Fruit Puree gravity
  • BenSBenS
    Posts: 6,248
    Back in December I brewed a RIS that I added 5lbs of strawberry puree to primary. I got the puree from my wife and she told me it was 5lbs of blended strawberries with .5lb of sugar blended in with it. (said is was leftover base from a strawberry glaze she and her mother made) How much additional gravity points did I add to my 5.5 gal of OG 1.100 RIS? BTW, I just pulled a sample today and the FG was 1.010!! No off flavors and good mouthfeel after 7 weeks of primary so I am assuming that the simple sugars fermented out completely?
    There's no starting point. It's just a massive sea of shit to wade through until you find the occasional corn kernel. -DrCurly
  • ThymThym
    Posts: 122,708
    Really good question. I'm not in front of my computer right now but for the .5 pounds of sugar, I would assume that yielded about 45 points per pound/gallon. The strawberry itself is a different story. They are a lot of water, and their sugar content is variable, so I don't know of any way to get the gravity contribution with testing it directly prior to addition.
    The only thing between me and a train wreck is blind luck..... - Kenny
  • frydogbrewsfrydogbrews
    Posts: 44,679
    BenS said:

    Back in December I brewed a RIS that I added 5lbs of strawberry puree to primary. I got the puree from my wife and she told me it was 5lbs of blended strawberries with .5lb of sugar blended in with it. (said is was leftover base from a strawberry glaze she and her mother made) How much additional gravity points did I add to my 5.5 gal of OG 1.100 RIS? BTW, I just pulled a sample today and the FG was 1.010!! No off flavors and good mouthfeel after 7 weeks of primary so I am assuming that the simple sugars fermented out completely?


    ask your wife how ripe the strawberry's were.
    totally ripe
    sorta ripe (this is normal)
    not very ripe

    the more ripe a fruit gets, the more unfermentable sugar it has. i know this seems counterintuitive, but take that shit up with god.
  • BenSBenS
    Posts: 6,248
    frydogbrews said:

    BenS said:

    Back in December I brewed a RIS that I added 5lbs of strawberry puree to primary. I got the puree from my wife and she told me it was 5lbs of blended strawberries with .5lb of sugar blended in with it. (said is was leftover base from a strawberry glaze she and her mother made) How much additional gravity points did I add to my 5.5 gal of OG 1.100 RIS? BTW, I just pulled a sample today and the FG was 1.010!! No off flavors and good mouthfeel after 7 weeks of primary so I am assuming that the simple sugars fermented out completely?


    ask your wife how ripe the strawberry's were.
    totally ripe
    sorta ripe (this is normal)
    not very ripe

    the more ripe a fruit gets, the more unfermentable sugar it has. i know this seems counterintuitive, but take that shit up with god.


    Totally ripe. She said they used those strawberries because they would have gone bad in a couple more days. She had frozen the puree before I used it though, don't know if that makes a different. I'm a fruit noob.
    There's no starting point. It's just a massive sea of shit to wade through until you find the occasional corn kernel. -DrCurly
  • BenSBenS
    Posts: 6,248
    On a side note. The strawberry flavor and tartness comes through in the beer better than I thought it would.
    There's no starting point. It's just a massive sea of shit to wade through until you find the occasional corn kernel. -DrCurly
  • frydogbrewsfrydogbrews
    Posts: 44,679 Accepted Answer
    you got a boost in flavor because they were totally ripe. i have tried using not so ripe strawberry's for wine and you can get that really dry, but it doesn't have much flavor.
    at that ripeness i would expect 15 brix off a decent grocery store strawberry. if they were quality grown by a knowing farmer, as high as 17 brix.
  • BenSBenS
    Posts: 6,248
    frydogbrews said:

    you got a boost in flavor because they were totally ripe. i have tried using not so ripe strawberry's for wine and you can get that really dry, but it doesn't have much flavor.
    at that ripeness i would expect 15 brix off a decent grocery store strawberry. if they were quality grown by a knowing farmer, as high as 17 brix.



    I know they were grocery store fruit. So if I added my strawberry puree (which was roughly .5 gal volume) to 5.5 gal of 1.100 gravity beer, how would that affect the final ABV?
    There's no starting point. It's just a massive sea of shit to wade through until you find the occasional corn kernel. -DrCurly
  • frydogbrewsfrydogbrews
    Posts: 44,679
    that sounds like math to me.
    what i can tell you had those strawberries pure, they would ferment to around 7.7% (a guess based on the amount of unfermentables you should have in those strawberries) then you would need to add in the amount of sugar that was added too. even more math. blech. this is why i have that refractometer.
    one of the engineers should be able to do that math though. they like math. weirdos
  • BenSBenS
    Posts: 6,248
    frydogbrews said:

    that sounds like math to me.
    what i can tell you had those strawberries pure, they would ferment to around 7.7% (a guess based on the amount of unfermentables you should have in those strawberries) then you would need to add in the amount of sugar that was added too. even more math. blech. this is why i have that refractometer.
    one of the engineers should be able to do that math though. they like math. weirdos



    Yes we do! Thanks for the response. It really cleared made me understand that I don't care much. Let's just call the ABV 11-12%
    There's no starting point. It's just a massive sea of shit to wade through until you find the occasional corn kernel. -DrCurly
Add a Comment