Fruit infusion.

[Ozzy]

Hi there,

I'm doing an all in 1 pilsner kit(40 pints).
I'm going spilt it in half 3days before bottling and infuse raw ginger and orange peel in 1 half. And tinned pears in the other.
Here's my dilemma.....
I'll drain and boil the pears to sterilise them and blend them with a sterilised blender. Pureed fruit has been recommended but I've I don't have the time to find a shop that sells it.
Any advice on how much fruit and what has worked for you?

 

[The Baron]

You do not need to boil the tinned fruit it is already sterile and fit for human consumption. Amounts depend on how strong flavoured fruits are and how strong you want a fruit flavour i.e do you want it to compliment the beer or do you want a in your face pear flavour?
I have used mango in a IPA and used frozen fruit about 3Kg from memory and that had a good mango flavour but I would suggest Tinned pear is not a strong flavour so up or down depending on how strong you want.
That was for a 23Ltr brew

 

[DavidDetroit]

Any advice on how much fruit and what has worked for you

Back sweetening with non-fermentable sugar was necessary for mine but I learned that after the fact. I used raspberries and mango, 1.4 kg mango and .9 kg raspberries for a five gallon batch. Amounts were good.
I'd also try and put the fruit in some sort of container when putting it in the beer.

 

[Ozzy]

You do not need to boil the tinned fruit it is already sterile and fit for human consumption. Amounts depend on how strong flavoured fruits are and how strong you want a fruit flavour i.e do you want it to compliment the beer or do you want a in your face pear flavour?
I have used mango in a IPA and used frozen fruit about 3Kg from memory and that had a good mango flavour but I would suggest Tinned pear is not a strong flavour so up or down depending on how strong you want.
That was for a 23Ltr brew

I don't want an over powering flavour,something refreshing like a pear picking porky frozen ice lolly.

 

[The Baron]

I would go with 3Kg then as it is a milder flavour than mango. I would also buy 2 or 3 of those veg bags from Aldi etc @ 25p each so you can put the fruit in and keep it contained as puree will dissolve into the beer a little and I would think you do not wants lumps in it like a smoothie.
I would also allow for quite a bit of liquid loss as the fruit will absorb it, you could squeeze the bags as you remove the fruit but not easy to do and keeping it sterile plus all that splashing in not good for over oxygenating the beer.

It will be a experiment the first time for you but once you have done it you will have a better idea for the next time
Good Luck

 

[Ozzy]

I would go with 3Kg then as it is a milder flavour than mango. I would also buy 2 or 3 of those veg bags from Aldi etc @ 25p each so you can put the fruit in and keep it contained as puree will dissolve into the beer a little and I would think you do not wants lumps in it like a smoothie.
I would also allow for quite a bit of liquid loss as the fruit will absorb it, you could squeeze the bags as you remove the fruit but not easy to do and keeping it sterile plus all that splashing in not good for over oxygenating the beer.

It will be a experiment the first time for you but once you have done it you will have a better idea for the next time
Good Luck

Just to be sure,that would be the quantity for 20 pints?

 

[The Baron]

Yes I did 3KG with mango for 23Ltr so as I have said it is a bit of a guessing game first time.
I would use 3 kg of pear as it is a lighter tasting fruit than mango but remember if you are using tinned fruit it is the fruit net weight and not the tin weight as it includes fruit juice etc which would also contain sugars and then it may imbalance your alcohol content as it will ferment out.
You will also get some extra sugars from the pears which will ferment out too so allow for this.
3kg of pears will give you approx 0.5% extra ABV

 

[Ozzy]

Yes I did 3KG with mango for 23Ltr so as I have said it is a bit of a guessing game first time.
I would use 3 kg of pear as it is a lighter tasting fruit than mango but remember if you are using tinned fruit it is the fruit net weight and not the tin weight as it includes fruit juice etc which would also contain sugars and then it may imbalance your alcohol content as it will ferment out.
You will also get some extra sugars from the pears which will ferment out too so allow for this.
3kg of pears will give you approx 0.5% extra ABV

Thank you,I appreciate the advice. Will need to get to the shops.