I have a pale ale that I accidentally made 6.4 gal of instead of 5.5. I wanted to experiment with fruit... 5 days after pitching US-05, I cut up a grapefruit, orange, and mango, put in the oven for 15 min at 180 F to sanitize, and put the pieces at the bottom of a 3 gal carboy. I then racked 1.6 gal of the still fermenting beer onto the fruit, sealed with airlock, and now it has been sitting for 12 days. Questions: 1. I have noticed some small white dots on top of some of the fruit, hoping they are just small yeast colonies? 2. Should I be ok to bottle now? I need the 3 gal carboy for a brew on Friday, but I could always rack off the fruit to 2 one gal jugs... This is my first time using fruit so any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!
Check your gravity to make sure its stable, that's the best way to know if you're safe to bottle. The fruit will add sugar to the beer. Without pictures of the fruit it's hard to tell what the white dots are.
1) Skin on or skin off? 2) Doubt 15" @180 would sanitize / pastuerize. If the skin was off...probably no biggie b/c fruit pH is low. Is the white stuff fuzzy because it could very well be mold. If so...rack beneath it at bottlin'time and don't get greedy. May have to leave more than the usual amount of beer behind. After 17 days in the fermentor...you're probably OK to bottle...seeing how the fruit was added early in the fermentation. As others have already pointed out...there's only one way to know for sure. Based on my experience using raspberry in a dozen or so batches over several years and having a few mishaps along the way: if you cannot test the gravity to see if it's finished but can rack to another container(s) to give it a few more days...then better safe than sorry.
Thanks Herb, unfortunately I cold crashed it yesterday before you posted. Fruit has skin on. I read that the 15 min at 180 would be enough, but that's just some random guy on HBT. The fruit is sinking into the beer, so if that is mold, it's nice and mixed into it now. I guess I should just rack into a tertiary fermenter and check gravities over a week? Let it come back up to room temp?
The 15"-to-pasteurize step is the CW. Had problems in my brew-closet during fermentation following that protocol...so I increased the time to 30" and no trubbles since. Does my experience disprove the CW? Maybe...maybe not. What I can report is mold/infections in my subsequent batches of raspberry wheat are no longer an issue. --- Not sure I'd re-rack b/c...if there is contamination...the funk will mix throughout the full volume. If there is mold...you'll know when the time comes to bottle by its smell.
Went ahead and just bottled yesterday. Tasted straight up like grapefruit juice. Excited to see how it turns out. Did not have any indication of mold from the smell or flavor.
Thanks all. I am drinking the first bottle of this now. A little under carbed, but it is pretty good! Lots of bitterness from the grapefruit, the other fruits don't really show. The important thing is there are no off-flavors from that suspect "mold." The grapefruit is too prominent, but it still works.
