How long secondary fruit

In the Mash For all-grain brewers, fresh fruits can be added to the mash. To do this, cut the fruit into pieces and stir the fruit into the grains while mashing in. The sugars and fruit flavors will dissolve into the mash and be drained along with the wort. A benefit of adding fresh fruits to the mash is that the wort will subsequently be boiled and any yeasts or bacteria on the fruit will be killed. Simply finish brewing as usual after the mash. The drawbacks of adding fruits to the mash are that the extracted sugar and flavoring from the fruit will be boiled and then subjected to primary fermentation.

Most of the fruit aromas will be lost in the process. So, although adding fruit to the mash is safe and convenient, it is not the way to go for most fruit beers. Pumpkin ales are the only fruit beers typically made by adding this fruit — which is commonly referred to as a vegetable — to the mash. The pumpkin flavor desired in the beer is that of cooked pumpkin, and much of the flavor in a pumpkin ale comes from pumpkin pie spices.

In Hot Wort Fruits can be steeped in hot wort before, during or after the boil. For fresh fruit, whole fruit or pieces of fruit are placed in a nylon bag. Submerge the fruit bag in the hot wort and tie the string of the nylon bag to the handle of your kettle.

The fruit will absorb some wort and lower your volume slightly. To counteract this, you can boil a slightly larger volume of wort or add water to your fermenter to make up the volume. The amount of wort absorbed by the fruit will, of course, depend on how much fruit you steep. Fruit can also be added directly to the wort and the fruit solids left behind as the wort is siphoned to the fermenter. You may want to use a sanitized kitchen strainer to clear most of the fruit solids from the wort before racking it your fermenter.

The heat from boiling wort will kill any yeasts or bacteria on the fruit. However, pectins in the fruit can be extracted and may cause clouding in the beer if the fruit is placed in boiling wort.

To sanitize the fruit, but avoid extracting pectins, you can steep the fruit in hot wort after boiling. For all-grain brewers, a drawback of not immediately cooling the wort is that DMS production continues in hot wort and may lend a cooked corn flavor to the beer. The amount of DMS production will depend on the type of malt you use. Extract brewers do not need to worry about DMS.

When steeping fruit in hot wort, you should allow at least a half-hour to extract as much fruit flavor and sugar as possible. Swirl the fruit bag or stir the wort every five minutes or so to disperse fruit-derived sugars and fruit flavors into the wort. Since steeping involves shorter contact times than other methods of fruit use, you should increase the amount of fruit used by at least 15—20 percent.

Then, finish your brew as you normally would. Using Fruits in Secondary Fermentation For most fruits, the best time to add them is in secondary fermentation.

When added at this time, the fruits are not subjected to heat, their flavors do not end up tasting cooked and their aromas are not lost. The drawback, of course, is that adding fruits in the secondary fermenter runs the risk of contaminating the beer. However, green beer generally has enough alcohol and a pH low enough to discourage the growth of contaminating organisms. For fresh fruits, remove the stems, leaves and pits or seeds. Wash the fruit thoroughly. You should reduce the fruit to small pieces by one of several methods: Mash the fruit with a potato masher, chop it with a food processor or cut it up with a knife.

Place the fruit in your secondary fermenter and siphon beer on top of it. It is also important that the fermenter is sealed tightly. If air can get in, microorganisms can grow on the top of the floating fruit. This is what happened to my ill-fated cherry beer. It is usually best to use a large bucket — one with some headspace — as a secondary fermenter, as some foaming may occur when the yeast begins working on the fruit sugars. The SO2 also acts as an antioxidant, preventing browning of the fruit.

Adding fruits during secondary fermentation increases the volume of the brew, but some of this volume is lost when beer is racked from the remaining fruit solids. You can plan for this by making less volume of your base beer, but making it somewhat more concentrated.

Keep in mind that adding fruit directly into the fermenter during fermentation will affect fruit character. Therefore, it will taste entirely different than the beer you get when adding fruit after this process. When you make the all-grain brew , you can also add fresh fruits to the mash. Cut it into pieces and stir them into the grains during mashing until sugars dissolve into the final mash. The advantage of this option is killing bacteria and yeast during boiling.

The primary disadvantage of this solution is the loss of fruit aromas after boiling and primary fermentation. In such a case, you will get a beer with cooked fruit flavor. Therefore, it is better to avoid this way except when you brew pumpkin ale because you want to get a cooked pumpkin aroma in this beer type. That is also an excellent option when you use pasteurized fruit purees and concentrates instead of fresh fruit since they are already sterile.

Most brewers use cherry, raspberry, and apricot for brewing because these fruits are most practical to work with. When you decide to use kiwis, strawberries, peaches, or pears rich in water, it will be necessary to add more fruit per gallon. The best option to get the beer that looks fruity at first glance is to consider red fruit like cherries and raspberries. Always decide which beer type you want to brew and then choose the fruit that best fits its characteristics.

For a start, it is an excellent solution to buy various commercial brews and try them. Many homebrewers add whole fruit to their brews, but you can also consider a few other options. It is crucial to pick out high-quality ingredients if you want to get the ultimate product.

I prefer adding fresh fruit to my brew, but this option is limited to the season, particularly if you choose to use local ones. That way, you will exactly know what to buy and can pick out the best fruit available to get the ultimate beer flavor. You should choose ripe fruit in excellent condition and avoid rotten and low-quality ones. If you have a garden, you can produce some on your own.

In any case, you need to process fresh fruit yourself, including:. Take care to ensure the required clean and sanitary conditions for these procedures. Be careful with plums or grapes skin since it often contains wild yeast that may affect the final beer flavor. Frozen fruit is usually well-ripen since producers freeze them right at the ripest point. With this option, you will get the product with the ideal flavor and sugar level for brewing. Another advantage of this option is fruit cell membranes that decompose at the moment of freezing, which will allow the juice to enter the beer quickly.

Avoid the frozen fruit that contains preservatives since these compounds will probably kill the yeast. Always thaw it out on time. Adding frozen fruit to the fermenter will shock the yeast and negatively affect its activity.

Puree and canned fruit are consistent, cleaned, and pre-sanitized, which makes them safe to use. The primary downside of this option is the lack of fruit freshness and a bit cooked flavor. To use fruit extracts, simply pour the extract into your bottling bucket or keg before you transfer the beer.

This way you can be certain that the extract gets blended in really well. The main advantage of using extracts is their ease of use. Some brewers may find the flavor to be too strong or too sweet.

Northern Brewer stocks over 20 varieties of canned fruit purees. These are the second easiest way to add fruit flavor to your beer, and we feel the best. With fresh fruit, you need to pasteurize it to kill off any unwanted natural yeasts and bacteria. This step is already done with these canned purees. So you will see some fermentation activity after the puree is added.

There are a couple schools of thought on how these purees should be used. One school says that it should be put into the primary, near the end of the initial fermentation.

The other is to rack your beer onto the fruit in the secondary. We find that this only occurs when a large quantity of fruit is added say, more than 10 lbs. For this reason, you may choose to follow this school of thought. If you take a hydrometer reading and its around 1. Then simply let it ferment out and rack to the secondary as usual.

Northern Brewer suggests using a secondary when adding fresh fruit or purees to a beer to allow the additional fruit sediment to settle out.

This is definitely the easiest method of using purees. One drawback is that it is somewhat difficult to rack off of the fruit after fermentation is complete, so some brewers like to perform a tertiary or third fermentation.