frostynostrils
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I could use a little help.
A few years ago, my girlfriend and I made a blackberry wheat ale. We started with a very basic wheat beer then added pureed berries in secondary. I attempted to sanitize the blackberries before adding them - I can't remember if I used StarSan or a light bleach solution - but I think a wild yeast got in there. Looking back, it was a pretty drinkable sour but I wasn't familiar with the style at the time so we dumped it when the flavor got too crazy.
So here's what I'm thinking. I want to do a similar beer but I'd like to use my sous vide to pasteurize a berry puree that will be added to the fermenter. When reading about cooking food sous vide from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, he references graphs from the FDA that show that you can cook meat at a lower temperature for a longer time and still kill off bacteria. For instance, I cook my boneless, skinless chicken breasts at a somewhat-low 140 F for 1.5 to 2 hours and have never had any issues.
The problem is that while I can find plenty of information about using sous vide cooking techniques to kill bacteria in meat, I would like to know if anyone can help me figure out the temperature necessary to kill both bacteria and wild yeasts in berries. I would like to puree the berries and strain into a mason jar that I submerge in the water bath. I have seen some links suggesting high temperatures (like 176 F) for a short time. Ideally, I prefer to hold it at a lower temperature for a longer time (several hours, maybe overnight) to preserve more of the fresh berry flavor (rather than the jammy, cooked-berry flavor).
Has anyone tried this? Would something like 130 F for 4 to 8 hours be sufficient? I could just try it but I thought I'd see if anyone had any input first.
Thank You.
A few years ago, my girlfriend and I made a blackberry wheat ale. We started with a very basic wheat beer then added pureed berries in secondary. I attempted to sanitize the blackberries before adding them - I can't remember if I used StarSan or a light bleach solution - but I think a wild yeast got in there. Looking back, it was a pretty drinkable sour but I wasn't familiar with the style at the time so we dumped it when the flavor got too crazy.
So here's what I'm thinking. I want to do a similar beer but I'd like to use my sous vide to pasteurize a berry puree that will be added to the fermenter. When reading about cooking food sous vide from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, he references graphs from the FDA that show that you can cook meat at a lower temperature for a longer time and still kill off bacteria. For instance, I cook my boneless, skinless chicken breasts at a somewhat-low 140 F for 1.5 to 2 hours and have never had any issues.
The problem is that while I can find plenty of information about using sous vide cooking techniques to kill bacteria in meat, I would like to know if anyone can help me figure out the temperature necessary to kill both bacteria and wild yeasts in berries. I would like to puree the berries and strain into a mason jar that I submerge in the water bath. I have seen some links suggesting high temperatures (like 176 F) for a short time. Ideally, I prefer to hold it at a lower temperature for a longer time (several hours, maybe overnight) to preserve more of the fresh berry flavor (rather than the jammy, cooked-berry flavor).
Has anyone tried this? Would something like 130 F for 4 to 8 hours be sufficient? I could just try it but I thought I'd see if anyone had any input first.
Thank You.
