Adding fruit to home brew?

Ok, so you went out and had a wonderfully delicious blueberry hefeweizen beer at your local microbrewery. You thoroughly enjoyed it and want to make it yourself. However, you've never experimented with adding fruit to your home brew and you have some questions. Enter: Homebrew Junkie.

When is the best time to add fruit to your home brew?

You want to add fruit in the secondary. Why? Well, if you add fruit to your primary fermenter, the aggressive nature of fermentation is going to blow off a lot of the natural fruit flavor you want to preserve in your home brew. You're best bet is to add it during secondary.

Do I sanitize/sterilize it?

No. If you are using fresh fruit I would recommend freezing it so it ruptures the cell walls ensuring they juices to flow more easily. I've never had any issue with adding straight frozen fruit to secondary. If you want, you can purchase some Oregon fruit puree and add that directly to secondary fermentation. It's already sterile. If you are really concerned you can add the fruit to some water and bring it up to 170 degree temperature for 15 min to pasteurize the fruit and kill off any bacteria. If you go beyond 170 then you run the risk of setting the pectins in the fruit and having a pectic haze.

How long should I wait?

Generally speaking, you want to wait at least a week before bottling or until fermentation is finished. I also recommend stirring up the fruit every other day with a sanitized spoon. For best results, allow the fruit to rest in the home brew for two weeks before bottling or kegging.

How much fruit should I use?

If you are brewing 5 gallons I would recommend at the minimum 3 lbs of fruit. I highly recommend using 1 lb of fruit per gallon of home brew, though for best results. Again, make sure you stir with a sanitized spoon. During secondary fermentation, and when you add fruit you are naturally going to restart another smaller fermentation. Don't worry, it's natural. The yeast just start chewing up the natural sugars in the fruit. Again, wait two weeks before you actually bottle or until fermentation is complete and you have a consistent reading on your hydrometer for three consecutive days. Bottle it up and enjoy!

Here's a recipe I brew up every summer:

Apricot Harvest Wit

6 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat
1.5 oz saaz hops (45 min)
2 tsp crushed coriander (15 min)
.5 oz bitter orange peel(15 min)
1 can oregon fruit puree (added to secondary)
WLP400