Using berries or fruit in beer

[fishfoolz]

I have about 5lbs of blackberries and want to make a blackberry wheat beer. How do you make sure that the berries are sanitary prior to using them. I know I could steep them in my wort, however, I know that would release pectins into my beer that would cloud up the beer and would also change the flavor of the berries. How can I achieve putting the berries into my secondary, while making sure the berries are safe to use?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

I would let the beer ferment out first to FG then freeze your fruit if fresh. After they are frozen you could either rinse them with a no rinse sanitizer such as star San Or heat them to around 160F to pasteurize them then smash them put them in a bucket and rack the beer on top. If they are canned or processed I would just dump them in a bucket and rack on top. Make sure there is no preservatives if processed. Potassium Sorbate will inhibit yeast activity.

Freezing the fruit first will break cell walls and enable more of the fruit to be exposed to the yeast and beer enabling it to pick up more flavors than if just dumped in whole. Which is also why you want to smash them up prior. At least in my opinion anyway.

 

[fishfoolz]

They are fresh berries. I put them in the freezer and thinking about doing it this weekend. will heating to 160 degrees kill all the wild yeasts and bacteria that may be in them? I was hoping their was a way to kill these with a method that did not involve using heat. Will Star San kill the wild yeasts and bacteria? Should I crush the berries first and then strain out the pulp leaving behind only the juice?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Yes heating to 160F should kill the wild yeast and bacteria that are there as that is around the pasteurization temp. I'm not really sure if the sat San would kill wild yeast as it doesn't kill commercial yeast so I would think heating would be the best option. Which is what I'm actually getting ready to do to cherries for a chocolate cherry bock for the Mrs. As I type this.

And I would just crush the fruit and add it all in. My .02 cents.

 

[fishfoolz]

Thanks for the reply,

If you add all of it in, won't that leave a lot of particles in the beer? How would you strain it out when racking off to a keg? Would those floaters clog up the racking cane when transferring?

 

[killian]

if I were you I would try spraying it lightly with some star San, freeze it, thaw it, mash it up, add it, age it, sample it, when ready put a mesh bag over the end of the siphon cross you fingers then rack.

if it were my batch though I would try aging 1/2 the batch with 1/2 the fruit treated ^ that way and 1/2 the fruit untreated, just mashed up with a sanitized spoon. good luck!

 

[pdxal]

Alcohol and acidity in beer generally kill all the bacteria on fruit, and freezing first kills a percentage as well. You could always use a spray bottle full of cheap vodka to help sanitize as well, but I've never had any issues with unsanitized fruit. I did, once, spray vodka on apples that I cut up out of fear from the cutting/coring introducing something and had no issues in that batch either.
When racking, sanitized mesh bag over the end of the racking cane or careful racking prevents fruit bits getting through (the racking cane opening is small anyway).
Good luck, I hope the beer turns out well.

 

[Diaperload]

When I made a blackberry pilsner, I pasteurized them first before adding them to the seconday.

150° for 30 min or 160° for 30 seconds. If you go higher than that you will be adding pectin to your beer. For a wheat beer it won't really matter though because it is already cloudy.