Fruit Beer

[nordoe]

So I am going to start making a blackberry Hefe. I went blackberry picking a few weeks ago and ended up with about 6 pounds of very nice berries. I washed them and put them in the freezer. I will be adding them to a secondary. I was thinking about thawing them out and then steeping at 160 with a little water. A friend of mine who has a lot more expierience with fruit states that we just would thaw them and pour some Potasium Metabisulfate on them to sterize. This way you reduce the chance of pectins. I have been searching the forums to see if anyone uses PM in this way and I cant find any results. I see people using PM as an equipment sterilizer but not directly on the fruit. Does anyone have any expierience with this? Thanks in advance.

 

[s2cmpugh]

This sounds good! And I'd like to know how to santize fruit properly as well.

 

[Brett3rThanU]

Never sanitized fruit that way, I just pasteurized it in 170F water for 20 minutes.

 

[s2cmpugh]

Should sugar be added to the fruit while pasteurizing?

 

[nordoe]

Should sugar be added to the fruit while pasteurizing?

I could be wrong but I do not see the need for adding sugar to the fruit. I know they use the Metabisulfate alot in wine making, hopefully a wine person may chime in.

 

[ThreeRatBastards]

Never sanitized fruit that way, I just pasteurized it in 170F water for 20 minutes.

This is what I do as well, puree the blackberries then pasteurize them for 20 min at 170. Add to the secondary once the puree has cooled and rack the beer on top of it.

 

[Nate5700]

Never done it myself but I think I read a thread on this forum at some point where people were talking about soaking fruit in vodka to sanitize it.