Processing berries for use in beer

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onkeltuka

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I have a large blackberry and chokeberry (Aronia) bushes on my yard and I would like to brew maybe a stout or a porter where I would add the berries to the secondary. Problem is, at least with the blackberry, that the berries ripen little by little, during four weeks or so, and I was thinking should I boil them and freeze them while waiting to have enough?

The chokeberries' juice has a really stunning colour, although the skins are quite thick when eaten raw. Anybody used them in a beer?
 
Don't boil fruit. Just store in freezer until ready to use.
 
I dunno....fruit is notorious for coming complete with their own bugs (wild yeasts, mostly) that won't necessarily expire in the freezer...

Cheers!
 
I have a raspberry bush in my backyard...we clean the berries with a vinegar/water mixture then freeze them. Never used them in one of my brews but don't see why I couldn't...Cheers!
 
I actually just did an experiment with the chokeberries, boiled a kettleful of water, removed it from heat and poured maybe a pound of berries in, let them sit for 30 secs and then strained them. The skins peeled a bit a they let out some colour.. I'll put them to the freezer next.

What about soaking the berries in StarSan? Are all the wild yeasts and other bugs only on the outside of the fruit?
 
Freeze to burst the cells and then thaw and soak in vodka for a few days and dump the whole mixture directly into the bucket or in a bag. Vodka will sanitize and act as an extract.
 
My freezing suggestion was just to store until you get enough. Some people just add to beer straight from freezer. The freezer will breakdown cell walls and kill some bugs. Supposedely the alcohol adds enough other protection.

I pasteurize any fruit I use, by heating to 150 F and holding for 10 minutes.

Don't boil or you will set the pectins, and never clear the beer.
 
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