Why not add fruit to primary?

Ok, after all the swearing up and down that I would never add fruit to a beer, Ive gotten into lambics and other sour beers where fruit is actually appropriate and a welcome addition.

Now, with that being said I hardly use a secondary and my sour dedicated "equipment pipeline" is making me lean towards fruiting in the primary for a Berliner Weiss...

I rarely use a secondary, and routinely dry hop in the primary.


Ive done some research on the matter, but other than aeration which I think I can minimize, is there any other reason not to put the fruit in the primary vessel(at the appropriate time, of course)?

The CO2 bubbling away will scrub much of the flavor away.

MC

Misplaced_Canuck said:

The CO2 bubbling away will scrub much of the flavor away.

MC

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This assertion is confusing to me.

Ill be waiting until ~most of the fermentation activity subsides, and a new "mini" fermentation will be kicked off by the fruit anyways.

There's no reason not to, except I have found then that you will need to rack to a secondary after, just like in some cases if you added fruit in secondary you need to rack it to a tertiary to clear it there. I have found that when making pumpkin beers, and doing it both in primary OR secondary, there IS a need to move it off the pumpkin goop.

I have done pumpkin in primary without a secondary and it was a mess to rack, and the beer was not as clear as it could have been.

Misplaced_Canuck said:

The CO2 bubbling away will scrub much of the flavor away.

MC

Click to expand...

Co2 is bubbling in a secondary if fermentation of the fruit is happening, and it doesn't get scrubbed away. But most of the folks making fruit additions usually do so when the bulk of fermentation has wound down anyway, so that's not really an issue.

Revvy said:

There's no reason not to, except I have found then that you will need to rack to a secondary after, just like in some cases if you added fruit in secondary you need to rack it to a tertiary to clear it there. I have found that when making pumpkin beers, and doing it both in primary OR secondary, there IS a need to move it off the pumpkin goop.

I have done pumpkin in primary without a secondary and it was a mess to rack, and the beer was not as clear as it could have been.

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Ok, thats good to know.

In a month or so when this beer is done I will have a sour dedicated secondary to rack to for clearing before bottling if need be.

The beer in question is a berliner weiss so clarity is not really a concern, but I'll play it by ear.

Thanks for the responses, I thought this through and couldn't think of any reason not to...but it's what you don't know in life that gets you in trouble.

I add it to my primary bucket, but as mentioned wait until primary fermentation is over. I've had a few batches that didn't need to be cleared, but as Revvy mentioned most do need to be racked afterwords to clear. Also I usually try to do closer to 6 gallons so I still end up with 5 after any trub loss due to the fruit taking up more space.

I add fruit to my primary vessel AFTER primary fermentation and not had any issues with that. The last fruit beer I did I added fruit puree into my primary after 2 weeks, then added gelatin 3 days before bottling. Came out crystal clear with good fruit flavor.

My question would be what type of fruit?

I change when and where I add depending on what I'm adding. For example, citrus I add at the last 20 of boil, apples or pitted fruits in primary, cherries or berries go in the primary or secondary depending on beer. But that can all be swapped around. Although I always boil citrus because I've had a few infections from them.

I guess there's really no 'rules' it's just what works best for you.

(Not much help, am I?)

Ha...well this will be even less helpful then. Kumquats....kind of a citrus, but kind of not.

Ok here is a strange twist to this question...

When adding fruit to the primary how do you calculate alcohol percentage changes since the yeast will convert the sugars from the fruit?

Xpertskir said:

Ha...well this will be even less helpful then. Kumquats....kind of a citrus, but kind of not.

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Ok, I've used them. I pasteurized them on the stove, chilled, then added them at 1 week in the primary.
First attempt, way too bitter. I put 1 puns in 5 gallons.
Second attempt, I peeled half a pound, still pasteurized and added a pound, that was good.

Peeling is a pain! Then I sliced them pretty thin.

Maybe that will help a little.

Yeah...it was. Im not pasteurizing, since Its a sour beer to begin with a little funk will be fine if that happens. Plus I worry about extracting bitterness.

My plan is freeze them, then half them on their way into the carboy after primary (sacc) fermentation dies down. I'm planning on using 2 lbs, and I'm thinking that I wont get bitterness, by not heating them.

Thanks