Fruit Beer Experiment

Leemond · Jan 17, 2018

Hi all,

So my latest brew is due for bottling over weekend and I am planning on transferring some to a demijohn with some strawberry purée in an effort to create more of a fruit beer. I've read people on here have done something similar with the brand of purée I've bought (made for cocktails) but I'm just wondering how long I should live it in the 'secondary' for. It will have had just over two weeks in the initial fermenter. I was thinking maybe a week at a similar temp (18-20).

Also, when I then come to bottle it would it need priming? I suspect there will be a decent amount of sugar in the fruit but would all the CO2 be lost during the secondary stage?

The initial beer was made with hops that had fruity (strawberry, melon, grapefruit) notes so hopefully both the standard and 'fruit' beers will turn out quite tasty.

As always any help, advice or comments are welcome!

Cheers! : cheers:

Leemond.

Dutto · Jan 18, 2018

Sounds like a good idea.

Back in August 2017 I did a 23 litre Wilco Pilsner Kit, replaced the sugar requirement with 1200ml of Lowicz Cherry Syrup and learned that::
1. Although the brew appeared to have fermented out (FG at 1.010) the keg (a KK Top Tap) is now only one third full and I am still getting 75% foam when I pour a litre! I will brew it again but I will leave it for at least four weeks for fermentation!
2. The taste of cherries was very strong once I started drinking the brew in November, but it has faded as the months have passed. I will therefore brew a smaller quantity in the future.
3. For me, the fruity taste of the brew just doesn't go very well with winter drinking. In the future I will brew it about March for drinking in July/August.

Hope this helps. :thumb:

ACBEV · Jan 18, 2018

Last year I made some fruity cider. Made 20L of apple cider and split into 4 batches. I added fruit juice at bottling and did not prime with anything else. Makes good summer drinks.

If you use the fruit juice as a primer, you can have many flavours with one brew of beer or cider. You just need to know the sugar content of the fruit juice your using.

Leemond · Jan 22, 2018

Thanks for the replies. I bottled my 22litre batch tonight. I used the BF calculator to work out that the strawberry purée would be enough to prime 10litres of beer according to the amount of sugar in it (according to the back of the packet anyway!)

After siphoning the beer onto the purée I gave it a gentle stir to mix it - it didn't take long to get a seemingly even mixture. Towards the end of the bottling I noticed there was still some of the purée at the bottom of the bucket so unfortunately it seems some of the 10litre batch will contain more purée than others. I will just have to wait and see how they carbonate!

I then re-sanitised and rinsed the bucket and siphoned the rest onto a standard sugar mixture solution (again calculated with the BF calculator). A cheeky taste seemed pleasant enough! According to BF the hydrometer readings suggest 4.2% ABV which was bang on the money (even if the exact OG and FG weren't!) so suppose I have had some luck!

My only slight concern was some small particles in the beer when I initially took the lid off, however I'm hopeful that these were just yeast as there was still a bit clinging to the side at the top - pic attached.

Fingers crossed both versions of the beer turn out ok!

Dutto · Jan 23, 2018

You need some yeast when it's bottled, otherwise it won't carbonate! :wave:With regard to the "bits", if it looked okay and smelled okay then don't worry. Good old "Time+Gravity" will sort then out in the bottle. :thumb: