Adding fruit to wheat beer

JamieD

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Hi Guys,

I've got my first ever wheat beer fermenting away. I want to add some fruit to it (of the berry variety) and require your suggestions. I plan on freezing the fruit and heating them in a pan to sterilise. The beer has been fermenting a week so far. Would you suggest just throwing the fruit in the same FV and leaving another 1-2 weeks before bottling, or transferring to a secondary FV to add the fruit? If the latter, then should I wait another week for fermentation to finish, and how long would you leave it in secondary for?

Cheers
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what's your recipe?

I would add the berries to a secondary vessel and rack the beer on top of it. Leave it in the secondary at the same temp you fermented in the primary, probably for about a week. Then I'd cold crash and try to drop a lot of the debris before bottling
 
Is your fruit fresh... or is it the type that is already frozen in the bag?

I have a beer using Oliver's method, i added grocery store frozen fruit that was thawed in the bag to my secondary carboy.... and i racked the beer on top of it. It's still doing it's thing, and nothing bad has happened yet.... and it's been in secondary since the 5th of December. I plan on racking it again against some chopped up red beets for color when i can.... just to get it off of everything and let it clear up some and gain some color....

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/brewsession/141351

If your beer has enough alcohol content after primary, i wouldn't be afraid to just go ahead and add some fresh crushed fruit.... the yeast of the fruit will add some character and the high alcohol will kill off everything else.

ether way....You'll want to leave it in secondary till it calms down again, the yeast will come back to life and fermentation will kick up again
 
I agree no need to boil the fruit if it was frozen. Rack on top and wait for a stable FG
 
Also, some fruits have weird proteins and enzymes sometimes and can cause the body of the beer to break down or cause weird sour infections. I think I read on this forum, that the heat from the canning process will cure all those issues. So, canned fruit is also a really good option, at least in my experience.
 
I agree no need to boil the fruit if it was frozen. Rack on top and wait for a stable FG
But do pasteurize: Heat to 180 Fahrenheit, hold for 20 minutes, cool and add to secondary.
 
I would do it to fresh fruit but store bought frozen fruit I just throw it in
I used to do that until I lost an entire batch of strawberry hefeweizen to contamination after adding unpasteurized frozen strawberries. It goes in my beer, it's pasteurized. Period.
 
Upon adding that raw honey to my recent lemongrass wheat beer I pasteurised at 75c for half hour upon nosey Bears instructions and I tell ya not an off flavour resonates from this brew. Sipping it as I type. It works:)
 
I used to do that until I lost an entire batch of strawberry hefeweizen to contamination after adding unpasteurized frozen strawberries. It goes in my beer, it's pasteurized. Period.
Point taken. I'll be careful. I generally only use fruit in sours and Mead don't know if that makes a difference
 
It may. You have very high acidity in sours, not sure about meads, and acidity preserves. Better said, it retards spoilage bacteria.
 

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