Raspberry Ale.. 2 Questions

[billvon]

. . . and add fresh raspberries when I rack it to secondary?

So I had a question here - why do you need the secondary at all? Why not just add the fruit/puree/extract into the primary once the first fermentation has ended? Then if you still wanted to rack to a secondary you could do it after the second (fruit) fermentation has ended, and leave all the yeast _and_ fruit crud in the primary. And you'd have the benefits of sitting on the yeast cake for a little longer.

I'm tempted to try this mainly because my only available secondary is 5gal and I'm going to have about 5.5gal in my primary, so I want to leave as much crud as possible in the primary.

 

[NorCalHB]

So I had a question here - why do you need the secondary at all? Why not just add the fruit/puree/extract into the primary once the first fermentation has ended? Then if you still wanted to rack to a secondary you could do it after the second (fruit) fermentation has ended, and leave all the yeast _and_ fruit crud in the primary. And you'd have the benefits of sitting on the yeast cake for a little longer.

I'm tempted to try this mainly because my only available secondary is 5gal and I'm going to have about 5.5gal in my primary, so I want to leave as much crud as possible in the primary.

This is a good question.. For someone who is new to brewing and only have one batch under my belt I dont have an answer. The only thing I can think of is racking to secondary is help clear your beer. I have read alot of people add the fruit to secondary and once that fermentation is complete, they transfer the beer over to a third carboy/bucket to clear up from all the fruit puree. Thats the only thing I can think of. It seems to me that if you add your fruit to primary and then bottled that beer, you would have some very cloudy beer. I could be 100% wrong though.

 

[mojotele]

My thought has been that plopping several pounds of solid fruit into your beer tends to mix things up and oxidize it. Racking on top of it doesn't do that.

 

[NorCalHB]

My thought has been that plopping several pounds of solid fruit into your beer tends to mix things up and oxidize it. Racking on top of it doesn't do that.

Mojotele I see you have a raspberry wheat in secondary.. any thoughts or suggestions on your procedure? Thanks again for the link you suggested.

 

[mojotele]

I used the Oregon fruit puree stuff, mainly because of Jamil's suggestion in that podcast. I let it ferment in primary for a week, then I sanitized the top of the puree can, cut it open, and plopped it into the empty secondary. Then I racked the beer on top of it.

One thing I can say is that the fermentation of puree is very mild. I did get a small krausen, but I didn't need a blow off tube in a 5 gallon carboy. The puree also doesn't get mixed in very well until it starts fermenting.

I can't comment on taste just yet as it still has a ways to go - 2 weeks and 3 days until I bottle at least. It does have a nice rose look to it, though.

 

[NorCalHB]

I used the Oregon fruit puree stuff, mainly because of Jamil's suggestion in that podcast. I let it ferment in primary for a week, then I sanitized the top of the puree can, cut it open, and plopped it into the empty secondary. Then I racked the beer on top of it.

One thing I can say is that the fermentation of puree is very mild. I did get a small krausen, but I didn't need a blow off tube in a 5 gallon carboy. The puree also doesn't get mixed in very well until it starts fermenting.

I can't comment on taste just yet as it still has a ways to go - 2 weeks and 3 days until I bottle at least. It does have a nice rose look to it, though.

Looks good.. i think im gonna go with the oregon fruit puree afterall..

 

[barhoc11]

I know this thread is dead but how did the Oregon Fruit Puree taste after all this?