Beer Forum

On Sunday I am going to transfer my hefe on to 2 cans worth of Oregon Raspberry Puree to make a nice raspberry wheat.

I have never used Oregon Fruit Puree (or any real fruit for that matter) so is there anything special I need to do to it or can I just add it to the secondary and rack right on top? I assume if it was canned it was pastuerized?

It's sterile out of the can. Just add to fermenter and rack on top of it.

2 cans seems like a lot. What volume of beer are you adding 2 cans too? I guess I'm assuming that it's the big 3.3lb cans. I usually just use one can and you get a nice noticeable flavor.


Travis

It is a 5 gallon batch and the cans are 3 lb. 1 oz.

The LHBS owner advised me to do 2 cans. Do you think that's too much?

Yes I think one can would be plenty with a hefe. I put one can in my porter and that was nice. So I would think that one in a hefe would be plenty.

You might want to put one can in let it ferment for a few days and give it a taste. You can always add the second can later if you think you need it.

I just brewed a Hefe. After primary I took 2.5 gal and kegged it and added 1/2 an can of raspberry to the other 2.5 gallons. the other 1/2 of the can went into half a batch of mead. I've used a whole can in 5 gallons before and it has always been just the right amount. 2 cans would be nasty.

Good to know... I guess the LHBS owner just wanted to sell me another $16 can of fruit puree... I may have to see about a refund.

Actually... I think I may make a raspberry cider with it...

Thirsty Mallard wrote: Do you think that's too much?

It really depends on what your looking for in your final product. I've brewed with Oregon fruits a lot and I've had varying results based on my procedures. My standard method now is to use just one can and rack on top in the secondary and then reduce my temperature and lager on top of the fruit. After a week or so I transfer to my keg and serve. I get really good results this way.
Just keep in mind that the bulk of the fruit will settle out. I find that if I rack off of the fruit pile in my secondary, the fruit profile in my final product is mild and a bit more background. My favorite pint is usually the last one out of the keg. The last pint is usually much stronger in flavor and carries a lot more fruit and fruit character into my glass, well...cause it has more fruit in it. I used to rack cleanly out of my secondary and serve out of a bright tank to leave as much "pulp" behind as possible, but it was never exactly what I was looking for.
My favorite method now it to rack into my serving tank, picking up about half of the fruit off the bottom as well, and then I roll or disturb my keg before pouring. Just a thought.