Blackberry addition question

Hello all im making a blackberry stout for my wife after some reading my stout is done with primary and im ready to add it to my secondary to the black berries.

now my question i have is whats the best way fro the blackberries to be prepared. Should i boil them all whole and leave them as such in the secondary or should i puree them after the boil.

any help is appreciated and if i ve got it wrong please say so i like the learning thanks all.

I do a fresh blackberry hefe once a year. What I do is freeze my blackberries, thaw them, mash them up, then add them to primary, and let it sit for another 2 weeks. This year I upped the blackberries from 5 to 8 lbs. Very tart.

So mine are frozen right now have been for a few weeks are they ok to add right from the freezer?

I'd thaw them out, and mash them up a bit before adding them. Otherwise you're basically adding a bunch of ice cubes to your stout, and the yeast might get sleepy. If you want to speed up the thaw, run some hot water over them, can't hurt to rinse off some wild yeast.

I pasteurize all my fruit additions. It all tends to get mushy doing this so I don't mash them up much more than that.

Mongrel said:

I'd thaw them out, and mash them up a bit before adding them. Otherwise you're basically adding a bunch of ice cubes to your stout, and the yeast might get sleepy. If you want to speed up the thaw, run some hot water over them, can't hurt to rinse off some wild yeast.

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Ok so I take it you just muddle them send them add to the secondary

worksnorth said:

I pasteurize all my fruit additions. It all tends to get mushy doing this so I don't mash them up much more than that.

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How do you pasturize them?

Punity said:

Ok so I take it you just muddle them send them add to the secondary

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Straight to primary. It's one batch I never reuse the yeast after making it.

Ok I'm racking on to secondary but thanks I'm glad I don't have to puree the crap out of then

Pasturizing is putting them in a pot and raising the temp up to 161 degrees for a very short time. A minute or so should do. Kills the nasties

cool thanks for the info