Fruit in beer question

[olstones]

Hey guys

I made 10 gallons worth of beer, currently in primary. For secondary I want to add fruit (grapefruit for 1 half, lemon ginger for the other).

My plan is to mix the beer with fresh squeezed fruit juice for 3 or 4 days in secondary, then bottle.

The first question is, how much fruit do I need? Will 3 grapefruits and 5 lemons be enough? Too much?

Second question, should i do more then 3 or 4 days? Yeast would have a chance to eat some of that sugar.

And lastly, should I reduce priming sugar? How much?

Any insight would be great

Thx

 

[christyle]

The amount to add is highly subjective, depending on what you're expecting from the final product. Most of the time I see people using whole fruit instead of juices, as well as adding extracts to really round the flavor out

A VERY general rule seems to be about 1.5 lb per gallon of beer, so your amounts seem really low. Some say to pull a sample, put in a measured amount, and then scale up, but to me, that is almost as much of a crapshoot as guessing, as the amount you will scale up can be off by quite a bit if you're off by a fraction in the sampling. I had a chart in a book somewhere, but can't find it right now

When I fruit beer, I usually leave it for at least a week, if not more. Shouldn't be a need to reduce priming sugar unless you use a short interval like you're saying, and how much to reduce is tough to say. I'd just leave it in there a week plus and prime as normal.

I went from just fruit to fruit and extract, as sometimes fruit alone doesn't give it the flavor I was looking for, normally the sweetness level.

 

[olstones]

Thanks. This is great information.
I will def let is sit longer...1.5lb per gallon of beer will be tricky, that adds almost a gallon of volume, which my secondary will struggle with holding. Maybe I just add it to primary...

 

[christyle]

You can do less fruit, and more extract? You won't be able to split for the 2 types though in 1 primary.

Just to make sure, I wouldn't add the rinds of the fruit, just the pulp. Lemon zest or a lemon tincture might be a better option for the lemon, but probably not the grapefruit.