Sour ale - when should I add the fruit?

One thing I should mention. Just because you infuse new fruit during the souring process doesn't mean you should add the juice too.

I put a total 6lb of tart cherries in my Kriek. The first bag of 3lbs, juice and all are inserted at the start of secondary. They're put into the carboy before the wort is racked over. At the 15 month mark, after a sampling & gravity reading, I put 3 more lbs in WITHOUT the juice. The juice would have sweetened an already-soured batch. After 5 more months of souring with the new cherries, it was racked into a keg and served up at NHC where it was well-received and the keg blew.

 

Avoid adding the juice. When adding fruit you're basically jumpstarting fermentation again. Wild yeast ferment more slowly. If bottled too early, the juice will potentially create bottle bombs.

After thawing out, I just simply cut a corner in my plastic bag and rinse out the juice in the sink. I do remember giving it a few squeezes, but not "wringing it out" like I would with a sponge/wet towel.

Hope this helps.

BG

 

No reason why you shouldn't add the juice. I've never heard of anyone doing that. I've never heard of a brewery, especially not a traditional Belgian one ever doing that. There are brewers who add straight juice to the fermenters to avoid the pulp from full fruits. After 9 months in the carboy the Sacc are pretty much useless (other than a food source for bacteria and Brett), they will not restart when the fruit sugars are added. At that point it is the lactic bacteria and the Brett that have sufficient cell counts to ferment the fruit sugars producing some more alcohol, but mostly acids and esters (which is what you want). Depending on the fruit, they too will contribute acids, which will undergo a change from the lactic acid bacteria adding new acids to the mix other than straight lactic. The whole fruits should be added. Skins provide tannins, seeds add an extra level of flavor (almond like), and the fruit juice and pulp will add color and flavor as well as secondary sugar sources for the bacteria and Brett. Fruit juice/sugar will not sweeten the beer unless you add chemicals to kill the bacteria and Brett leaving nothing to ferment the sugars. They will devour all of the sugar and turn it to acid and alcohol.

 

No reason why they won't consume all the sugar in 3-6 months time in the carboy. I added 4# of fresh blackberries right off the vines in the backyard to my sour blonde (7 months old - 6 souring), and had it in bottles after another 4 months or so. No bottle bombs. I have them stored at 68*F+. As long as the FG is at 1.006 or below you are good to go.

If we were dealing with traditional Lambics aged for 3 years which ferment slower than what homebrewers traditionally brew due to highly dextrinous wort composition in which a 1 year old beer could be used to fully carbonate a batch w/o using priming sugar, we might have to worry about potential bottle bombs. As long as you have fermented a standard beer wort, even one mashed at 158 with 10% crystal malts like a Flanders Red, you are still only looking at 1 year to reach a FG that will allow bottling w/o bottle bombs.

I have a sour that I bottled @ 1.008 only 6 weeks after fermenting, left bottles in the garage for nearly 2 years, reused bottles, no explosions. The beer foams up fierce in the neck when opened and if you aren't quick enough it will overflow, but so will a Belgian made Gueze or Orval for that matter.

 

I have found it best when brewing sours to have a general time frame, but don't hold to it too tightly. Shoot for 15 months before adding the fruits with a plan to bottle at 18 months, but if it is still doing it's thing and not where you want it at either of those markers, wait another month.

 

I would wait. You are at the 10 month mark which is good, but the Pedio will probably bloom again this Summer with the spike in heat and could go ropey or put out diacetyl. I bottled a sour last year that had a new bloom of pedio right after and had to wait for the diacetyl to be cleaned up by the Brett, I ended up losing much of the Dry Hop character I wanted.

Yes, adding sugar will mean that you need to wait, at least a few months. As far as adding cherries, I would wait to see where the flavor profile is. Adding fruit could make a great beer better or worse.

Yes, I would let the beer finish fermenting the juice and sugars from the fruit then add priming sugar to the beer, fresh yeast (dry champagne), but only after the beer is finished. As far as FG, that is a tough one. What was the OG, FG, grist make up of the beer and mash temp?

 

How many gallons?

 

That's a lot of Crystal in there, that combined with the OG you probably won't be finishing near 1.000. Maybe in the 1.007-1.010 range maybe? Always hard to know unless you have brewed this batch repeatedly and know where it normally finishes. I would take another taste in a few weeks and get the FG on it. Do this once a month for a few months to see if it is stable or still dropping. After it has been stable for a few months in a row then you should be safe to add the fruit and age another few months before bottling.

 

Once a month if you are gently pulling a hydrometer sample's worth won't turn it to vinegar, just get in and get out. You can also flush with CO2 to be safe.

Kinda. You should have an idea where it should finish post fruits, but also, if the beer is going to need another 6 months on its own with out any fruit additions to finish, you don't want to add the fruit now then lose all the fresh aroma and flavor to age while you wait an extra 9 months (3 for the fruit, 6 for the beer) to finish what it was doing before you added the fruit.

 

After the book comes out.

 

speaking of fruit - I'm going to be picking some sour cherries this summer. Plan on adding them to one of the 6 sour carboys I have going right now. Do you guys pit the cherries first?