Fruit addition and cold crashing

[ShowPonyBrewing]

I’m brewing a Kettle Sour Belgian Blonde that’s gonna get an addition of Apricot purée and from what I’ve heard u only need it on the fruit a couple days or so. With that being said should I cold crash during that same time frame as well, otherwise it would be more like 4 days on the fruit since 2 days are for cold crashing after it’s been on the fruit already for 2.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I think you'd at least want to let it reach final gravity before cold crashing, no?

 

[ShowPonyBrewing]

I will definitely of course. But only needing to have it on fruit for a couple day, do I cold crash during that time or after. It can ferment out prior to adding fruit.

 

[RPh_Guy]

The yeast needs to be in its normal temp range to ferment the sugar in the apricot puree, and it needs time to reach the new FG after adding the fruit sugar.

I've never heard of just leaving on fruit a "couple days".... Usually a couple weeks, but I don't make fruit beer

 

[ShowPonyBrewing]

It’s a sour, not a fruit beer but thanks. Hopefully someone else will know.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Apricot is a fruit.

Fruit contains sugar.

Once you add the fruit, your beer will have fermentable sugar.

Yeast eat sugar, but only at a limited rate. AND they need to be in their optional temperature range.

Once the yeast eats the sugar you will have a stable final gravity.

This will probably take more than a couple days by my estimation, but you should monitor gravity to know when it's done.

Cheers

 

[radwizard]

Did you take a gravity reading before fruiting? I would leave it on the fruit for at least 2 weeks and take another reading. Did you see an active fermentation when you added the apricots?

I think a few days is to short - but as far as your question goes, I would not count cold crashing as time on fruit.

 

[pursuit0fhoppiness]

I agree with the others. Haven't heard of only letting beer sit on fruit for a couple days, if you're trying to impart fruit flavor I'd say do at least a week if not more, depending on the fruit. And to answer your original question, as RPh Guy said, don't cold crash soon after adding fruit as then the yeast won't ferment those sugars and they'll remain in the beer.

 

[sweetcell]

you can get away with leaving the beer on the fruit for 48 hours if you keg the beer and keep it cold until completely consumed. you might not get 100% of the fruit flavor out if you follow this path.

if you aren't going to store the beer cold after packaging, you'll need to give the yeast longer to ferment out the fruit. 2 weeks is pretty typical, no harm in going longer.

 

[RPh_Guy]

IDK, I've seen fruit juice very actively ferment in my fridge with nothing but wild yeast.. Maybe it's not common but it can happen.

 

[TwistedGray]

If you are bottle conditioning, follow all the responses above. Are you kegging or bottle conditioning the beer?

 

[sweetcell]

IDK, I've seen fruit juice very actively ferment in my fridge with nothing but wild yeast.. Maybe it's not common but it can happen.

it can happen, but yeah you need to pick up a wild yeast that is comfy at those temps...

 

[ShowPonyBrewing]

I’m gonna let it sit on the fruit for at least a wk depending on how active it is based on what everyone is saying. Also, the OG was 1.060 and I pitched Imperial Flagship 1.5 wks ago and it’s still actively fermenting. I don’t think I’ve had a beer ferment this actively for so long, which isn’t a bad thing. Just surprised for not a terribly high OG.