Adding fruit to secondary. To do or not to do.

[BeBeer]

This is my second batch of beer and made a simple brew. I have it in the primary for 10 days now. I haven't taken any OG readings yet (bubble activity is ~5-7 bpm). I was wondering if I can turn this into a more interesting beer by racking it into the secondary and adding some fruits, flavors? etc.(also how do I go about doing it without risking contamination)

Do you have any suggestions on this or should I not mess with it and leave it as is. Thank you guys!

Here is the recipe:
Style: English Mild
Type: Extract
Size: 5 gallons
Boil: 60 minutes
OG: 1.036
FG: 1.009
ABV: 3.5%
IBU: 16
SRM: 12+

Ingredients:
Fermentables:
4 lbs -- Light DME*

Hops:
0.25 oz -- Magnum (14% AA) @ 60 minutes (this is purely for bittering)
0.50 oz -- Goldings (5% AA) @ 20 min

Yeast:
1 pkg -- SafAle English Ale S-04

 

[powermd]

You could do an apricot ale by adding a large can of puree to the secondary, and then add 2-4 oz of apricot extract just before bottling/kegging. This is generally considered safe to do, provided you're using canned fruit, which is pasturized.

Alternatively you could add some dry hops for interest, 1 oz for mild aromas, 2 oz or more for something a bit more potent. I'm not sure what would go best with golding's. You could just add the hop pellets to the secondary for 4-8 days. I put a nylon bag over the end of my racking cane to filter them out at bottling. My last brew was a clone of Heady Topper which had an insane hopping regimen, but it came out delicious. The brew prior to that was similar to your's, and I dry hopped with 1 oz Galaxy, and 1 oz cascade. That added some wonderful aromas.

 

[jonnyp1980]

This is the best part of brewing. Experimentation. Add the juice of fruit at the end of boil for a subtle flavor or in secondary phase for more of a pronounced flavor. I say Do your research and go for it...It's your beer. Post pics and what not to keep us updated.

 

[cormano]

I added peach puree to secondary for a peach pale ale and it turned out delicious. It was very cloudy and a little pulpy... not the prettiest beer but that's okay. The sugar in the peaches also restarted fermentation and the FG ended up considerably lower than it was when I racked it after activity had been stopped for a couple days.

 

[BeBeer]

You could do an apricot ale by adding a large can of puree to the secondary, and then add 2-4 oz of apricot extract just before bottling/kegging. This is generally considered safe to do, provided you're using canned fruit, which is pasturized.

I have a packet of partially dried apricots at home (not sure if it is pasteurized). Can I pasteurize it by soaking it in some vodka and then adding it to secondary? Will this work? It's a little tough for me to get my hands on puree or extract.
Thank you for the suggestions!

 

[BeBeer]

I added peach puree to secondary for a peach pale ale and it turned out delicious. It was very cloudy and a little pulpy... not the prettiest beer but that's okay. The sugar in the peaches also restarted fermentation and the FG ended up considerably lower than it was when I racked it after activity had been stopped for a couple days.

Peach puree! Will definitely try it for the next ale. Thank you!!

 

[Petekiteworld]

I've never had good luck with peaches in beer. Apricot puree then use the right hops and you will get a much better peach flavor

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[bionara]

I'd definitely recommend erring on the low-side of fruit quantities: I recently made a wheat beer which I split in two and added raspberries to one, and strawberries and basil to the other. It came out extremely tart, tasting like undiluted cordial!