Addition of fruit...

Good morning,

I've been thinking about doing a flavored wheat beer in the near future, either raspberry, peach, or strawberry. I've read a few threads on here about it but I was wondering why when adding the fruit to the secondary it doesn't go bad.

I mean, you leave fruit out on a counter for a few days and it molds and grows fruit flies. So wouldn't it do the same if you drop it in a carboy? Is there anything special that needs to be done to fruit before adding to the beer?

Tha alcohol preserves it?

I'm sure the alcohol helps preserve it somewhat, but eventually the fruit goes bad no matter where it is. I think its recommended that you rack off of the fruit after a week or two.

yeah i agree..... the alcohol preserves it. i did a banana wheat and a fig wheat, and before i put the fruit in i steamed it. everything worked out fine in both brews. so if you are a little worried. you can steam it. i hear some cats freeze the fruit then steam. some boil, some freeze and let it defrost then chunk it in. some don't do ****, just throw it in. up to you. off the subject kinda..... but i recommend cold crashing the brew for 2-3 days before bottling. just my opinion on certain fruit brews you'll get that coagulated pectin build up floating around, so you gotta drop it before you syphon into your bottling bucket. just food for thought.....

When I made a raspberry wheat several months ago I just put 1# of thawed (previously frozen) raspberries in my primary and poured the wort on top of it. I think I bottled a little over 2 weeks later. Generally speaking 1# is considered a fraction of what many might use but I enjoyed the little bit of flavor I got. Shame I screwed up the carbonation on that batch. Next time I'll skip thawing the fruit beforehand.

Alcohol is antibacterial, hops are antibacterial.

You heat the fruit to 170* to help kill bacteria.

You put the very antibacterial beer on top of the semi-sterilized fruit, then seal the container (with a one-way airlock).

All of this combined helps cut down on the spoilage of the fruit. Still (as already mentioned), you need to rack the beer off the fruit fairly quickly.

Acidic fruit, which is less friendly to bacteria, seems to work the best.