Got a Year to Kill...

When I have done fruited sours (probably only about 5x, so not an expert) I have added fruit to a secondary fermenter and racked the fruit from the primary on top. 2 months on fruit seems reasonable, though I have gone longer and not suffered any problems.

One of the minor challenges might be managing the headspace. You want enough so that the fruit fermentation doesn't create a lot of blow off, but that competes with potential oxygen exposure due to a lot of headspace. And some will argue that a little oxygen is good for a sour, although it may not be easy to control just the right amount. I haven't settled on a best management practice, and largely haven't worried, but a keg as a secondary would allow you some added control of oxygen, given you the capacity to purge and seal, if you were concerned. However, the fruit might interfere with using the same keg as a serving vessel. (Never tried it.)

 

Hey, good to see you back. I don't do sours, but hope you have a super time on leave.

 

I have no info to share but wanted to wish you a safe end of your tour

 

Fruited sours is about 90% of what I brew now. My typical process is after (at least) one year in the primary fermenter, I rack the sour beer onto 10-12 pounds of fruit per 5 gallons of beer. After 2-3 months bottle or keg the beer.

Cheers!

 

I secondary in a 6.5 gallon Big Mouth Bubbler. It holds 5 gallons of beer and 10-12 pounds of fruit perfectly.

 

Thank you for your service. Hope you have a great leave.

 

Nice! I only use fresh fruit from farmer's market or a local farm that offers 'pick your own'. I honestly think it makes a huge difference. I wash the fruit real good and then freeze it. The freezing helps breaks down the cell walls and also kills anything unwanted. Although, I've success just washing and then going directly into the secondary. The main reason why I tend to freeze is the timing of it all. Here in New England we have a small window of 'perfect fruit'. So I buy it when it is perfect and freeze it for when I need it.

Cheers!

 

Big mouth fermenters are super, I have 4. Fresh fruit for me, is a no no. Even though I grow my own, insects and bacteria are everywhere. Maybe it does not matter with a sour, but when fruiting a non sour/ wild beer, I boil for 1-3 minutes and no problems.

 

No problems here, but I would make use your bung is solid plyable old school type and not the thin side walled type. Thin one can pop or shift , solid plyable bungs stay in place for me. Otherwise, big mouths work just fine.

 

Most of this advice looks great, but the part about killing anything unwanted is wrong. Freezing is not an effective way to kill the microbes you might worry about (or really any microbes, as far as I know). It's still probably a good idea, but for the other reasons cited, not for any prophylactic effect.

Maybe @OldSock could weigh in on sanitizing the fruit. I notice that he sanitized the cherries that he used in a Flanders red ale, commenting:

As I usually do, I rinsed the dried fruit briefly in StarSan to remove the oil that prevents them from sticking.

On the other hand, cherries have waxy skins, and his stated reason for rinsing them was not to get rid of bacteria but to get rid of oil, as he further clarified:

4/8/16 Added 1 lb of dried cherries to the 58W3 half. Rinsed in StarSan to remove any surface oil (more than sanitation).

He made no mention of sanitizing the nectarines in this recipe, but maybe he just didn't get to that level of detail. He clarified in the comments to his milkshake IPA recipe that he sanitized the nylon stocking he bagged the mangoes in but not the mangoes themselves.

So although I think his input would be welcome, I think it's reasonable to conclude from his blog that @OldSock doesn't go out of his way to sanitize fruit that he is adding to a mixed-fermentation sour like the one you have brewed. Of course it goes without saying that fresh fruit should be rinsed free of any dirt, oil, etc. (@OldSock is Mike Tonsmeire, author of American Sour Beers, so I think it's safe/advisable to imitate his brewing practices.)

Also, have fun in New Zealand! You might consider picking up a jar of thyme honey, which Tonsmeire used in a saison. Just be careful not to get into a "Who's on first?" type situation.

You: Do you have any thyme honey?

Store owner: Time for what? And don't call me honey.

You: What? Surely you have thyme honey.

Store owner: I've got all the time in the world, but don't call me Shirley either.

[edited for clarity/joke improvement]

 

Often I have added fruit as a puree, so the next of the carboy did not offer the challenge you are imagining. You can dice into small bits, if necessary (or use a food processor) But your way may work fine.

If using a commercial puree, probably no reason to sanitize. If using fresh fruit, maybe it makes sense to try, but I never did.

 

I use this Kegco fermenter and love it. It has a wide mouth with screw top and gasket. I tried the open airlock bath, but now I just use a #3 stopper and 3 piece airlock.

http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/home-brew/SD-7340J-glass-jar.html

It’s on amazon too.

Thank you for your service!

 

The easiest way to do this is either buy fruit juice or fruit juice concentrate and add that to your fermenter. You can also juice (and heat reduce) your own fruit.

As far as priming your bottles, I've never done it any differently than I do my clean beers and I've never had an issue. That said, terminal acid shock is a real thing.

 

I have done several fruited beers and ciders and have never sanitized the fruit. I get it local in peak season and freeze it. When needed I thaw it and put in secondary then rack the beer onto it. I have not had an issue yet with unwanted bad bacteria from the fruit but maybe I’m just lucky.

 

There's a reason for this. If your beer already has a pH in the mid to low 3s, which most sour base beers will have, the vast majority of bacteria and yeast that will come off your fruit that might cause off-flavors will be inhibited by the low pH environment.