Black and Blue Blonde Ale

[BatchAintOne]

Hey BN,

This week I'm attempting what I thought was a super original and hilarious idea: A black and blue Blonde. Then I googled and was yet again reminded that all my good ideas have been thought up by much wittier minds. Couple quick questions:

Here's a blonde recipe I threw together in BeerSmith:
7 lbs English 2-row
1 lb. Wheat DME
.5 lbs carapils
1 ounce Willamette 60 mins
.5 ounce Willamette 20 mins.
WYeast 1056

Now I'm wondering if anyone has advice on adding fruit to beer. Seems the forums are divided on using real fruit versus extracts. I'm leaning towards a blueberry and blackberry extract because its sterile and leaves the quality/season of fruit out of the equation. Also seems people just can't seem to agree on whether to put said fruit in after primary or before bottling.

That's all question one, question two is if I bottle half after 10 or so days without fruit (in case it fails miserably or I'm feeling less feminine when I reach into my fridge), can the remaining 2.5 gallons I'm adding the fruit to continue to ferment in a 5 gallon secondary carboy and turn out alright with all the added airspace?

Thanks for helping my beers not suck.

[brewinhard]

I have had best results adding fruit to the secondary and racking the beer (slightly fermenting, about 6-7 days old) on top. I usually let the beer sit on the fruit for about 1 mos to get as much of the fruit essence into the beer as possible. There are also good fruit puree's to use if you can't find real fruit for a good price. Freezing the fruit for a couple days prior to defrosting and adding it, will help to break some of the cell walls of the fruit and allow the yeast to metabolize the sugars better. It will also help to minimize any introduction of unwanted microorganisms (to a degree).

Extracts are good to use too, but can be somewhat one dimensional. They are best added at bottling time for peak results. If you don't mind spending the money, Olive Nation extracts are THE BEST! Be careful though, as they are quite strong and you won't need as much as the typical extracts you may find in homebrew shops.

And yes, you could only rack half of the batch onto the fruit or puree, or into a bottling bucket with extract and leave the other half plain for comparison. I do this all the time with my sour beers. Do not worry about the headspace, b/c if you are adding more fermentables like fruit or puree, the yeast will produce more CO2 that will purge the headspace for you.