Adding Fruit to my wheat beer

After getting some ideas from some recipies online. I made my own wheat beer. I added some mixed berries to the primary fermenter. after about 6 days I went to transfer in to the carboy. when I opened the lid there was a crusty-like film on top. It was kinda nasty. But after I scooped that off and transferred, It looked fine. Then I added some more berries to the carboy. Now The same type of film is starting to appear in the carboy. And once again it looks kinda nasty. I was wondering if this was a good idea? Did I ruin my beer? Has anyone else done this before? This is my forth batch of beer but my first wheat beer. all my others have turned out fine. but im a little concerned about this one. Anyone able to help?
Thanks.

did you boil the fruit before adding it to the fermenter? my guess is that if you didnt you introduced some wild yeast/bacteria probably some lactic which will sour your beer.

well i have heard that you dont need too boil the fruit. because the alcohol will kill any bacteria. Is that true? If so, than maybe I will be ok.

dorno_b said:

well i have heard that you dont need too boil the fruit. because the alcohol will kill any bacteria. Is that true?

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Nope. You can still get bacterial growth in beer; the alcohol content isn't enough to kill it all. That's why many people either boil their fruit (actually get it to over about 170F) or use sterilized purees like Oregon Fruit.

That being said natural yeasts that hitch a ride on your fruit aren't all bad; heck, that's how they make true lambics.

Taste it. It may just be organic matter from the fruit. I made a raspberry stout with juice from a flat of raspberries. There was a very cool pink foam at the top of the fermenter. Tasted fine. What kind of fruit did you use?

I just used frozen mixed berries. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. I just thawed them out and mashed them and dumped them in. seemed like a good idea at the time. but that film just doesnt look right

i havent tasted it yet but i might just to make sure its ok. if it does taste sour, what can i do? anything?

I made an extract hefeweizen with blueberries. I boiled the blueberries for the last 5 min and put them into the fermenter as well. It did have that nasty looking film but the beer turned out great.

grandazz17 said:

I made an extract hefeweizen with blueberries. I boiled the blueberries for the last 5 min and put them into the fermenter as well. It did have that nasty looking film but the beer turned out great.

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well that makes me feel a little better, thanks.

I just added 4 lbs of apples to my fermentor on a wheat beer two days ago. I added them after the primary had slowed to almost a stop. I quartered them and de-pitted, but nothing else. I'm hoping I get a little sourness out of it, but with my luck, when I want it, I won't get it! Hope your turns out great. As long as you don't mind a little sourness, you should enjoy it either way.

Look on the bright side. It's a wheat beer. A little extra sourness won't hurt it too badly. I personally just added strawberries to my dunkelweizen last night. I didn't have time to go to my usual source and pick fresh strawberries so I just thawed out some frozen slices and dumped them in. I guess we'll see how that turns out. In the past I've always dropped them in without boiling or anything but I'm a little leery of the condition of fruit I didn't pick out of the ground myself.

i added fresh cherries to a porter once and thats when i learned how sometimes fruit carries the yeast. it was very sour and taste like vomit.

On the bright side hope it turns out well, as others have said you can get some pretty good beverages with wild yeast, look at all the success people have had with making ciders and meads with wild yeasts

well thanks guys, I am glad to hear that It might turnout. Im glad i joined this website. it will come in helpful in the future im sure.

Im brewing a wheat and plan no adding oranges to it in a few days. I will peel them and boil them before I add them to the second though. We will see how it turns out. I hear you want to get all that white off the oranges before you put them in, but has anyone added zest from the outside of the peel?