Fruit Additions into Belgian Dubbel

Northern Brewer General
1

Just want to start off and saying hello to everyone on this awesome site. I’m a rookie brewer along with my friends whom I’ve began brewing with since sometime last summer. Love every minute and every bottle of it!

Now down to business. We’ve brewed about 12 different Extract recipes that we’ve bought from NB. In about a week I will be bottling the Belgian Dubbel and I’m really excited to see how it comes out! I have done nothing crazy with this recipe except add dried orange peel two weeks into the secondary. What I’m planning to do is continue to purchase this recipe and experiment with different ingredients; i.e. hops, spices and especially fruit. I have just purchased two recipe kits and they should be coming within the next week.

I want to add spices like nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon, pepper, etc. to one batch (not all of them together!) and then fruit to another. So where do I properly add these? For nutmeg, coriander, and cinnamon during what part of the boil are they added?

For the fruit I’ve been reading a lot of different info from a google search. I don’t want to risk any sort of contamination to the beer so what do I do? I’m looking to add apples, oranges, grapefruit, berries, etc. What is the proper way to add them? Do I just peel them and chop them up and throw them in the freezer or do I boil them for a certain amount of time and add them into the primary with the wort?

Thanks in advance!

2

OK. You add spices in the end of boil (10 and less minutes usually).
Fruits are added in secondary. Dark fruits would go better with Dubbel. Plums, pomegranate, black currant, that sort of thing. If you don’t want to risk contamination (which will happen whether you like it or not if you use whole fruits), use sterilized puree like Oregon or some fruit wine bases. Those are sterile and will not give you any contamination. If you use whole fruits, same thing, add in secondary. Cut them up, freeze to break up cells, and use. Some people wash them in sanitizer while others just let whatever bugs live on them play in the beer.

3

Thank you, Dimik. How about quantity? Is there such a thing as too much fruit? I’m sure there’s a limit on how much spice I should add as well.

4

Any fruit is too much fruit IMO.

5

I guess I’ll have to test it out to see for myself.