Trying to create a Mango Hefeweizen

[jojomonkey]

Hello everyone,
I love this forum, I'm a new homebrewer and new to the forum. Love the advice and knowledge I've learned here.

I am wondering if I could ask for some advice on an extract hefe that I am brewing. I am trying to create a mango flavored hefeweizen and am about 1/2 through the primary fermentation process. My buddy is guiding me through this recipe and stated that I'll be adding the mango to the secondary. With that, here is my basic recipe:

7# Wheat DME boiled for 60 min
1 oz German perle (8.3aa) for 60 min
1 oz Tettnag (4.8 aa) at boil turn off
1 pkg of safAle English Ale (S-04)

Now I know that I used the "wrong" yeast but that is what I had available at the time. The OG is 1.051.

The brew in the primary looks tasty and looks like it should. But now comes the part where I don't really know; how to add a fruit concoction to the secondary.

I want to use fresh mangos and puree them and add them to the secondary. I found some basic instructions on the web that shows me how to puree, boil and add them to the secondary (using pantyhose as a grain bag).

My questions are, if I am planning on doing a 1 week+ secondary, when do I add the mango? How long do I leave it in the secondary for? And what will this do to any additional fermentation and for the priming later for bottles?

Also, if anyone has any tips on making the mango concoction and adding that flavor to the hefeweizen, that would be appreciated. This is my first time trying to add real fruit to my beer.

 

[solo103]

I did a mango mint heffe were I made a puree and added it at flame out then added mote mango puree to secondary. Let secondary sit for 10 days also added some fresh mint leaves (i was making a mango mint heffe) . A couple things to think of 1 is make sure the fruit is ripe, the riper the better . 2 even using pantyhose or a hop bag over the syphon when transferring from secondary to bottling bucket will still collect a lot it puree. We even cold crashed for 10 days and still picked up a good bit if puree. Having s conical fermenter would be ideal for this since you could dump the yeast and puree of the bottom with the dump valve (not slot if us have that option yet,lol) that being said when the bottles sit for a while the sediment will settle at the bottom and if you don't agitate it when you pour it if you leave behind the last inch of beer in the bottle you should leave a lot of sediment behind. Was much better after aging 3 months to. Hope that helped a bit.
Cheers

 

[RM-MN]

Want to hear a stupid idea? Dry hop with a half ounce of Citra hops. My pale ale that I intended to have the grapefruit of Cascade tastes of mangoes.

 

[jojomonkey]

Thanks for the advice. So I'm imaging that I am just going to make sure mango puree and just add it to a grain bag (or something similar) and just introduce it to my secondary.

Do we know how adding the additional sugars from the mango affects the bottling and conditioning? Should I still do a bulk prime to my bottling bucket even with the mango puree in the secondary for (say) 10 tens?

The other question I have is, I brewed this on Thursdays. Today is Monday. The frementation has practically stopped. I get the occassional bubble in there. Should I still let it sit in the primary for another week if not longer? I ask because I read throughout this forum that you should try and let your primary sit for a good solid week and more.

 

[solo103]

In order to see if fermentation has actually stoped you need to take a reading with hydrometer or refractomenter. If you dont have one then I would wait another 5 to seven days. Two weeks in primary is fine could take even longer but unless you take a reading you won't know for sure. Also the puree will still leak through the grain bag so you might want to cold crash it

 

[RM-MN]

Once you add the puree the fermentation will take off again as you have added fermentable sugars. Make sure to leave it alone long enough for the yeast to eat all those sugars before you rack to the bottling bucket on top of your priming solution or you will get over-carbonation or bottle bombs.

 

[Airborneguy]

Using Citra hops probably will give you a stronger mango flavor than actually adding mango.

 

[solo103]

I think adding citra hops will complement the mango puree but def add some puree just make sure its ripe and let it age in bottles for a couple months it will be much better . The main thing I can stress is do as much as you can to clear it up even if you have to rack from sec to third and cold crash because having some of the puree in the bottle isn't appealing

 

[jojomonkey]

Thank you for the advice.

From what I gather, add the puree, let it ferment and sit for quite some time in the secondary. Also, a few of you have said to add maybe .5 oz of citra hop with the mango.

Then maybe a third transfer to start removing the gunk + a few months of bottle conditioning.

I look forward to posting updates on the progress.

Any tips on how to make the mango puree to make this easy when I add it to the secondary?

Thanks for all the tips.

 

[RM-MN]

I'd suggest you wait until about a week before you plan to bottle to add the citra hops. I haven't tried leaving longer but some have reported getting a "grassy" flavor from leaving them too long. I'd sample a bottle about 2 weeks after bottling just to see how it is progressing. The mango puree probably needs time to meld its flavor into the beer but the hop aroma will fade with time so it will be a balancing act as to what is the best time for the beer.

 

[solo103]

I just peeled and pureed fresh mangos right before I transferred to secondary then dumped it in carboy and racked I didn't heat up the cook the puree and I didn't have any sanitary issues I just added it as soon as I pureed it

 

[jojomonkey]

Update:

I added my mango puree in a muslin bag to my secondary. I then racked my beer from the primary to the secondary.

To make the puree, I took 4 mangos and cubed them and heated them to 150 degrees for 15 minutes. I then pureed the mixture and cooled it to frementation temp of 68 degrees.

In the primary, my hefe had finished bubbling for a few days and had a beautiful look to it. So I added everything to a sanitized secondary (using star san). That was Monday. Now it bubbled lightly for the first day and a half, but here on Wednesday, there is no bubbles coming out of the airlock.

 

[jojomonkey]

I have a question regarding the lack of fermentation bubbles. When I racked to the secondary, I left behind the yeast cake and just racked over the beer. I assumed there would have been enough yeast in suspension to continue the process along.

Is there anything I can do to kick start the fermentation again? I was hesitant to stir or introduce oxygen like that. Is there something I may have done wrong, like leaving the yeast cake behind? My sanitation was very good, and I believe that using the foaming action of the star san wasn't bad. I hope that wasn't an incorrect judgement. Or maybe I heated the mango puree too much and all the sugars was lost?

Any help or tips on helping me understand the lack of bubbles or possible errors would be great.

 

[RM-MN]

There were a lot of yeast cells still in suspension and they worked 24 hours a day to eat the sugars from the mango. With so many cells and working without a break they probably gobbled up all the sugars in the first day and what bubbles you saw on the second were from the dissolved CO2 coming out of suspension. Your beer is fine, give it a few more days in case the yeast missed a little something and then bottle.

 

[jojomonkey]

RM-MN, you're probably right about the yeast eating everything the first day in the secondary. I'll wait a week and take a hydrometer reading to see what that is, then wait a few days later and take another reading to verify no fermentation.

I did note that one the first day, the mango puree bag wanted to sink to the bottom, now I noted today that it was floating. Day 3 in the secondary and no noticeable bubbles.

I guess since I am so new to this that I was overly worried about it. I just figured that with such a large amount of puree, that fermentation would have been a week or two longer.

I'll keep updating with any developments.