Adding fruit to beer

kenmac

I'm planning to do an extract blonde ale and add some fruit to it...for the ladies dontcha know!..I've done a small bit of a search but am getting conflicting information...adding fruit to secondary seems to be the way to go but what sort of fruit is the problem....are fruit extracts the way to go and if so where can they be got?

Khannie

Secondary is definitely the way to do it. I have had some spectacular success doing it with berries and cider, but also some depressing failures so make sure it's all well sanitised. What kind of fruit were you thinking? Nearly all of the sugar in fruit will ferment out, leaving only the dryness behind so you may need to artificially sweeten if you want that fruity flavour.

kenmac

Was thinking of raspberry and or strawberry..I take it you boil for a period of time to sanitise?

Khannie

Well I was buying frozen berries. There was a health issue around them recently. They said to boil for a minute. That should do it. Muslin bag will save you a *lot* of clean up.

Strawberries will not work out the way you think, unfortunately. They result in filthy gear.

edit: Lidl also do frozen mixed berries. They have a bit more bite in them than raspberries and could be worth a small test batch too.

kenmac

That's great...thanks a million.
Those Lidl mixed berries make a lovely smoothie!

Initial brew day next Friday so will be racking to secondary on Friday week...will report back then on progress/lack of!!

BTW what sort of quantities would be needed.....?

drumswan

Dont go too heavy on the raspberries, they are really strong!

Khannie

Well I was making cider and I wanted it very berry-ish so I was using quite a bit. With beer I'd recommend less, like maybe 500g of berries with 10L?