HELP!!! Tell me I did not screw up my Beer

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zman

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I just made my first fruit beer, a Raspberry Wheat. I have done some reading, although after the fact, about the sanitary precautions that need to be taken when making a fruit beer. I used fresh Raspberries and I added them after the adding the finishing hops (60 min boil time) and maintained a temperature of 170 degrees for 20 minutes. Is that enough to kill any potential nasty bacteria that may have existed in the Raspberries, or, will drinking this homebrew have some potentially harmful effects?
My second question is with regards to the adding pectic enzyme to the beer. I did not add it to the primary but I am planning on adding it to the secondary. Will doing it this late in the game have no result? I added Irish Moss the last 15 min of the boil to help with the clarity?
I am really hoping that this beer will not be funked!!!!
 
Your Beer is fine.
Wine Makers use Pectic Enzyme at secondary all the time. As long as you didn't boil the raspberries and set the pectin, you will be fine...in fact, you'll be fine anyway. WORST Case scenario....you end up with really good beer that is a bit hazy!
 
RDWHAHB! :D

First, it's a wheat beer. Haze is acceptable. You're going to get some from the yeast, and probably some from the pectin.

Second, 20 minutes at 170 is quite sufficient to kill any unwanted microflora on the fruit.

Third, I don't know of any harmful pathogen - I mean, things that'll make people ill - that you can put into beer by screwing up something in the brewing process. Now, I'm not talking about the trots you can get after drinking multiple pints of bier mit hefe; I'm talking about stuff like Giardia intestinalis and Salmonella enteritidis. Hell, that's why drinking beer is such a large part of Western culture - European water wasn't safe, drinking it would make you sick, and beer was boiled. The Pilgrims stopped in Massachusetts Bay (instead of continuing to Virginia) because "...our victuals being much spent, especially our Beere" meant that they were about to stoop to drinking (shudder) water.

Anyway, I should finish my coffee. Then I might actually start making sense. ;)

Bob
 
Yes, from my reading, nothing that can actually hurt you can grow in beer. Anything that grows may make the brew nasty but you could still drink it.

So even if you did pickup some kind of infection, you at least don't have to be afraid to try the beer.

I believe this is why alcohol is such a part of western culture, but if it weren't for the "little ice age" which made grape growing a lot harder in much of Europe, I think wine would be much more popular. This is coming from a history channel program the name of which escapes me at the moment, but that's my understand and it's an interesting story IMO. edit: link for anyone interested.
 
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