this method?

 

[day_trippr]

Presumably there will be some added sugars with the cherries, so best strategy is to let that addition ferment out so it won't contribute to what happens in the bottle. Then you can use the usual amount of primer without concern...

Cheers!

 

[hotbeer]

If you are adding cherry puree or concentrate, then it'll have the sugar amounts per serving on the nutrition label. You could use that to figure in with your priming sugar calculation. If you are using fresh cherries then you can still estimate that, but the trouble to find that info and the uncertainty of fresh fruit sugar content will definitely have me doing as @day_trippr suggested.

Over carbonation is a concern anytime you can't be certain what the amount of fermentable sugar is. However unless you are going for 3 to 4 vols from the start, I wouldn't worry too much about it. But do know how much sugar is in what you add at bottling time.