Fruits + second fermentation in bottle

[pituti]

Hi,

It's my first time brewing, and I've read many info about it in this forum, which was really usuful. But I want to try adding fruits (only to a small part of my 6 gallons.

The first fermentation is going to finish in one or two days, and I'll do the second fermentation in the bottles.

This are my questions:

- To the part I want to add fruit, I suppose I should add sugar, as the fruit already has a lot. Is it right?
- Is it possible to get the second fermentation in the bottle when fruits are added? I'm afraid the bottles will explode
- I wanted to try with bananas, but as it is one of the fruits with more sugar, should it be more complicated?

Thanks in advance! I'm happy I've found this forum

 

[markcurling]

Sorry not to answer your question about bottling...but the general way to do this is to add fruit to secondary (or primary) in bulk and bottle with priming sugar after the fruit has fermented. This is both because it is hard to judge how much sugar is in the fruit, and the fruit would leave a ton of rubbish in your bottles. So, if you only want to add fruit to part of the batch, I would suggest bottling the portion that you don't want to add fruit to, then chuck the fruit into the remainder in the fermenter. Give it a couple of weeks to ferment out and then bottle this with sugar in the same way as the first batch.

 

[pituti]

Thanks Markcurling,

I've seen the best way it's you explained me. I'll follow your advice!

Let's see what do I get

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Your first fermentation will not be done in a day or two.

 

[markcurling]

Your first fermentation will not be done in a day or two.

I interpreted it as 'in a day or two from where it is now' not 'in a day or two from the start'...

 

[pituti]

Perhaps I didn't write it correctly, It was already working for 3 days. The fermentation has finished after 5 days.

I've taken out 5 litres to experiment with fruits. I'm double excited, first because it is my first brewing, and second because of the experiment

Thank you again for your help and interest.

 

[Revvy]

How do you know the fermentation has completed? You're not going by airlock bubbling are you?

The only way to know is with 2 consequetive hydromter readings over a 3 day period, which I don't recommend folks even starting the first one til day 12 and taking the second one at day 14.

More than likely at five days your beer hasn't reached terminal gravity. Many yeasts take 72 hours to even begin fermenting the beer, so if you are going by airlocks or a calendar to determine doneness then you could be in trouble. Your beer could only be fermenting for TWO days when you declared it done.

 

[pituti]

Thanks for your tips Revvy. Actually I didn't follow the bubbling phases, but the two hidryometer readings during the last 24 hours. The temperature of the room was around 25-27ºC so I suppose it helped to get a quicker fermentation.