Fruiting the beer

[wulfsburg]

I am new to brewing but I have been reading this forum for DAYS now. I have been brewing ingredient extract/steeping kits and I have my 2nd batch in my fermentation bucket. I have a cream ale (Northern Brewing kit), IPA (Northern Brewing kit), and a red ale (Brewers Best kit) all in the mail or in my pantry. The Northern Brewing kits are coming with liquid yeast.

After all the reading I want to rack my beer into a secondary with some fruit to add some flavor. I would imagine the cream ale would be the ideal choice to rack in a secondary with some fruit.
I have a few questions about this process.

Is racking into a plastic bucket as a secondary ok?
When would you rack it? During or after fermentation?
How do you sanitize the fruit?
Do you put it into a porous bag like a steeping bag/sock? If so how do you sanitize that?

What kind of fruit would you suggest I put in a cream ale? I was thinking peaches, oranges, or strawberries.


Thanks for reading! Thanks for your help!

 

[Beernik]

Glass is better for secondarys than plastic because plastic is oxygen permeable. With that said, you are racking onto fruit which means you'll kick off a new fermentation and I'm assuming you won't be leaving it in there for months. So racking into a bucket with fruit for a couple more weeks should be fine.

I don't bag my fruit. Just make sure you pit and skin what you put in, unless it's something like strawberries or raspberries.

You can sanitize them by pasturizing. You'll want to use pectic enzyme if your worried about haze.

I made a pretty good peach cream ale a while back. I'm not sure if citrus is a good choice though.

 

[wulfsburg]

How do I pasteurize my fruit? Just boil it? I am not worried about haze... but when do I add peptic enzymes? After racking? How much peach should I throw into the bucket? And how long should it sit there?

 

[Beernik]

I put the fruit in a water bath at 145F for 30 minutes. I put the pectic enzyme in the water bath with the fruit for 24 hours before pasturizing it. I only transfer the peaches to the secondary.

I think an alternative to pasturizing is soaking them in water with campden tablets. I haven't tried it.

The amount of fruit is up to you and how strong you want the flavor and aroma. I did 9lbs. That's a lot of peaches to pit and peal.

It shouldn't need more than 2 or 3 weeks. It will take longer than the primary fermentation because the sugar is more difficult for the yeast to get at.

 

[NorCalHB]

Here are 2 links that I got recommended to me when I had some questions about my raspberry wheat

Very good information about making fruit beers.
http://***********/stories/recipes/article/indices/38-ingredients/683-fruit-brew-part-2-techniques

And here is a link to a show Jamil did where they talk all about making fruit beers..
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Jamil-Show/Fruit-Beers-The-Jamil-Show-04-24-06

Both links have a ton of helpful, informative information that will answer any questions you have about fruit beers. Good luck!