My process for sours and a question about fruits

[CTDan]

About to years ago my wife gave me a freshly dumped 5.5 gallon rye cask as a birthday present. After 3 uses, can the rye and wood flavors were pretty much gone. I then converted the call into a home for bugs. I have dumped into it the dregs from Jester King, Holy Pumpkin, Crooked Stave, and a few others.

When I want to brew a sour I start with a clean fermentation using Wyeast 3711 as my house strain. Once the primary fermentation is done, I move the beer into the barrel for up to 3 months of aging and souring. As soon as my next batch is ready for the barrel, I move it back into a carboy for extended aging. This all happens at the same time, empty, rinse with boiled and cooled water, and then refill. I also have a bucket of glass beads just in case I do not fill the barrel completely. Air space in the barrel can lead to vinegar and bad infections.

I'm planning on a fruit sour later this summer once local orchards start picking raspberries or blackberries. Given my technique, should I go add the fruit during primary or during the extended aging? I think it can work either way, but would like opinions on this.

Thanks!

Dan

 

[Agate]

I'd wait until you're done with the extended aging and it's ready to bottle, then add the fruit and give it another 6 weeks or so. Then bottle.

Extended aging on fruit just causes the fruit to lose some of its fresh character and can make what was once balanced unpleasantly acidic. Some people like the character of aged fruit sours, but a lot of the nuance kind of disappears. That's just my preference though.

 

[secondbase]

Let the beer tell you when it's ready. I would not add fruit during primary. You will lose a lot of the fruit character during the aging process. Once you find the complexity of the beer to your liking, add fruit and leave it alone for at least 4 weeks. I personally like about 10-12 weeks on fruit. Then package like normal.

I like to visit local orchards and freeze fruit for later use. I do the same for my homegrown blackberries. I rarely have a beer ready for the type of fruit I'm picking. I taste the beer and see if there is a character that could be complemented by a certain fruit.