Secondary Fermentation from Fruit Going on 4+ Weeks

[drasticdub]

Hello fine people of HBT -

I brewed a 5 gallon batch of a rather benign Belgian Blonde that once completed fermentation (OG 1.058, FG 1.007 - I took gravity readings for several days to confirm this) I racked onto a rather obscene amount of mango puree.

11lbs of fruit be exact - as this was the only available size from the supplier ...

I am now in the 5th week of this thing still slowly chirping away through it's airlock ... I've taken further gravity readings and it is back down to 1.007 (I'm not sure how much the fruit bumped the gravity, but common tables of fruit/sugar imply that only a few points were added at most) ... Taste is fine, mango flavor definitely present ...

But I also read that too much time on the fruit will eventually remove the flavor - Plus I'm just getting impatient as this thing should have been bottled weeks ago (also I only have bottling as an option as I've never ventured into kegging). And since I'm bottling I really do not want these things exploding (duh) if they continue to ferment in bottle.

Was thinking maybe racking to tertiary with campden tablets, cold crash and then bottling? Will the campden tablets stop all activity thus killing my carbonation?

Anyone have any experience or advice for a situation like this? I've never used fruit before so this is all new to me.

Thanks in advance -

 

[yoop89]

You should be fine to bottle. If you are confident on the 1.007 number and that it was stable there prior to the fruit addition.

Fruit wont change the finishing gravity of your beer unless you introduce an infection with said fruit(may go lower) or you add so much fruit that the yeast reach there alcohol tolerance(higher finishing gravity).

Airlock activity doesn't necessarily translate to fermentation activity. Beer will off-gas CO2 until at equilibrium for whatever temperature it is sitting at.

 

[GoodTruble]

The bubbles could go on awhile after fermentation is done. If it stays at 1.007 for 3 days, go ahead and bottle.

In a very similar situation, I bottled a few plastic bottles and used swingtops or screw-on lids for the rest so I was able to let out some CO2 if it carbed too fast/much.

 

[Knightshade]

I’m really interested in hearing how your beer tastes after sitting in fruit for that long. Kind of your own validation about how much flavor is retained.

 

[day_trippr]

I wouldn't be too worried about loss of character given the 2+ pounds per gallon dosage is double anything I've done.
I give the OP props for the commitment...

Cheers!

 

[drasticdub]

Thank you all for your responses - So many knowledgable folks on this site.

Much to the chagrin of most brewers, I actually ended up racking to a tertiary glass carboy (I know, I know but I'm meticulous about sanitation) that I placed my additional adjuncts into (a Hibiscus & Ginger concentrated tea - I'm going for something more Jamaican than just simply 'mango').

Much to my surprise as I was cleaning the secondary carboy, I dumped the remaining 'sludge' of mango puree into a pitcher and it started bubbling like a lake of lava - @yoop89 I think you nailed it - My completely uneducated guess is that there was just a crap-ton of CO2 weighted down by the fruit that was just slowly seeping out and causing the air-lock to bubble.

The only downside so far is that the ruby-red hibiscus tea mixed with the neon-orange mango beer has created a somewhat unpleasant 'dirt brown' color for the beer ... Hopefully a cold-crash helps brighten before bottling.

Nevertheless, a fantastic learning experience, and once again reminding me of the mantra ... RDWHAHB ...

Cheers ya'll!

 

[GoodTruble]

The only downside so far is that the ruby-red hibiscus tea mixed with the neon-orange mango beer has created a somewhat unpleasant 'dirt brown' color for the beer ... Hopefully a cold-crash helps brighten before bottling.

Brown beer? That'll never fly. =c)