Not finding basic pro/cons on this, wanting to break up a 5 gallon into a few different secondaries. Can fruit just be added to the secondary and still flavor the brew? Or should it be done with the boil or primary? No sure I really understand what would happen if I did the same brew/batch but did one of the following: 1. Add fruit to boil. 2. Add fruit to primary. 3. Add fruit to secondary. I have found post and how-to's online but not much that talks about the reasons why or differences in these, anyone have experience/thoughts? Thanks in advance for the time and help.
The rule of thumb I use is that if it's got an aroma I want, which in turn leads to flavor, it needs to be as late as possible in the boil, or in the process. Similar to hops, if you boil, they lose the "flavor and aroma" and get bitter. The late additions load up the beer with the flavor and aroma because the boil isn't driving it off. Similar, to the fact that you drive off aroma of late additions a bit, with fermentation and the co2 being off gassed with it. Fruit, and flavorings are best added in secondary, or right at bottling/kegging, IMO. Keep in mind, adding fruit in secondary will kick up fermentation a bit more, and fruit that doesn't sink, runs the risk of being moldy in the carboy over time too.
The times I've added fruit to a beer it's always been a can of puree added about four days into primary. I did this based on a tip from Weyerbacher's head brewer with the idea being that adding it at around four days would mean that fermentation was just finishing up and the yeast would still be working and ready to eat the sugars from the fruit puree. At the same time, there's so little fermentation left that most of the volatiles won't be driven off by CO2 production.
axeman - from your experiences of putting the puree in around day 4 of primary, what characteristics of the fruit does your beer take on, since you are probably racking the beer off the fruit 10 days or so later? Do you get pronounced aromas and flavors?
I usually add the fruit at roughly four days in, and then ten to fourteen days later pop my bucket in the fridge for a couple days of cold crashing before I bottle. I happen to be drinking the first bottle from a batch of raspberry wheat right now (bottled two weeks ago). With raspberry puree I get tons of fruit flavor/aroma, but brewing the same beer with blueberry puree I got a noticeably more subtle fruit presence. I attribute that more to the fruit than the method though.
As have I. There was some flavor/aroma to the blueberry wheat I brewed, but it was more of a general berry/fruit note than specific blueberry. If I brew it again I'll probably try to punch it up with a little blueberry extract at bottling.
Have not got this far yet, I am thinking a summer ale or american light for this one. So hoping the fruit can kick up the flavor... Are you thinking the style can have a huge impact on the flavor of the fruit? I was thinking about doing these: 1. Cherry 2. Peach 3. Starfruit or Jack Fruit 4. Pear 5. Kiwi
I think it does a bit, but mostly if you go to something that requires extended fermentation times like sours. I don't have much experience with fruits on "clean" fermentations, but I've made quite a few fruit sours. Cherry and raspberry are in my opinion the most prominent, with very distinct character in the finished beer. Peaches are tricky in that I've needed 2.5-3x as much fruit per gallon than raspberries or cherries, and provide fairly subtile flavors. I usually substitute apricots for peaches, they seem to be much better at imparting those flavors attributed to peach. As to the others I've never tried them. I would think that pear would be quite difficult to add pear character from fruit. I've never had any degree of success in adding apple character from fruit and I would guess pear is similar. Upland makes some delicious kiwi lambic and recently had a comercial kiwi hefe that I want to try to figure out, so there may be something there, but i have no experience with it. And Starfruit sounds delicious.
Last month I brewed an American Wheat extract kit from northern brewer and added Raspberry's to the secondary. I bought one pound or 2 bags of frozen great value brand Raspberry's at Walmart so nothing to fancy. I Dumped them in the bottom of my secondary and let it set for a week. Then racked it to my bottling bucket and bottled it. The final result was an awesome raspberry wheat beer. I say this because because I took it to a recent home brew club meeting and everyone loved it! The pound raspberry's gave it a mild tartness flavor wise it was just enough to let you know it was there but yet it was not overpowering either. I really cant wait to do it again but next time I will brew 10 gallons because it was that good! I think the one pound per 5 gallons was the right ratio here for flavor. In the secondary I did have a brief period of secondary fermentation but it was short lived. Also after 3 or four days the the yeast will turn the Raspberry's white this is normal so don't panic! One thing I see is a lot of supply places telling you to add there fruit flavor extracts to beers. I would avoid these because past experiences with these extracts have taught me there is nothing like the real thing!
Thanks for sharing this--its one aspect I have also wondered... Comparing the extracts to real fruit, I had a feeling the real fruit would always be best. Have others made the same batch, one with extract and the other with real fruit? What are your thoughts on comparing the two?
