Fruits and dark beers/Inquiring minds want to know

[Jim Gamble]

Going to be brewing another beer here soon. Its going to be a porter with fruit in it, most likely strawberries. I've been told that if I boil the strawberries that will set the pectin and make the beer cloudy but, as this is going to be a porter, and be dark to begin with, is that something I would really have to worried about? Was going to boil them to smash them down to extract the juice.
Thanks

 

[Rob2010SS]

No, the pectin will not affect your beer. Pectin haze is a visual thing, not a taste thing. If the pectin thing weirds you out, you could take the alternative route and smash and freeze the fruit. Freezing not only sanitizes the fruit but also helps with bursting the cells of the fruit to release more of the juices.

 

[RPh_Guy]

@Rob2010SS Freezing does not sanitize

With a dark beer haze doesn't matter since it's opaque anyway.

 

[johnstod]

@Rob2010SS Freezing does not sanitize

With a dark beer haze doesn't matter since it's opaque anyway.

The idea is to buy already frozen ones that /should/ be safe from anything from the manufacturing process rather than fresh and freeze yourself.

 

[RPh_Guy]

The idea is to buy already frozen ones that /should/ be safe from anything from the manufacturing process rather than fresh and freeze yourself.

Unless they heat pasteurize it before freezing there are still wild yeast present.

Some people are fine with taking the risk, just a matter of preference.

 

[SanPancho]

Strawberry is notorious for being light in flavor. Porter may be too much for the berry to come through and be noticed.

 

[bucketnative]

I would suggest against cooking your strawberries, because cooked strawberries taste a lot different than fresh. A few breweries I have talked to that make a strawberry beer have admitted that they occasionally have to add a bit of strawberry extract in order to make the flavor a little more noticeable as @SanPancho hinted.

 

[Rob2010SS]

I thought freezing fruit killed off most of the bugs that one would need to worry about. Even in this thread - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/fruit-sanitizing-options.127186/ - it's mentioned that freezing fruit kills most all of the worrisome stuff...

My apologies to the OP for the false information.