Fresh berries for flavor in secondary?

[JuiceyJay]

So I have 5 gallons of cider in my primary sitting at just above 1.000.
I put 5 gallons of juice and 16oz of blackberries in the primary around 4 weeks ago.

My plan is to add another 16oz of fresh blackberries and 1/2 oz or calypso hops to the secondary, I plan on freezing/soaking the berries in vodka or whatever booze i have laying around to sanitize the berries before I rack into the secondary.

My question is, do i need to smash the berries to help bring the flavor out? Or just drop them into the secondary and hope the flavor comes out of the berries? They will only be in as long as the hops are in (5-7 days), basically looking for the most flavor out of fresh berries as possible (maybe a little for color?)

Thank you for the help

 

[phug]

My one batch of berry cider which was one of my more popular batches I put 200 grams of frozen whole berries into the secondary for just over two weeks. No vodka no smooshing, just straight into the fermenter. The colour leached out of the berries and they ended up whitish and the cider a lovely red.


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[phug]

My one batch of berry cider which was one of my more popular batches I put 200 grams of frozen whole berries into the secondary for just over two weeks. No vodka no smooshing, just straight into the fermenter. The colour leached out of the berries and they ended up whitish and the cider a lovely red.


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Oh and also thy gave a nice berry flavour and aroma to the cider. I think I'll do that one again.



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[phug]

My one batch of berry cider which was one of my more popular batches I put 200 grams of frozen whole berries into the secondary for just over two weeks. No vodka no smooshing, just straight into the fermenter. The colour leached out of the berries and they ended up whitish and the cider a lovely red.


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Oh and also thy gave a nice berry flavour and aroma to the cider. I think I'll do that one again. I had a party and served that one as a taster, of 12 people only one person didn't like it



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[natehoekstra]

My one batch of berry cider which was one of my more popular batches I put 200 grams of frozen whole berries into the secondary for just over two weeks. No vodka no smooshing, just straight into the fermenter. The colour leached out of the berries and they ended up whitish and the cider a lovely red.


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Raspberries or blackberries?

 

[phug]

A mix of red raspberries, wild black raspberries and blueberries.


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[JuiceyJay]

My one batch of berry cider which was one of my more popular batches I put 200 grams of frozen whole berries into the secondary for just over two weeks. No vodka no smooshing, just straight into the fermenter. The colour leached out of the berries and they ended up whitish and the cider a lovely red.


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That's basically what I'm looking for!!! Thank you. Might go buy another 16oz of blackberries for a total of 32oz in the secondary, along with the calypso hops, should turn out fantastic.
I'm letting it ferment dry, making those additions in the secondary, than force carbing in the keg.

 

[phug]

For Clarity, that was 200G of berries, in a one gallon batch, so scale up accordingly.

be sure to filter out the floaty bits when bottling. I didn't, and had floaties in the cider, which didn't ruin it, you just had to tell people what it was. AND I had trouble with my bottling wand for the next few batches.

 

[Schott703]

It does kick off a secondary fermentation

 

[phug]

Yes, yes it does


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[JuiceyJay]

I was planning on trying to stop the secondary fermentation, but it wouldn't be the end of the world either way.

 

[javalin]

If you force carb you can pasteurize or stop fermentation some other way before adding the berries. The other option would be to take the cider off the berries once they begin to turn pale and bottle, with the sugar from the berries acting as your priming sugar. This would retain the most berry flavor in your cider.

 

[JuiceyJay]

If you force carb you can pasteurize or stop fermentation some other way before adding the berries. The other option would be to take the cider off the berries once they begin to turn pale and bottle, with the sugar from the berries acting as your priming sugar. This would retain the most berry flavor in your cider.

What exactly do I need to stop the fermentation in the secondary?

 

[phug]

K meta and k sorbate


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