Homebrewing: Blackberry Wheat

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1) How does the addition of fruits typically work, when brewing a fruit beer? Do i add at secondary? at bottling? I would like to use some blackberry extract plus actual blackberries with my beer.
2) This will also be my first full boil with my ported brewpot. Is it advisable to transfer my wort to my fermenter via the ball valve? Will i get enough oxygen doing this? Or should i pour into my funnel from the pot?

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Im new to the homebrewing, but from what I've read:

1. Most suggest adding actual fruit or fruit flavorings to the secondary fermentation. It can be added to bottles, but the beer may not fully infuse the flavorings and you will get differences in different bottles.

2. If pouring from your kettle and you are worried about not giving enough oxygen for the yiest you can simply stir with a large spoon to add oxygen to your brew.

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So far I've always added fruit by Freezing it sanitizing it and tossing it in to secondary. Probably in a hop bag or something like that. I don't know how the blackberries will react to freezing so you might want to sanitize then freeze.

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How do you sanitize blackberries? Boiling them?

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How does the addition of fruits typically work, when brewing a fruit beer? Do i add at secondary? at bottling? I would like to use some blackberry extract plus actual blackberries with my beer

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Don't add it to anything hot. You want to extract flavors, not the other unsavory things that can happen. If you add it hot, you can start dissolving pectins out of the fruit and gelling them. Pectins are what make jam and jelly jammy and jelly-like and can make your beer cloudy or have what my buddy and I call "snot" in it. You don't want snot.

Add to secondary. Also, adding a pectin enzyme to the beer may help break down the pectins and prevent any cloudiness or runners. It might also break down the walls of the fruit and get you more flavor. I've never used it myself, though.

Oh, keep a close eye on your beer if you add it to secondary. A lot of times the fruit will float and if there isn't enough ullage at the top, it can plug the neck of your carboy or the airlock. Since the yeast are going to mow through the fruit you just gave them completely unlike a fat kid would eat fruit, a plugged neck, airlock, or blowoff line could result in fruit spackle on your ceiling, or worse, carboy shrapnel flying everywhere in your brewroom.

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adding a pectin enzyme to the beer may help break down the pectins and prevent any cloudiness or runners

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What is an example of a pectin enzyme? Looking to order right now.

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What is an example of a pectin enzyme? Looking to order right now.

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I wish I could steer you toward a product, but I've only read about using them and haven't had the opportunity to try them yet.

Here's a link to an example of it, though.

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I don't know how the blackberries will react to freezing

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like a champ

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I don't know how the blackberries will react to freezing

like a champ

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Sanitize before freezing, then sanitize after freezing immediately before use. Freezing the berries is going to cause them to explode because of the water in them expanding. You drop them in frozen and when they thaw, their tasty guts spread all through your beer.

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I'm trying to reduce scorching, so i'm wondering if it's worth it to get this one, or if i'm just wasting money.

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Wouldn't really think you'd need that.

You're taking it off the burner when you add your extracts right?

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I'm talking about scorching the pot

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Never had problems scorching a pot. Just using aluminum though.

I have that second burner you're looking at. Gets a batch up to boil pretty quick and keeps it there no problem. One complaint is I can get about 3-4 batches out of a tank with that burner, and that's only boiling. I heat my strike water and sparge water on the stove. I don't have experience with any other types of burners, so I'm not sure how that stacks up.

The second complaint is it's wind resistance, which is non-existent. You can see that there's a lot of room between the top of the stand and the burner. Wind goes right through there. I had to take some break metal and break it to form a barrier.

Back to your fruit question, I have only added fruit once. I made a soured blueberry blonde with 10 pounds of blueberries. I fermented the blonde normally and I transferred it to a secondary and added the blueberries then. I should note the blonde had been soured using the Kentucky Common way of sour mashing, so no bugs were added post boil.

To prepare the blueberries, I placed them in a pot and covered them with just enough water. I heated it up to about 140-150 for 15-20 minutes. I lightly crushed up the berries some at this point to extract some juice and expose more surface area. I then cooled it back down and racked the blonde on top of it. Left it there for about 2 weeks.

Make sure you have a good size secondary. I used my bucket for the secondary as the berries took up a bunch of room and it made it easy to clean out when all was sad and done. I've seen pictures of people doing it in a carboy, but that looks like a pain to clean out.