Thanks for all the great feedback on my last post! I have two dilemmas that I want opinions on: 1. I brewed a 100% Brett (trois strain from WLP) IPA- it has been in the primary for 2 weeks- went from about 1.050 to 1.015 give or take- hoping to get to 1.010; I dry hopped it two days ago, and added some french oak, soaked in Chardonnay. It was slightly citrusy when i tried it last weekend- which is my goal (used all New Zealand hops), but I almost think I should add some peach or apricot. Question one: to fruit or not fruit? And if so, should I rack on a secondary to add fruit? 2. I brewed an american wild ale with 1056 and Roselare- added mandarin orange and grapefruit zest to the final minute of boil thinking I would add some citrus fruit to the secondary to encourage bug growth. Added Bordeaux cubes soaked in Chardonnay about three days ago. I tasted it at two weeks and it screams blackberry to me- not citrus. Question two: Should I add blackberries to the primary, or rack on secondary. If I rack on secondary, do I need to add more bugs? Thanks for your help!! As an aside, we did a cherry pinot noir barreled sour last fall, and man does that Roselare work if you give it time (should have listened to everyone on this forum who said that over and over to me last fall )!
1 - have it both ways, bottle have by itself and add fruit to the other half. Stay away from peaches and use the apricots = more peach flavor. This way you get to try both and see what you like better 2 - how long ago did you brew this? Im glad someone is actually tasting their sour before haphazardly adding fruit, Ive been trying to get this idea to stick but its an uphill battle! blackberries are hard to get the flavor to come over in a sour, most store bought blackberries lack flavor and are mostly sour. I prefer to add blackberries to a sour that has a very soft acid profile, if its quite tart on its own the blackberries can put it over the top. Raspberries IMO tend to be easier to use when store bought as they have quite a bit more flavor, personally I'd use raspberries if the only choice was store bought fruit. I would suggest against adding fruit unless you are <1-2mos from bottling, fruit flavor fades fast no need to add bugs if racked. racking tends to produce a slightly cleaner beer (=less bretty)
Thanks so much for the comment, Ryane I like your "split the difference idea"- although I only have a 5-gallon carboy for a secondary- I am guessing I should get a three gallon for that, right? I had no idea about the apricots either. Thanks! I brewed these batches 3 weeks ago! I tried the beer after reading a post on BA/homebrew forum that it was a good idea- seemed super logical…and thank God I did, because this beer would taste terrible with citrus additions IMHO. I cannot believe there is already some sour character brewing in that batch. I have always added canned fruit puree (3-6 lb per batch)- should I try to use real fruit instead? If so, is there any special way the fruit should be processed before adding it (boiling, washing, etc)? Is it OK to add frozen fruit? Typically I leave in primary with oak x1 month, rack for 2 months with fruit, and then bottle.
for the all-brett beer your time line is fine, for the sour you are super super early, I would sit on the sour till at a minimum this spring/summer and then decide what to do. This will allow more time for the bugs to work (you dont want bottle bombs) and the flavor profile is likely to change some in that time, in addition if you wait till then lots of different fruits will be coming into season! Fresh fruit, especially stuff you pick yourself is always the best option Id like to think that was my post I really suggest you wait on the sour, keep it fermenting coolish (~60-65f) this will give you a nice complex character, you can ferment warmer (Ive gone up to 85F) but the acid character becomes rough and one-dimensional. Canned fruit is Ok, but I generally fruit I pick myself (always ripe and flavorful), though somethings like wine grapes can be purchased without hesistation (i highly recommend pink muscats or barbera grapes) As for how to add it, fresh is fine, frozen and thawed is fine, but you dont really need to process is in anyway. There's no need to worry about infection, by the time you add fruit the souring bacteria/yeast should have created conditions hard for anything else to take hold, and if it does it might add some additional complexity
Something to consider on the apricot/peach for the Brett beer... adding enough apricot for the flavor to come through will mean you lose quite a bit of beer, almost half, as getting the beer off of the apricots will prove difficult. I added 5# apricots to 5 gallons and wound up with 3 gallons of beer. If you half the batch and then age on 2.5 gals fruit you may only get 1.5 gallons of beer. As far as the sour, like Ryane said, let it go through next year, I would recommend through next summer as the spike in heat will probably cause the Pedio to bloom leading to ropiness and diacetyl, then the Brett can clean it up. At that point, fresh ripe blackberries will be in season. I added fresh blackberries from the backyard to a sour blonde that turned out really well.
did you add puree or whole apricots? Ive always had luck with halved fruit, racking twice off the fruit isnt always a bad thing
