Im going to be brewing an IPA soon and would like to incorporate Apricots into the process. I would like to avoid transfering to a secondary if it's not necessary and I was looking for some recommendations. I see a lot of people throw the fruit in right at flameout but also hear you can lose the flavor and aroma by doing so. I was also wondering if I could just wait until fermentation is over and drop the apricots into a muslin bag and into the primary. Any recommendations/thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Joe
The problem I see with that approach is that fermentation will restart due to the sugars in the fruit. According to the book "Extreme Brewing", there seem to be two main ways of adding apricot: 1) 10 minutes before the end of the boil; 2) if you use pureed apricots, add after the boil is over, but before transferring it to fermentation. Let the pureed fruit steep in the hot wort for at least 20 minutes and then transfer it into the carboy along with the beer before pitching the yeast. The fermentation helps break down the fruit. The boil or hot wort helps sterilize the fruit, which is critical since fresh fruit invariably has some small amount of bacteria or wild yeast on the surface. If you wish to add fresh fruit during fermentation, sterilize it by steeping it in 180 F-plus water for at least 30 minutes and then let it come back down to 70 F before adding it to the carboy. The later the fruit is added during fermentation, the more flavor and aroma it will contribute. It is not recommended to add the fruit post-fermentation since you want the yeast to eat the sugars from the fruit while the beer is still in the carboy and the yeast are active.
Dried apricots or fresh? With dried dates I had good luck chopping them and placing in a bowl then poured over boiling water at the ratio of 1 pint per pound of dates. This mush then went through the blender and was added to the primary fermenter once primary was completed. With fresh cherries I pitted them, blendered them, froze them for 2 weeks, then thawed and added them to the primary fermenter once primary was completed. Both beers turned out very nice. I blended the fruit because I wanted to maximize flavor and color extraction and I have the ability to cold crash my fermenters to get all that crap to settle so I can rack the beer off it. If you can't cold crash then a bag is probably a good idea.
I peeled and sliced the apricots and froze them for two weeks now. I currently don't have a method for cold crashing so I was going to either use muslin bags or my grain bag to submerge the apricots. Did you wait until the fermentation was completely over or was there still yeast activity when you threw the cherries in?
Have you tried this method? I am wondering how much flavor and aroma would be lost due to having the fruit in the fermenter for the whole fermentation. If there is minimal loss then this would seem to be the easiest method.
I waited until just after high krausen so that the yeast was still active but they had consumed enough of the wort sugars that adding fruit wouldn't require a blow off.
No, not with apricots, but I have been considering making something like Aprihop (Dogfish Head). As Sam Calagione (Owner of Dogfish Head and designer of Aprhiop) says, the later during the fermentation that you add the apricots, the more flavor and aroma you will get. If you're looking for maximum flavor and aroma, add it at the end of fermentation. Otherwise you can just add it during the last 10 minutes of boil. If you add it during the boil, you should add double the amount of apricots to achieve a similar flavor.
Add after fermentation. You'll lose a lot of flavor from boiling. And yes, putting them in a bag and dropping in primary should be fine.
Not to hijack this thread. (Ok I am... as opposed to starting a new one) Does anyone have any feedback on how long to leave peaches in secondary? I found this old thread - https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/brewing-with-peaches.28332/ Important info about my beer: Sour base (PH ~ 3.3ish) 4.5 gallons Pitched Brett bugs from Prairie artisan ales Golden something-or-other Light Brett flavor (would like more) and tartness is perfect. Moderate body, hence why I wanted to spruce it up a bit with fruit and try something new. Have not taken gravity reading since Brett was pitched. Have not tasted since peaches (7lbs) were added two weeks ago, mostly due to being busy. This beer is pretty old, so I imagine that it will take a good bit of time to process these additional sugars. Thoughts?
At least. Depending on which Brett species you pitched, it could take up to 8 weeks for your gravity to stabilize. I take it this is a hot-side sour with your Brett pitched after a primary fermentation with sacch.?
Yes and no. It was not a kettle sour, but more of a staged sour for lack of a better term. Lacto pitched first for a few days to allow them to build up, pitched Sacch to ferment out. Once gravity was moderately stable, pitched Brett. Brett was pitched in May.
