fruiting a sour?

If the beer is already soured to where you want it and you think the flavors will pare well, go for it. A traditional peach lambic/geueze would leave the pits intact. The pits add an almond like character, but it is up to you. I would think adding whole peaches to the carboy would not be easy. Maybe add a handful of the pits along with the fruits if you can get them in and out easily. 8# sounds like a good starting place.

 

Freeze the fruit first to break it down some . . . then mush it in there to dethaw.

 

Cut it then freeze it, breaks down the cell walls of the fruit so the bugs can eat the sugars, also helps to sanitize it by stopping the natural yeast/flora in the fruit. I do this with all my fruit beers with 100% success rate.

 

In a bucket with a sour... yes. I would have quietly transferred the beer into the bucket and put the fruit into the Better Bottle, then racked beer back into the BB on top of fruit (if I didn't have an extra BB, otherwise add fruit to new BB and rack beer from primary to there). If you have any acetobacter in the mix they will take off much quicker in a bucket than in the Better Bottle, but trying to rack the beer off of the fruit into another container, moving fruit to BB, then racking beer onto the fruit will add O2 as well unless you can do a CO2 forced transfer.

 

hate to say it but if you are going to age 6mos + I would give it a few days to break down the fruit then transfer to glass carboy, fruit and all.

 

no, the key is having it sit in glass vs plastic. Glass is 100% impermeable to air, plastic is not. That is why you many will use plastic for primary (2-3 weeks) and glass for anything longer. More of a personal preference. Looking quickly, here is some more info. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/vs-pro-con-analysis-109318/

 

Sorry to thread jack, but does anyone ever heat their fruit to pasteurizing temps whatever yeast and odd bugs are on it?

 

I would wait a week or so to let the fruit break up some and then transfer it all via syphon to the Better Bottle (it doesn't have to be in glass, just not in HDPE plastic, PET is just as good as glass for O2). If you still want to add the pits, they should fit in a BB neck fine unless they are huge; if they don't go in easy, they wont come out easy either.

 

Sure, less aging is an option. 6 months is about the longest you'd want to keep a sour in a bucket. I think it's the Vinnie's NHC presentation from a few years ago where he suggests maybe starting in a bucket for the extra O2 and then transferring to glass. You'll just want to taste it and see what happens. I've only used peaches in a berliner. I left it on the fruit for 2 months, but that was with peaches that weren't as ripe and yours look

Not exactly. Wild Brews has a little chart with O2 permeability that's worth checking out. Doesn't have better bottles, but they have permeability info on website. Not all plastic vessels are the same.

There are a number of threads on this.

 

I personally do not for a sour. The wild bugs and bacteria add more complexity and depth to the overall character of the beer. As long as you are sanitary in your procedures and keep oxygen out there shouldn't be anything that makes a good sour go bad from fruits added. The traditional Belgian brewers don't pasteurize or even pit there stuff. If you are picking your fruit from the side of the highway, then you will want to reconsider, but from an organic orchard in the country outside your smallish city (just outside LA is another story) you should have nice local yeasts to play with. Also, don't get fruit covered in fruit flies.

 

I mentioned above, but have seeped/pasteurized before and seem to see this is better IMHO. Keeps better color too, dont leach out the colors. I was also assuming that he doesnt have a Better Bottle since they are less popular than buckets/carboys.

 

Let it go for 3-4 months (see: Cascade brewing). Not sure you'd get much fruit extraction after that. I would agree with the thought that oxygen permeability of the bucket may be problematic. I'm sure the unfrozen fruit is FULL of acetobacter just waiting to pounce.

 

I just bottled a berliner that sat on peaches for 2 months. The peach flavor comes through really nicely. I would think if the sour quality you are looking for is there, 2 months should be plenty.

 

Are we on the same brew schedule? I have a peach sour going that I plan on bottling mid-October too. It has a weird/different aroma to it that I'm not sure what it is. I might be using this for blending purposes, but we'll see in about 2 months.