best way to add fruit

[BLM]

I am going to make a blackberry ale and am going to use some fresh berries.
In the past I just added flavoring.
I was going to bring the berries to 150 deg steep for 20 min then let cool put in carboy and then rack on top of that just wondering if that is the best way to go

 

[snailsongs]

I just made a rasberry wheat and I simply crushed and added the rasberries right to the primary...mostly because I'm lazy in the summer heat. It smells delicious and I'll be bottling next week or so. I have read several recipes where the raw fruit is just added directly because the alcohol in the fermented brew will protect against infection.

 

[lumpher]

if they're frozen ( and you said they're fresh ), they're good. i heat fresh at 160-170 for 10-15 minutes, then rack on them. i'm still a little leary about racking onto freshly crushed berries. a couple more years brewing, and i may trust it

 

[beesy]

let me preface my response by saying I ALWAYS add my fruits to the secondary.

i recently used the oregon puree for a raspberry wheat and was quite pleased with the results. it's "aseptic" as they call it on their site, so it can go right in.

in the case of whole, fresh/unprocessed fruit, i always heat it to approx 180 for 10 mins to kill of anything, then cool. i add the fruit to the secondary and rack on top of it. whenever i use a whole, unprocessed fruit, I like to mash it up while heating to release as much, color, sugar and flavor as possible. i've read a lot of threads where people simply toss into secondary. being kind of a clean freak, I just like to be safe. there are various ways that work, it's just a matter of experimenting and finding what you are comfortable with.

 

[lumpher]

i'll listen to beesy. sounds like good info

 

[ChillyP]

let me preface my response by saying I ALWAYS add my fruits to the secondary.

i recently used the oregon puree for a raspberry wheat and was quite pleased with the results. it's "aseptic" as they call it on their site, so it can go right in.

in the case of whole, fresh/unprocessed fruit, i always heat it to approx 180 for 10 mins to kill of anything, then cool. i add the fruit to the secondary and rack on top of it. whenever i use a whole, unprocessed fruit, I like to mash it up while heating to release as much, color, sugar and flavor as possible. i've read a lot of threads where people simply toss into secondary. being kind of a clean freak, I just like to be safe. there are various ways that work, it's just a matter of experimenting and finding what you are comfortable with.

Awwww the old fruit question.. So many options:

1) Take the fruit and give it a Vodka bath (rinse the fruit with cheap vodka).
2) Soak the fruit in sodium metabisulfite to sterilize it.
3) Heat the fruit to strelize it (Might have to add a pectin to remove the haze)
4) Frozen fruit (which is normally seal with nitrogen)


I've always just added the fruit to the secondary. My theory is that there is so much residual yeast that will go to work on the fruit way before anything on the fruit will have a chance to propagate. Skys the limit...

 

[BLM]

thanks for the info guys. the berries will be frozen since I will not be makeing the beer right away. looks like I will heat the berries up crush then add to the secondary

 

[beesy]

Awwww the old fruit question.. So many options:

1) Take the fruit and give it a Vodka bath (rinse the fruit with cheap vodka).
2) Soak the fruit in sodium metabisulfite to sterilize it.
3) Heat the fruit to strelize it (Might have to add a pectin to remove the haze)
4) Frozen fruit (which is normally seal with nitrogen)


I've always just added the fruit to the secondary. My theory is that there is so much residual yeast that will go to work on the fruit way before anything on the fruit will have a chance to propagate. Skys the limit...

Totally agree that there are various ways to handle this. The only thing I may tend to disagree with is if you mean freezing the fruit will kill off nasties. Freezing may kill some microorganisms, but will only put to sleep most. Again, it's a personal preference thing.

 

[lumpher]

i'd freeze the fruit to burst the cells, then bring it up to about 165-170 for 10 minutes to kill off the yeasties right before pitching

 

[ChillyP]

Totally agree that there are various ways to handle this. The only thing I may tend to disagree with is if you mean freezing the fruit will kill off nasties. Freezing may kill some microorganisms, but will only put to sleep most. Again, it's a personal preference thing.

I was talking about store bought frozen fruit. It tends to be heat pasteurize, flash frozen with nitrogen and the bags are nitrogen flushed. To me that good enough to use straight out the bag....

 

[RedFlash]

I made a really good strawberry wheat. I just steeped the berries for 20 minutes and then dumped it in the primary. After about a week put it in the secondary and left the berries behind. There was a nice light crisp strawberry taste and it wasn't tart.

 

[ArkhamAsylum]

I've always used fresh and/or frozen fruit (never extract), and always added to secondary (to avoid intense foaming action from sugar overload leading to diabetic yeast coma). A healthy dose of pectic enzyme follows immediately.
Unfortunately, I did have the infamous "blueberry vs. airlock" incident of 2009 for which my wife still complains about the purple stains on the ceiling. Totally worth it.

 

[beesy]

I've always used fresh and/or frozen fruit (never extract), and always added to secondary (to avoid intense foaming action from sugar overload leading to diabetic yeast coma). A healthy dose of pectic enzyme follows immediately.
Unfortunately, I did have the infamous "blueberry vs. airlock" incident of 2009 for which my wife still complains about the purple stains on the ceiling. Totally worth it.

This gave me a good laugh on an other wise crappy day. Any pics??

 

[DarkNoonBrewer]

My raspberry wheat turned out nice and sweet. I used frozen, made a puree, and pitched into secondary with potassium sorbate. I beleive the potassium sorbate preserved the sweetness of the raspberries and kept the ruby color long after kegging.

 

[ChillyP]

I know this thread is kind of old, but I thought you could vacuum seal the fruit in a Foodsaver bag and then heat it in a pan of boiling water to sterilize the fruit. The bags are rated for boiling.