Fruit into Secondary Carboy?

[Will2Brew]

Hello all! Yes another newbie..haha

I'm on my third brew and I have a question about fruit additions. First of all, I'm using a Brewers best kit with the "better bottle" carboy option.

I'm going to add fruit to my latest brew this weekend as fermentation is about 7 days old and just about complete. I'm going to use frozen fruit from Walmart.(Mango & Peach) I'm going to use about 4lbs, after all this is an experimentation and I don't want to "over power" the beer, in hopes that this will give me a good baseline for the next brew.

My question is: can I simply thaw the fruit and throw it in the carboy? Should I use a muslin bag? If so, how in the world is that accomplished in a carboy? Or should I nix that I use the bottling bucket (6.5gallon) just for this time?(then purchase another bucket for fruit) Last if I do use the bottling bucket how would I go about the bottling aspect when it's time?

Sorry for all the questions, but I did research and couldn't find answers to all of them. Thank you in advance for any help you may offer!

By the way, in case it matters I brewed and IPA using 3 oz cascade hops and yes I'm going to use another ounce of cascade to dry hop. Please don't be critical I"m experimenting and having fun.

Will

 

[Allstar]

I just added 8 lbs of strawberries to my blonde ale last night. Directly in there.

 

[kpr121]

Sounds like a fun experiment. Your really looking for that citrus bomb huh? I would add them directly to the carboy as Allstar said. You might want to wait on the dry hops until after the beer referments the sugar from the fruit. Don't want excess hop aromas being scrubbed away.

 

[Allstar]

 

[Will2Brew]

Thanks the quick replies guys! The info is exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks for the tip on waiting to dry hop! I didn't even think about that to tell you the truth. With that, I may give a little taste test before adding fruit and also after the refermentation before adding dry hop. Great info! I'm excited to get this batch complete.

Will

 

[kpr121]

It definitely sounds interesting. If you are able to extract some flavor from the fruit I really think it will go well with the Cascade. I've had people almost fight me because they dont believe I dont add any fruit to my all-Cascade brews.

 

[Will2Brew]

allstar, thanks for the help and the pic!

kpr121, thanks for the info. I sampled the IPA yesterday before racking to secondary with fruit and it was quite pleasant already. I can see where you thought this may end up being a critrus bomb! haha. I'm going to stay the course and sample as I go. Please tell me you're a STEELERS fan! haha

thanks again guys!

 

[kpr121]

allstar, thanks for the help and the pic!

kpr121, thanks for the info. I sampled the IPA yesterday before racking to secondary with fruit and it was quite pleasant already. I can see where you thought this may end up being a critrus bomb! haha. I'm going to stay the course and sample as I go. Please tell me you're a STEELERS fan! haha

thanks again guys!

Absolutely... You not a Raven are you?>!?

 

[Will2Brew]

HAHA!! NO! I"m a huge STEELERS fan stuck in between Ravens and Eagles fans because of my location. I can't wait for this year! Went to see 'em play at M&T Bank (Ravens stadium) back in '08 on the super bowl run. Saw the December game when they won in the last few seconds with that controversial touchdown.. It was a long trip out of there let me tell you! Rockin' my Hines jersey proud as I could be. I've got a whole room in my house dedicated to the Steelers.. I'm hoping to get up there and see a game one day at Heinz field. I can't imagine being surrounded by a flury of black and gold..gives me goose bumps.. haha

 

[kpr121]

HAHA!! NO! I"m a huge STEELERS fan stuck in between Ravens and Eagles fans because of my location. I can't wait for this year! Went to see 'em play at M&T Bank (Ravens stadium) back in '08 on the super bowl run. Saw the December game when they won in the last few seconds with that controversial touchdown.. It was a long trip out of there let me tell you! Rockin' my Hines jersey proud as I could be. I've got a whole room in my house dedicated to the Steelers.. I'm hoping to get up there and see a game one day at Heinz field. I can't imagine being surrounded by a flury of black and gold..gives me goose bumps.. haha

Ha! I give you a ton of credit for rocking the Black and Gold amongst the Purple People Eaters. I see what happens to those fans when they come into town here and wouldn't wish that kind of torture on anyone!

 

[MichaelsBrewing]

I just added 8 lbs of strawberries to my blonde ale last night. Directly in there.

Me too!

I am an experienced brewer but I have never added fruit right to the primary so why not give it a whirl!

I had to put on a blow off tube.... The yeasties will probably eat away most of the sugar from the strawberries but who cares lol

So, my point is experiment and have a good time... fruit in with an IPA does not sound good to me but it is all your own! :rockin:

Let us know how it turn out,

Cheers!

 

[paraordnance]

for those of you who keg their beer, I had a great success adding fruit to keg after fermentation is completelly done. I added 3 lbs of frozen strawberries (in bag) to keg of Belgian Blonde at 36F to avoid any additional fermentation of fruit sugars. I removed fruit after 3 days. This way you get none of the tartness most people experiencing when adding fruit but all thesweet goodnes of fresh strawberries. Aroma and flavor is intense!

 

[kyle6286]

for those of you who keg their beer, I had a great success adding fruit to keg after fermentation is completelly done. I added 3 lbs of frozen strawberries (in bag) to keg of Belgian Blonde at 36F to avoid any additional fermentation of fruit sugars. I removed fruit after 3 days. This way you get none of the tartness most people experiencing when adding fruit but all the flavor and aroma. Its intense!

I will be kegging for the first time on my next batch, an American wheat, and want to add some fruit to spice it up a little. All you did was take the frozen strawberries right out of the freezer and dump them into your keg? No sanitizing them or thawing out? And did you dump them in right when you transferred your beer to your keg or did you wait a while?

 

[paraordnance]

I will be kegging for the first time on my next batch, an American wheat, and want to add some fruit to spice it up a little. All you did was take the frozen strawberries right out of the freezer and dump them into your keg? No sanitizing them or thawing out? And did you dump them in right when you transferred your beer to your keg or did you wait a while?

yes, just frozen quartered strawberries, no sanitizing required, just wash them prior and freeze for week or so. Do not pasturize strawberries, heat will destroy delicate aromas! The key is to keep beer at cold temp (below 40F) to assure no fermentation will restart, all the nasties not active at that temp also so no worries about spoilage. You wouldn't believe the flavor from this method of fruit addition, its as real and natural as it gets.
I epoxied a coat hanger to keg lid and hooked knee high to it, filled with frozen strawberries and left it for 3 days. Continiously sampling along the way I discovered that all of the juices were extracted after 3 days. Pull them out of the keg.
Next time I might try a little different approach. I think I will ferment the beer as normally would in primary for 3 weeks, crash cool for several days, gelatine to make sure as much yeast settles as possible. Then transfer to secondary and add fruit (just make sure you keep it cool for duration to avoid fermentation), 3 days later syphon to keg, shake well, carbonate and enjoy! If you add fruit to keg make sure you shake the keg well after fruit removed. Strawberry juice tends to settle at the bottom of keg so you need to mix it well with all beer in keg, my last 1/4 of the keg had little strawberry flavor for that reason.

 

[kyle6286]

yes, just frozen quartered strawberries, no sanitizing required, just wash them prior and freeze for week or so. Do not pasturize strawberries, heat will destroy delicate aromas! The key is to keep beer at cold temp (below 40F) to assure no fermentation will restart, all the nasties not active at that temp also so no worries about spoilage. You wouldn't believe the flavor from this method of fruit addition, its as real and natural as it gets.
I epoxied a coat hanger to keg lid and hooked knee high to it, filled with frozen strawberries and left it for 3 days. Continiously sampling along the way I discovered that all of the juices were extracted after 3 days. Pull them out of the keg.
Next time I might try a little different approach. I think I will ferment the beer as normally would in primary for 3 weeks, crash cool for several days, gelatine to make sure as much yeast settles as possible. Then transfer to secondary and add fruit (just make sure you keep it cool for duration to avoid fermentation), 3 days later syphon to keg, shake well, carbonate and enjoy! If you add fruit to keg make sure you shake the keg well after fruit removed. Strawberry juice tends to settle at the bottom of keg so you need to mix it well with all beer in keg, my last 1/4 of the keg had little strawberry flavor for that reason.

Sounds good! Thanks for the description. Having never added fruit, I'm nervous to do so without sanitizing it beforehand but you said it went fine.

 

[paraordnance]

Sounds good! Thanks for the description. Having never added fruit, I'm nervous to do so without sanitizing it beforehand but you said it went fine.

I dumped my strawberries in 6.4% ABV version of SWMBO Slayer (Belgian Blonde) I pretty sure any nasties were on strawberries died in matter of minutes

 

[Will2Brew]

Hi guys - Question concerning the original posted fruit beer. I kept it in the primary for about 7 days, then moved to secondary and added the 4lbs of fruit. Been in the secondary for about 5 days now. After the first 2 days it seemed like it began to referment. Signs of bubbles, the fruit collected at the top and began forming a krausen. We had another hot snap today and I came home to the carboy temp gauge being off the tape. The bubbling (C02) has ceased. I assume its the heat.

What do I do with it now? I regulated temps very well this time by placing the primary into a large plastic container filled about 6 inches with water. On each side of the primary/secondary I put gallon jugs of water iced up, which I replaced twice a day. This method kept temps manageable until today. Currently I wet a t-shirt and put a fan on it. Can I re-start it? Would I need to re-pitch a yeast to finish fermenting the fruit? Do I just leave it?

Any help is appreciated. By the way, I already found the perfect thread in the DIY for a fermentation chamber...