Im brewing my first Saison tomorrow using wlp565 and adding rye, crystal10, cardamom and either mango or plum. Is there any suggestions to adding fruit to primary? Any other suggestions are also welcome, thanks.
For a first Saison I’d just go with you’re malt, a lb of sugar and skip the fruit entirely to get a true feel for the yeast. I’d skip the crystal too if you want a nice dry saison. If I was gonna use fruit, I’d probably freeze it first. I’d add fruit to a secondary and I don’t know how strong the mango would come through. But, its up to you. I’ve not used cardamom but I’ve been cautioned its very strong and to go easy.
I do want a dry Saison so i will skip the crystal. Still up in the air about the fruit, but am definitely waiting till secondary to add if I go that route. Thanks
If you want do do fruit do it as a secondary addition for the most flavor. Add it after all or most of the primary fermentation is finished.
What’s the best way to add fruit to secondary? Do I need to worry about wild yeast kicking off a second fermentation?
The fruit sugar will kick off a second fermentation anyway.
Most advice I’ve heard is to freeze the fruit. This breaks up the cells and then add it (thawed) to the secondary. No need to worry about sterilizing it because the alcohol and lower pH will keep the bugs at bay.
Puree the fruit. Easy cleanup. Also, I would either go with rye and cardamom OR fruit. Not both. But if you already brewed it, then what the hell, might as well bottle and drink it!
Although I love the super fruitiness of the Belgian (DuPont) strain, it is a big pain in the butt. It is sllllooooowwwww. I just made a French Saison and that stuff finished at 1.006 in 5 days! It’s definitely not as fruity but it’s subtlety just as great (not to mention it’s power).
I have found it is not necessary to secondary with fruit. Just add to primary after most of fermentation is complete…headspace permitting of course.
Well I added the puréed mango to the secondary after about to weeks in primary. Gave it another 10 days or so in secondary then kegged last week. Just tried it and it’s not bad but can hardly pick up on the mango if at all. Oh well there’s always next time
I tried using mango in a wit beer and I also could barely pick it up. Seems like you have to use a pretty large amount I guess. I’m not sure if i will be going that route again though.
You can always put a gallon or two on fruit in gallon jugs and bottle the remainder as is.
+1, I just did this with a saison. Havn’t tasted the fruited example yet though (it was persian mulberries)
So how much mango do you add per gallon?
Generally with fruit I’d go 1 lb to a gallon for FRESH/frozen fruit not puree. Puree its more like .75 lb per gallon. For something like strawberries which are rather subtle I’d double that ratio. May want to try that with mango as well. So 10 lbs of fresh mango for a 5 gallon batch or 7.5 lbs of puree.
What is in or removed from the puree that makes you want to use less? I don’t use pureees, just curious. If it’s just pureed fruit I would think you’d use the same amount - lbs are lbs.