Fruit in secondary

[PhoenixCoyote]

Hi All,
I want to do a fruit beer but have questions. I know to add the fruit puree to secondary. But if all the yeast are gone from the primary when i rack to secondary, what happens to the sugar from the strawberries in the secondary? I am afraid when i go to bottle, the priming sugar will interact with the sugar from the strawberries and cause bottle bombs. I know i am over thinking this. Please advise me on fruit in the secondary. Thanks!

 

[dand9066]

I'm a bit of a noob myself but I'm in the middle of a strawberry wheat right now. There will be yeast left in suspension when you rack to your secondary that will eat the fruit sugars. Then after secondary prime and bottle as you normally would. I currently have another yeast cake at the bottom of my secondary along with yeast on the floating strawberry purée.

 

[GASoline71]

I did a Belgian Witbier for my girlfriend and put oranges right in the primary with the wort.

Gary

 

[Zalf]

Hi All,
I want to do a fruit beer but have questions. I know to add the fruit puree to secondary. But if all the yeast are gone from the primary when i rack to secondary, what happens to the sugar from the strawberries in the secondary? I am afraid when i go to bottle, the priming sugar will interact with the sugar from the strawberries and cause bottle bombs. I know i am over thinking this. Please advise me on fruit in the secondary. Thanks!

Pretty much impossible to go from primary to secondary without a good amount of yeast. Fermentation ends because the yeast eats all of the food and goes to sleep not because it dies or goes away.

Same goes for your bottles. The action in the bottle is the yeast waking back up to eat the priming sugar, not sugars reacting to each other.

 

[dpeanut7]

What if you are racking to a third vessel, will there still be enough yeast to eat the fruit sugars? I ask because I am doing an experiment where I am bottling 4/5 gallons and racking 1/5 gallons to my 1 gallon jug, on top of some raspberries. I'm assuming this is still the same situation. But to be clear, the beer is coming up on its 2nd week of secondary (2 in primary), and is a Brewer's best kolsch (ale yeast).

 

[dand9066]

I'm definitely not experienced and would take others advice over me but I'm thinking there would still be yeast to eat the berries. Think or lager recipes that sit for 6 weeks and then bottle condition just fine.

 

[dpeanut7]

I think you are right, and am going forward regardless, but i dont think im as worried about the time (your referencing the lagering) as i am the three times racked, and still expecting fermentation

 

[NHBeerDude]

I've made strawberry ale using the method you described and never had any over carb issues.

 

[dpeanut7]

awesome! THANKS!

 

[iv_hokie12]

Unless you use a micron filter it is virtually impossible to not have yeast leftover regardless of how many times you rack it.

 

[amedelman]

I made a raspberry wheat by just tossing the defrosted raspberries into the secondary for a week and a half. No problem with overcarbing or infection

 

[mspace]

How much fruit are you all using? Would I use less if not using fresh fruit?

 

[dpeanut7]

any idea if the fruit could grow mold? There seems to be a layer of the strawberry, then a white layer about a half cm thick, then beer, then a small layer of trub. Could be normal, but the white layer really throws me.

 

[dand9066]

any idea if the fruit could grow mold? There seems to be a layer of the strawberry, then a white layer about a half cm thick, then beer, then a small layer of trub. Could be normal, but the white layer really throws me.

Mine turned white and almost brown. I'm sure there is a possibility for mold to grow but I doubt thats whats happening. I was scared after looking at my berries fermenting but it all turned out good. Post a pic

 

[mpenn35]

I just did a strawberry blonde. I racked into six pounds of frozen halved strawberries for a week. The berries lost a lot of color but didn't mold or anything. Mine was a 7+% beer so maybe the alcohol kills most nasty things?

Also, I kept the secondary in a swamp cooler with frozen water bottles and kept the temperature under 60 as much as possible.

 

[amedelman]

I used 3 pounds of raspberries for 5 gallons, I think next time I will step it down to two pounds, the fruit flavor was a little too much. They were frozen, and when they defrosted they turned into somewhat of a mushy mixture

The raspberries became all white as the beer became more red, and I kept it at around 65 degrees for 10 days. No mold problems at all (I sanitized with vodka)

 

[dpeanut7]

OK, I sanitized with vodka too. I'm thinking it'll be OK, between possible rising yeast, or a multitude of other things, I'm just going to move forward as usual. I'll try to get a pic as soon as possible.