Sanitizing...kumquats

[rolewiii]

I'm making a nice little "winter" wheat with kumquats. The primary is just about fermented down, and I'm looking to make it so the kumquats go in without messing it up somehow.

I have no vodka in the house right now, but I do have some gin to splash on them. I was thinking on quartering and crushing them a little bit. May even run them through a food processor.

Any good ideas and techniques for adding rhined-fruit to a secondary will be welcomed.

Note: The rinds of kumquats give you that nice tart punch and are not bitter like other citrus fruits, so I need to use the whole fruits.

 

[Hello]

I think soaking them in gin will result in that gin passing through into the flavor of the beer. I would use vodka, can you get some this weekend? Cheep vodka works.

I would not puree them because racking the beer off of that will be a pain. You could puree and bag, that would likely be helpful but I'd do more of a rough puree so most everything stays in the bag. I personally would quarter them, smash them up a bit and soak in vodka. I'd use as little vodka as possible and then toss everything into the beer like that. I've never done this so YMMV.

 

[edroberts]

Yeah, I'd worry about the gin dropping too much flavor in (although, if you bittered with Simcoe, it may actually work). You can always pasteurize them, cool, and pitch as well.

 

[rolewiii]

I think soaking them in gin will result in that gin passing through into the flavor of the beer. I would use vodka, can you get some this weekend? Cheep vodka works.

I would not puree them because racking the beer off of that will be a pain. You could puree and bag, that would likely be helpful but I'd do more of a rough puree so most everything stays in the bag. I personally would quarter them, smash them up a bit and soak in vodka. I'd use as little vodka as possible and then toss everything into the beer like that. I've never done this so YMMV.

Yeah I am not a proponent of puree. It's really wonked a few of my batches.

Yeah, I'd worry about the gin dropping too much flavor in (although, if you bittered with Simcoe, it may actually work). You can always pasteurize them, cool, and pitch as well.

Curious about this Simcoe comment. I've never used Simcoe but I like Gin. Are they complimentary. I'm wondering what kind of style I could incorporate the two in to.

 

[IslandLizard]

You can soak the whole fruits in Starsan for half an hour. Most microbes are on the skin.

Add them macerated, couple pulses with sanitized food processor. Then put a fine hop bag over your racking cane when transferring. Or slice into thin wedges.

Pulp gives most extraction.

 

[edroberts]

Curious about this Simcoe comment. I've never used Simcoe but I like Gin. Are they complimentary. I'm wondering what kind of style I could incorporate the two in to.

They're in the same vein in that Simcoe imparts a very piney resinous character (in addition to some subtle tropical fruit notes). Gin is more pine needles than what Simcoe brings though. That said, I'm curious if anyone has ever tried to augment a Simcoe-heavy pale ale with gin.

 

[m00ps]

I made a cucumber-mint saison. To sanitize both I soaked a cutting mat and knife in starsan, chopped them up, and then quickly dunked all the pieces in starsan before tossing into the secondary. This worked fine for me. Any remaining bacteria probably didnt survive the 7%abv

 

[IslandLizard]

They're in the same vein in that Simcoe imparts a very piney resinous character (in addition to some subtle tropical fruit notes). Gin is more pine needles than what Simcoe brings though. That said, I'm curious if anyone has ever tried to augment a Simcoe-heavy pale ale with gin.

Interesting take. But doesn't gin taste more like Juniper berries? Also a piney/resiny note.

 

[m00ps]

yeah I thought gin=juniper berries

 

[edroberts]

Just talking flavor profile... choose your evergreen of choice. I was not referring to what it's ACTUALLY used to impart that flavor.

 

[NTexBrewer]

For my kumquat wheat I rinsed the whole fruit in Starsan along with sterilizing a knife. I then cut the fruit in half and seeded the fruit. Then froze the fruit while the beer was in primary. Figure the starsan and freezing took care of any microbes.

 

[rolewiii]

For my kumquat wheat I rinsed the whole fruit in Starsan along with sterilizing a knife. I then cut the fruit in half and seeded the fruit. Then froze the fruit while the beer was in primary. Figure the starsan and freezing took care of any microbes.

How strong was the StarSan solution? This was what I was thinking of doing just don't want to get any off flavors.

 

[NTexBrewer]

How strong was the StarSan solution? This was what I was thinking of doing just don't want to get any off flavors.

I just used normal strength solution.