Fruit in beer - to pasteurize or not?

[Punkjah007]

There's probably a thread for this but i have some other questions I wanted to throw in there. I'm new to fruit beers and currently I am pasteurizing it on the stove, cooling it, pureeing it, then adding it. I see some people just use one or a couple campden tablets (depending on the amount of fruit). I am wondering of these two which people prefer to use. It seems some people think pasteurizing is a waste of time/energy. Also, if you freeze the fruit do you even need to pasteurize it or does that kill enough micro-organisms to make the fruit ok to use freezer-to-beer?

So the questions are:

1. Is pasteurization a waste of time/energy?
2. Can you use campden tablets in place of pasteurization?
3. Does freezing kill enough micro-organisms to skip pasteurizing or using campden tablets?

 

[Brockness Monster]

I haven't done a lot of fruit beers, but I have done a couple.

1. I would rather spend the time and energy than add sulfites to my beer (seemingly not a popular opinion).
2. Sulfites are very effective at reducing bacterial load, though they can also harm yeast so don't use too much.
3. freezing only puts bacteria to "sleep", it does not kill them.

 

[sourlovestory]

Last year I made a mixed culture saison with peaches we picked from a local orchard. I rinsed the peaches with water, and sloshed them around in a bucket with star san. After that I added them to a brew bag into my co2 purged fermenter and let them naturally ferment before I added my saison on top. Came out so good. Other than that I have used fruit purees that I purchased that say they were pasteurized, or big box store frozen and dried fruits. I'm not really answering your specific questions, but I just wanted to let you know that there are multiple ways that work. Just pick one that gives you the results you like, or the process you enjoy the most.

 

[hottpeper13]

I put my fresh picked fruit(cut to size) in a mesh bag and dip in my starsan bucket for a min. or 2 hang it to mostly drip out, put in a plastic bag and freeze it till brew day. I put the fruit still frozen in the fermenter to thaw, rack the wort or mead on top, add yeast and 02.