Fruit in Secondary and Bottling

[theotheragentm]

I had some questions about bottling a beer that will have fruit added to the secondary. I was thinking about doing blueberries or strawberries, and then I realized I need to figure out the answers to some important questions.

Do you have to let it completely ferment the fruit sugars and then add priming sugar? Is that going to change the taste a lot because of the increased alcohol?

Any help would be appreciated. I'm already in the primary fermenter. Thanks for any help. Cheers!

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

flavor and especially aroma will be better the closer to bottling you add it. it is tough to guess the amount of fermentable sugar in fruit, so you risk over/under carbonation if you dont completely ferment it before bottling. If you keg, you can add it to the keg and adjust the force carb pressure.

best way bottling is: mash fruit into pulp(better flavor/aroma extraction, helps ferment faster, easier to sanitize, but will make beer cloudier), drop in pot of a little bit of boiling water, cover the pot and bring mix to a boil as fast as possible, put in ice bath, dump into secondary with 1-2 weeks to go, depending on strength of beer and yeast type. prime as normal