Frozen fruit or fresh fruit?

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Millsteg

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So I know there are a lot of threads about adding fruit to beer but I'm just not getting the answer I really want.

I have a wheat beer sitting in the primary and I want to add oranges to the secondary. My question is, should I cut the fruit into slices and freeze first? Or should I simply cut into slices and add to secondary fresh? Also, does it make a difference to crush the slices first or can I just drop the unmashed slices in?

I've determined that I want to add 5lbs of oranges for the 5 gallon batch and I'm going to ferment in the secondary for 2 weeks on the fruit and then either racking to tertiary or bottling after the secondary.

Let me know what you think.
 
If you freeze, you can kill some of the nasties that you maybe worried about. If you do decide to freeze, I would thaw them out before adding. I also would not worry about crushing the fruit unless it's a problem to get into your secondary. The choice is really yours, you aren't going to hurt the beer either way. It's mostly a personal preference.

I would let the beer settle out and then rack to tertiary and then rack to bottling. There will be a lot of sediment after the fruit.
 
I would freeze, thaw, crush and pasteurize in a little water then dump the whole thing into the fermenter. Freezing helps break down cell walls but crushing the fruit exposes surface area and helps the yeast get to the sugars faster. I like to pasteurize just to reduce the chance of infection. Some people discourage it because you risk creating pectin haze but in a wheat beer haze is generally preferred.
 
This is pertinent to me, because I plan on adding canned pineapple chunks to my secondary. Should I freeze them first? I would assume being canned they are sterile. Am I correct on this?
 
Citrus and apples the ones you do not want to freeze. Freeze berries. I found this advice on mead forum

What are the reasons for not wanting to freeze apples and citrus fruit? I'm assuming it has something to do with the cellular makeup of the fruit but what happens to it?
 
I like to pasteurize just to reduce the chance of infection. Some people discourage it because you risk creating pectin haze but in a wheat beer haze is generally preferred.

Would I simply cut the oranges into slices and boil them for a few minutes? Cover them with water? or just enough to cover the bottom of the pan?
 
You pasteurize at 165F so you don't have to boil. I'd just do an inch or so in the pan. Enough to make sure all the slices are getting enough contact with water to reach the correct heat. No need to make a soup out of it.
 
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