Fruit in Primary

[nordoe]

I was adding blackberris to my primary. I brewed a Hefe and let it ferment. After about 7 days, I put 4 pounds of blackberries in the primary after sanitizing. That was about 2 days ago. This morning I opened the primary to see how things were and all the blackberries had floated to the top. Will they drop with time? I do not have the means to cold crash. Thanks in advance.

 

[mlg5039]

Take a sanitized rod of some sort and poke the blackberries to submerge them every few days. This will reduce the risk of mold growing on them. I do not know if they will eventually drop.

Also, how did you go about sanitizing the berries?

 

[DrawTap88]

Are the berries crushed?

 

[nordoe]

I had picked the blackberries and then brought them home and washed them. Put them in a freezer bag and let them freeze for about a month. Took them out, let them thaw. Put them in a pot, covered with a little water and steeped at 160 for about 20 minutes. Cooled down, and dropped in primary. They were not fully crushed but pretty torn up from the freezing and steeping.

 

[DrawTap88]

It is my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, that crushing them would have solved the problem of them floating and would have allowed more of the berries surface area to be exposed to the beer. The damage done to the cell walls from freezing and then heating is good enough to sanitize them.