Fresh fruit on secondary

[Eisey10]

Hi All !!!

I am currently working a nice Belgian dubbel. When I was brewing I used some sweet orange peel but the flavor didnt come through the way I had hoped. I am currently winding down my secondary and was thinking of using some sweet fresh orange but am worried about bacteria and the fact it is not pasteurized. Does anyone have any experience with this or have any tips?

 

[VikeMan]

Adding fresh fruit to secondary does add a theoretical risk of contamination. In practice, I (and many others) have made many fruit beers with fresh fruit, with no problems.

It's not clear to me if you're contemplating using more orange peel, or the fleshy part of the orange. If adding peel to the secondary, I'd probably at least spritz it with starsan solution. If adding the fleshy part,
I'd dunk the whole oranges in starsan solution, then slice up the oranges and freeze and thaw them. The freezing will kill some bugs, but not all. But it will also help break down cell walls and make the juice more accessible to the yeast. Another option is to add frozen (thawed) orange juice concentrate.

 

[50calshooter]

Get some dried sweet orange peel or dried bitter peel from your LHBS and grind it up in a spice/coffee grinder
and dump it in. I like to use both.