Help Fruit Sediment Floaties

[DrewCarey82]

G'day Guys.

Last night went to check on my brew with the hydrometre its not done about a 1.015 after nearly 5 days not fussed about that.

Its a Brewcraft Belgium ale, half light malt, half dextrose....

But to make it fruitier I boiled 4 nectarines and cut the seeds off a punnett of strawberries boiled them for about 20 mins mashing them with the spud masher.

Strained them and put in the juice(no skins) with the wort when mixing the extract and now it has little bits of fruit floating in it!!! only probably about 1 mm in dimensions but very offputting, tastes pretty good.

Will this settle with racking and adding of finings, or have I stuffed up big?

Cheers.

 

[Ross]

G'day Guys.

Last night went to check on my brew with the hydrometre its not done about a 1.015 after nearly 5 days not fussed about that.

Its a Brewcraft Belgium ale, half light malt, half dextrose....

But to make it fruitier I boiled 4 nectarines and cut the seeds off a punnett of strawberries boiled them for about 20 mins mashing them with the spud masher.

Strained them and put in the juice(no skins) with the wort when mixing the extract and now it has little bits of fruit floating in it!!! only probably about 1 mm in dimensions but very offputting, tastes pretty good.

Will this settle with racking and adding of finings, or have I stuffed up big?

Cheers.

[post="91088"][/post]​

not sure on strawberries, as never used them, but you shouldn't have too much trouble leaving most behind when you rack to secondary. Most floaties are there because of the CO2 lifting them to the surface - when you CC you'll find most bits will sink to the bottom...

cheers Ross...

 

[DrewCarey82]

Hope so, spent close to $35 on this brew so would be a shame for it to turn out shithouse! - Cheers.

 

[warrenlw63]

DrewCarey82

You may have to rack it twice. Once to another fermenter and have to accept some carry-over of the fruit. Give it another 2 weeks a rack it to a tertiary fermenter to allow it to clear further.

A worry you may get if you're racking via a tap and not siphoning is fruit crud getting drawn into your tap/sediment reducer. If you're pretty au-fait with siphoning I'd try doing it with a racking cane and a sanitized copper scrubby over the end. It's then just a a fairly straight-forward case of holding the cane and dodging too much of the crap that gets drawn towards it.

Good luck with it. :beer:

Warren -

 

[DrewCarey82]

What a pain cant believe my LHBS guy didnt mention this when I suggested it he probably had a good laugh when I walked out no doubt.

 

[warrenlw63]

I very much doubt if he laughed. Think you've just got to be patient with it. As Ross said a lot of the fruit sort of floats to the top engorged with CO2. Once everything settles out and the yeast is less active you'll find that the fruit either falls out with everything else or just floats quite calmly on the top.

If you're careful and patient you should be able to rack it cleanly to another fermenter where it will settle out even further. I wouldn't worry too much. I can almost guarantee you you'll have at the very worst an "interesting" beer. :lol:

Warren -

 

[DrewCarey82]

No worries, and in regards to the strawberries they where big juicy and on special and thought they might go alright hey!

 

[Stuster]

I use GMK's inline filter, linketty-link. Worked a treat on a raspberry wheat beer I just did. Filter full of little bits, bottles bit free.

 

[DrewCarey82]

I am afraid of that bit that looks a dildo! My missus will start getting suspicious of me!

 

[Ross]

my recent banana beer had a solid 2" thick krausen of yeast & bananas - I used my syphoning cane which worked a treat - i just put the fermenter on a slight angle with the syphon in the lower corner - would have been less than half a cup of beer left when the banana blanket ground it to a halt. - beer was clear & free of bits....

cheers Ross

 

[Stuster]

:lol: :lol:

 

[facter]

... the only thing I'd add is that generally, you shouldnt boil fruit - I usualyl freeze it overnight, then steep it in hot water for about 15-20 minutes to kill any nasties - boiling it usualyl sets the pectin inth e fruit and can cause pretty bad haze ..not a problem if you're making a weizen, but annoying if you're going for clarity

 

[peas_and_corn]

For adding fruit flavour, how would cordial work instead of using the acutal fruit??

 

[Kai]

Shithouse, from most accounts. Unless you use cordial made from natural fruit, with no preservatives.

My raspberry wheat I bottled warts and all. The raspberry sediment that made it through was no biggie.

 

[Scotty]

I have done many beers with fruit in them, and the best way to rack without any fruit is to attach your racking tube to one end of the fermenter and to the other add some stocking with a rubber band. As you would imagine it acts like a filter and be sure to leave enough stocking as the sediment will fill it up fast. It sounds like a great beer though and all the best.

Scotty

 

[Screwtop]

How come fruit is treated differently to grain. After all the trouble taken to gain maximum enzyme conversion to extract the simple sugars from complex carb's. Why is the fruit not broken and put through a similar process. Wouldn't the esters and short chains still come accross for the fruit effect. Having fruit pieces in a fermenting wort worries me. We only have our yeastie friends in there to convert the simple sugars, without their friends, other organisms to break down the fruit pieces and manage conversion for them.
Just a thought

 

[DrewCarey82]

Its been in primary for 6 days now, so I plan on racking tonight as its about 1.010, I'll leave in secondary for about 6 days and hope for the best I guess.