8
A good starting point for fruit additions in 1lb/gl. Strawberries are pretty subtle, though. I added 7.5lb to 5gl of blonde this summer, and the flavor was easily noticable without being overpowering.
6
If you're looking to add real fruit to any brew you'll want to do so in secondary to get the most flavor. I've had really good success in taking my fruit of choice and pureeing it in a food processor with little vodka - about 1/4 cup per 2lb of fruit seems a good balance.
The vodka will help kill off any additional bugs that may have made it past washing ...
6
It is difficult to impossible to get much flavor out of watermelon due to its water content. There just isn't a of of flavor there to start with, and any sugars in the watermelon will be consumed by the yeast.
4
We did some fruit pale ales last year with dehydrated fruit. We have a dehydrator and dried the fruit at 165 to kill off baddies and sealed it up till use. We did pineapple, kiwis, strawberries and chili peppers, non had any infection, even 6 months after. So it's an idea.
Also the strawberry tasted amazing!
4
You've sussed out the two changes from the addition of the fruit: you'll dilute the original beer, and also change its gravity, which after more fermentation will result in a new FG.
Ideally you'd measure the pre-addition specific gravity, the post-addition SG, and the post-ferment FG. The difference between the OG and the pre-add SG, plus the difference ...
4
No. If you wait an extended period of time you can get autolysis from yeast and get some off flavors. But it would be a lot longer.
If I were you I would add the fruit to secondary. Boiling will only take away from the aroma and flavor of the fruit. They probably suggest this to avoid contamination. As long as you have good sanitation I wouldn't worry about ...
4
Temperature would be my first bet. You didn't mention what temperature you experienced during your primary fermentation.
If your temperature was appropriate for the champagne yeast, then my next bet would be that your OG was not very high; therefore your yeast ate up what little sugar was present in a comparatively short time. Did you augment the bananas ...
4
Clones of 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon wheat beer tend to add it late in primary or in secondary. Make your beer about 1/8th watermelon, and add everything.
4
I use frozen fruit often. While it thaws mash it lightly to break it up, put on the bottom of the secondary and rack on top of it.
This is the best I have found to get the most flavor.
4
Most likely
Wine will never spoil so that it is dangerous to humans, but that is assuming that it actually fermented to a decent alcohol level. Alcohol will kill most bacterias and preserve the liquid. However if the bottle was open, keep an eye out for bugs and other things that can have fallen into it. Baring that it should be perfectly safe to drink, or ...
4
Most fruits taste the way they do because of the aroma. If you boil the peaches they will taste much less of peach because the aromatics are partially boiled off.
You can try it yourself - boil some peaches for 10 minutes, let them cool, then taste alongside unboiled peaches. You can then decide if you want them boiled or put in primary once fermentation ...
4
The problem with much fresh "Supermarket fruit" is that it is usually picked early and is usually unripe. If one can find "ripe" or "over ripe" fruit in a supermarket then IMHO that is the fruit one really wants to use. Unfortunately such fruit has limited shelf life and so is usually difficult to find unless it has been marked down for quick sale. The most ...
3
One example that generated a beer with a significant (but not over the top) coconut presence was as follows:
16 ounces of shredded coconut
650ml 190 proof grain alcohol
Five gallons of beer
Shredded coconut was crammed in a quart mason jar and covered with grain alcohol for one week in order to make a tincture. The tincture was added to the fermeter, ...
3
It's not really possible to answer this question without knowing how sweet the watermelon was. That is, we need to the watermelon's brix.
When you added the watermelon, you added some water and some sugar. The sugar will ferment, increasing the alcohol content and the water will dilute, decreasing the alcohol content.
According to this page, watermelons ...
3
) The rule of thumb is 1 lb. of fruit per gal. of beer. For best results, freeze and thaw them first to break down the cell walls and extract more flavor.
2.) Nope, no extra yeast needed.
3.) Sure, it'll carb fine. Use whatever amount of priming sugar works for you. The cherries will have no effect on that.
3
You can certainly try it. That's the major advantage of homebrewing.
However, just because these beers are coming prepackaged nowadays doesn't mean that's the way its done in the place of origin.
These things evolved really as beer cocktails.
I think its far better to just add the lemonade to the beer in the glass. That way you have great beer to begin ...
3
You'll need basic equipment:
fermenting bucket or carboy
airlock
tools to get the juice out of the fruit (can be as simple as cheese cloth to squeeze the fruit or as fancy as a juicer)
hose for racking
For each batch:
lots of fruit, preferably cheap
wine yeast
normal table sugar
for some fruit: antigel to prevent gelation
for some fruit: acid
A web ...
3
I made a Strawberry Saison last Summer and the 1lb/per gallon was a nice subtle flavor, but I think I may raise the to 1.5 pounds next time.
Also, I used frozen strawberries which I gently crushed. Let them thaw a bit at the bottom of the secondary and then racked on top of them. The beer was able to use all of the fruit this way.
3
You absolutely can. I do it all the time and have done it dozens of times. No problem at all.
3
Seeing how its puree >90% of it will be accessible to the yeast. Whether it all can be fermentable is a different question due to yeast health and the types of sugar (mostly fructose likely) in the fruit/puree.
As for the change in gravity its not going to be significant.
1 lb of table sugar in one gallon would be ~1.046SG
190grams is about 42% of a pound.
...
3
You can add canned fruit. Check the label to make sure it does not contain preservatives. Consider blending it in sanitized blender. Often people add it at the end of the primary fermentation to help prevent the fermentation being too vigorous and making a mess.
Canned fruit is pasteurized. Frozen fruit could contain pathogens that are not killed by ...
3
Impossible to know based on the data supplied.
Consume at your own risk. Likely its fine, but its impossible to give the right answer.
3
It's hard to say what is making the pellicle.
But as for your white dots, they are too uniform for an organic IMO.
I would say they are just co2 bubbles trapped under the pellicle.
3
I would add peach juice or puree on the chill at 170° to pasteurize or late fermentation when most of your alcohol is present but still enough yeast action to burn up the new sugars.
3
Yes, when ripe is best. Cheers
3
In general you should wait for fermentation to be completed in the primary, then rack to your secondary. So it means waiting to have a stable specific gravity for 3 days.
In my opinion, I don't think you need to wait any longer to allow yeast to clean the byproducts of fermentation, as it can be done in the secondary as well. Yeast will do it's job, no ...
3
If you're racking onto fruit then a second fermentation from the fruit is expected, so the main thing you need to wait for is a noticeable active fermentation to end. The main reason for this is that heavy fermentation will pull off the fruit aromas you're trying to keep as the CO2 leaves solution. For a fast fermenting yeast you might need to wait 3 days, ...
3
There is really no right or wrong answer here, especially with the anecdotal (and some scientific) evidence coming to light over the past years. Most books on homebrewing, and indeed most advice online, on adding fruit repeats the advice given for dry hopping: Wait until active fermentation has stopped (no bubbling out of the airlock, gravity is stable over ...
3
This method does work but can be rather dangerous - mainly because it is hard to judge the carbonation of the "soda" and the glass bottle might become over pressurised. This danger can be alleviated using some basic precautions. It would be far better to use plastic PET (fizzy drinks) bottles than glass bottles. The reason being that one can test the ...
3
I did a pumpkin beer where I used copious amounts of cooked pumpkin in the secondary. After fermentation subsided, the pumpkin in the secondary was suspended to the point it was more like a smoothie in consistency. I actually did a combination of things to clear the beer; first I racked it into a bucket through a larger strainer (both sanitized). Then I ...
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