adding fruit to extract kits?

[doghouse gav]

i brew from extract kits (hope to go allgrain oneday). my friend also brews extract and i was wanting to try adding fruit to make my homebrews different from his!! is this possible and how and when would i add it :wha:
thanks

 

[Duncs]

I've been thinking about this too, reading around the interweb, it seems like the general feeling is to add the fruit at secondary fermentation. I don't do secondary fermentation at the moment, it goes directly from the FV into bottles, How do you secondary ferment? Would you also have to add pectolase to remove the pectin?

 

[richc]

I don't see why you shouldn't add fruit to a kit beer. Ferment the beer out normally then siphon it into another sterilised fermenting vessel with the fruit in it. What you do to the fruit before adding it depends on what the fruit is and how much risk of infection you are willing to take. Have a look at the various forums/web sites for information.

Oh, leave it on the fruit for a week or so, there will be some fermentation going on as the sugar in the fruit gets converted, wait until the gravity stabilises again and then wait a few more days(at least) before bottling.

 

[doghouse gav]

I also bottle straight from my fv. How much fruit would it take to give a lager a twist? And is it just the peel that's added??

 

[Shug]

You can get fruit concentrate syrup/flavouring stuff from home brew shops.
Saw quite a range of them on tuesday when i was in one. I guess itd be easier to add some than to go about adding real stuff.
As for the pectolase, I was told if you can make a jam of the fruit you need pectolase.

 

[doghouse gav]

Looked online at a few shops but can't find any fruit concentrate. Do you have any links? Thanks