Adding fruit to a wheat beer

[danmac]

Hi all,
I purchased a wheat beer kit yesterday and I was wondering how and when I add fruit to it please possibly raspberry or strawberry

 

[Covrich]

I think I added about 5 days or a week in a I cannot remember.. I used frozen raspberries straight from supermarket dumped them in from the freezer directly out of the bags.

Turned out great

 

[danmac]

So no need to blend them?
How many bags did you use

 

[The Baron]

No just do as Covrich says thaw them out then dump them in. You could use a large hop bag if you wanted to contain the fruit so that it is possible to remove them or if not a good cold crash should help to make them go to the bottom although some fruits do tend to float.
Ps I usually do it after the first stage of fermentation slows down say day 4 or 5, you will also lose quite a bit of beer to the fruit through absorption
I used 3 to 4 bags of the frozen supermarket bags to give a fruity taste without overpowering the beer too much (I use Aldi)

 

[danmac]

No just do as Covrich says thaw them out then dump them in. You could use a large hop bag if you wanted to contain the fruit so that it is possible to remove them or if not a good cold crash should help to make them go to the bottom although some fruits do tend to float.
Ps I usually do it after the first stage of fermentation slows down say day 4 or 5, you will also lose quite a bit of beer to the fruit through absorption
I used 3 to 4 bags of the frozen supermarket bags to give a fruity taste without overpowering the beer too much (I use Aldi)

Sorry new to this! What is cold crashing please?

 

[The Baron]

Cold crashing is moving the fermentation vessel once it has stopped fermenting to a cold place. Some brewers use a fridge but if you do not have a fridge at this time of the year you could move it to a stone floored garage or outside building/shed where it is coldest. The cold helps the yeast and trub to settle to the bottom aiding a clearer beer.

 

[danmac]

Thanks Baron I'll try that when I have done the fermentation I have 2 brews ready to bottle/pressure barrell do you recommend priming the barrell or using co2 and do I add the co2 as soon as I barrell

 

[Covrich]

for my 23l brew i bought what came to 2.6kg of frozen raspberries.. like Baron says, just tip them straight in..

 

[Didge]

Until very recently we had a massive bed of raspberries in our garden, so they usually ended-up in my beers, wines & ciders.

I always blitzed them in a blender and then simmered them in a pan with some sugar & water for 10 minutes to pasteurise them.

I then use a fine metal cooks sieve to filter-out the pulp & seeds before adding to the hot wort before fermentation.

Its also worth adding some pectolase to the FV to prevent pectin haze in your finished brew.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Frozen raspberries 1kg thawed put into a muslin bag for a 11 litre brew. Added them to the 2FV and left for a week, removed the bag and bottled.

 

[aamcle]

I have used Raspberry puree for cocktails, fruit no preservatives, I got it from the digital forest.

Add to the FV when the fermentation slows.


Aamcle

 

[The Baron]

Most people with Pressure Barrels the plastic type and not Corny Kegs would use sugar in the barrel to produce the CO2. If you have a adaptor for CO2 on the PB you can add some gas but I think that they are not good at holding higher pressure from gas injection as you have to be careful as to how much you add or it can cause leaks. I do not use PB's so not in the best place to advise but plenty do and I am sure some members will pipe up who have them and can give hands on advice