Best way to sanitize fruit additions

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

horrorclause

Active Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2013
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Hey everyone, I was wondering what your preferred methods for sanitizing your fruit additions is. Im planning on mashing my frozen blackberries in a zip lock and then filling it with vodka and letting it sit for about six hours before racking from primary on top of it
 
I'd worry that the vodka flavor would overpower the berries, if the fruit is in secondary the alcohol in the mostly fermented beer should inhibit infection growth. If worried I would boil them in water or possibly microwave the berries.
 
Mix up a batch of StarSan Sanitizer and dunk them in. It's a food grade sanitizer and is perfectly ok for consumption. Give them a bath, pat them off, throw them in secondary. All done.
 
richlong8020 said:
Mix up a batch of StarSan Sanitizer and dunk them in. It's a food grade sanitizer and is perfectly ok for consumption. Give them a bath, pat them off, throw them in secondary. All done.

I don't have starsan, I only have the easy clean stuff that get sent with extract kits.

Would the flavor of the vodka affect the overall taste if the berries are only soaked say for an hour instead of six?
 
You can smash them up a bit and bring them up to 160-180 for about 20 minutes, boiling may affect the flavor. Or follow what the wine world does and add a campden tablet for 24 hours before racking the beer onto the pureed fruit.

Steve
 
Abiathar said:
You can smash them up a bit and bring them up to 160-180 for about 20 minutes, boiling may affect the flavor. Or follow what the wine world does and add a campden tablet for 24 hours before racking the beer onto the pureed fruit.

Steve

I don't have Campden tablets either. I guess boiling will have to do. How will it affect the flavor?
 
Dont boil it, you can bring out pectins. If you are using them in a secondary after primary fermentation there should be enough alcohol in the beer already that you should be ok, somewhere around 2% is enough to kill most things. Star san, throw it in the freezer, pastuerize it, vodka soak. These all could be done, you could always split the bath into 3 gal containers and try 2 different methods.
 
I don't have Campden tablets either. I guess boiling will have to do. How will it affect the flavor?

Don't boil, it will set the pectins.

There are two simple methods you can use. Do both if you are really concerned:

1) Freeze the fruit, and add it straight to the beer. freezing will kill most bacteria, and the alcohol in the beer will inhibit the rest. Freezing also breaks down the cell walls so the yeast can get at the sugars.

2) Chop or mash the fruit (do this so the sacc can get to the juice). Add a little water to cover. Heat to 145 F and hold for 20 minutes. Try not to go much higher to prevent pectin setting in. 20 minutes at 145 will pasteurize the fruit. If you overshoot and get close to 160 F, take it off the heat immediately to prevent it going higher. 5 seconds at 160 F is sufficient to pasteurize.

I'm not sure what temperature sets Pectin. I think it is above 160 F. But if you aim for 160 you could easily overshoot by 10 or more degrees if you are not careful.
 
Calder said:
Don't boil, it will set the pectins.

There are two simple methods you can use. Do both if you are really concerned:

1) Freeze the fruit, and add it straight to the beer. freezing will kill most bacteria, and the alcohol in the beer will inhibit the rest. Freezing also breaks down the cell walls so the yeast can get at the sugars.

2) Chop or mash the fruit (do this so the sacc can get to the juice). Add a little water to cover. Heat to 145 F and hold for 20 minutes. Try not to go much higher to prevent pectin setting in. 20 minutes at 145 will pasteurize the fruit. If you overshoot and get close to 160 F, take it off the heat immediately to prevent it going higher. 5 seconds at 160 F is sufficient to pasteurize.

I'm not sure what temperature sets Pectin. I think it is above 160 F. But if you aim for 160 you could easily overshoot by 10 or more degrees if you are not careful.

I just did method #2. Smashed the fruit and heated at about 140-150 for 15 minutes, I let it cool off and then racked on top of it. Thank you for the info
 
Freezing or boiling does the trick too. Do yourself a favor and grab some StarSan when you get the chance. It's a wonder tool in the brew world.
 
Back
Top