Using fruit in the secondary question.

[Kaniksu Brewer]

I've been kicking around the idea of making an apricot saison and I'm looking for a clean saison with a subtle apricot taste. I have never used fruit in the secondary before, what do I need to do to avoid contamination from the fresh fruit?

Next question would be how long to leave in the secondary with the fruit?

Cheers,

Kris

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

well you could boil it or heat it to 160 to pasteurize it. some will soak in alcohol to kill any wild yeast before adding. Ive even read some using starsan to spray the fruit down to sanitize them. whichever method you go. I would also freeze then thaw and add to your fermenter. This will help break up the cell walls of the fruit giving your yeasties more access to the sugars within. I would let it sit on the fruit for at least a week or two. you will want to let it sit until the yeast finish eating the sugars. i'd give it 1.5weeks then take a gravity check than again a few days later and see if they're the same if so then bottle/keg if not another few days and sample until you get matching results to ensure your done fermenting to avoid and bottle exploding issues.

 

[Kaniksu Brewer]

The freezing idea sounds great! I think I will try soaking them in starsan before I cut them up. That should kill anything on the fruit without changing the meat of the fruit itself. Then I will freeze / thaw and put in the secondary.

Is there a fruit ratio I should stick with? I will be making a 5.5 gallon batch and I was thinking about 2 lbs of apricots. That's just a guess on my part.


Thanks for the tip.

Kris

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Yeah not sure on the quantity. I made a cherry bock using 3lbs of puréed cherries and it didn't have as much flavor as I was looking for. Not sure how apricots will come out though. After browsing lots of recipes checking fruit additions I think it seems a lot are using 1LB per gallon but that seems a bit much to me. Though I used 3LBs cherries for 5 gallons and wasn't as strong flavored as I wished so maybe 1#/Gallon would be better?


Sent from somewhere to someone

 

[StarGuira]

New brewer here.. Question is.. I pureed 6lbs of organic cherries saturday then pasteurized, cooled down then added to my carboy followed by racking my oatmeal stout on it after a week in primary.. After the first few hours the air lock was going crazy but after a day the cake of fruit that had made it to the top has settled back down and i see no activity.. Is that ok? Or should i be worried

 

[Gavin C]

New brewer here.. Question is.. I pureed 6lbs of organic cherries saturday then pasteurized, cooled down then added to my carboy followed by racking my oatmeal stout on it after a week in primary.. After the first few hours the air lock was going crazy but after a day the cake of fruit that had made it to the top has settled back down and i see no activity.. Is that ok? Or should i be worried

When beer ferments some CO2 is retained in solution. The amount of CO2 depends on the temperature of the beer after fermentation stops.

If fermentation was complete and you racked the beer onto something or added something to the beer, the something (in this case cherries) creates nucleation points where the CO2 is kicked out of suspenson. Like dropping an ice cube into a soda, a lot of bubbles form.

From what you describe this is the most likely, common and non-problematic scenario.

Adding Mentos to Coke is a commonlly known example of these nucleation points.

 

[StarGuira]

Thankss, got a little worried after seeing no action.. So i guess now its playing the waiting game for about 2 weeks.. Should i shake it a little every so often or should i just leave it alone and test it in 2 weeks??

 

[Gavin C]

Thankss, got a little worried after seeing no action.. So i guess now its playing the waiting game for about 2 weeks.. Should i shake it a little every so often or should i just leave it alone and test it in 2 weeks??

Shaking a beer in a fermentor is never indicated.

 

[StarGuira]

Ive read that sometime shaking it a bit every certain days will help but ill just leave it alone and be patient.. So its ok for all the puree to be at the bottom after a few days?

 

[Gavin C]

ill just leave it alone and be patient.. So its ok for all the puree to be at the bottom after a few days?

Yes. A lot of stuff sinks. You can't, nor should you want to, fight gravity.

 

[russell58]

Made a Blackberry Wit last year used 2 pounds of Blackberries for a 5 gallon batch. Thawed and soak in Vodka for sanitation. Couldn't keep it due to friends and family drinking it all. Next time I will make two batches.
LOL
Had in secondary on fruit for 2 weeks.