8
votes
Accepted
How many pounds of frozen strawberries in a Strawberry blonde?
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
votes
How to add fruit to beer
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 ...
6
votes
Watermelon Wheat Beer - Bitter Taste
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 ...
4
votes
How to add fruit to beer
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 ...
4
votes
What can I learn from fruit beer gravity?
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 ...
4
votes
Accepted
Are there any downsides to leaving beer on fruit in the primary?
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 ...
4
votes
Accepted
Super fast fermentation?
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 ...
4
votes
Watermelon beer, anyone tried brewing?
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
votes
Accepted
Brewing with fruit
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
votes
Accidentally made blueberry wine - but is it safe?
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 ...
4
votes
Adding peaches during the boil or during secondary?
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 ...
4
votes
Accepted
Will supermarket fruits make a good wine?
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 ...
3
votes
How many pounds of frozen strawberries in a Strawberry blonde?
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. ...
3
votes
How would one add authentic coconut flavor to a fermented beer?
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
...
3
votes
Accepted
What can I learn from fruit beer gravity?
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 ...
3
votes
can I use granulated sugar in place of brewing sugar?
You absolutely can. I do it all the time and have done it dozens of times. No problem at all.
3
votes
Accepted
How much free (ie, fermentable) suger is contained in canned fruit puree and how does this affect gravity?
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 ...
3
votes
Brewing with fruit
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 ...
3
votes
Accidentally made blueberry wine - but is it safe?
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
votes
What kind of contamination shows a white film with dots in secondary?
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
votes
Accepted
Adding peaches during the boil or during secondary?
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
votes
3
votes
Creating a fruit saison: when to add the fruit and rack to secondary?
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 ...
3
votes
Creating a fruit saison: when to add the fruit and rack to secondary?
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 ...
3
votes
Creating a fruit saison: when to add the fruit and rack to secondary?
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 ...
3
votes
Will I get quick and easy fruit soda if I just add yeast to fruit juice and leave it in a closed fermenter for a day or two?
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 ...
3
votes
Fruit puree suspended in beer
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 ...
3
votes
Accepted
How to sanitise cherries?
No point in using StarSan to sterilise fruit of any description. It will not be very effective as it can only affect the surface and contains phosphoric acid and a surfactant (basically a "detergent" ...
3
votes
Should fruit in secondary produce CO2?
The fruit very likely has sugar, so it will cause fermentation to kick-off again when added, thus producing CO2. Obviously not with the same vigour as primary fermentation - although if you added a ...
3
votes
Brewing a fruit beer with WLP648: keeping it on primary for an extra three weeks before adding fruit
You should be ok to rack onto fruit once you return. If you're worried about not having enough yeast, you could rouse the beer a bit before racking, or add more yeast along with the fruit. If you keep ...
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