sanitizing blueberries?

[ekjohns]

freezing does kill bacteria. It is standard procedure to make glycerol stocks when freezing both bacteria and yeast to protect from ice crystals that puncture cell walls. This is in no way a sterilization but freezing will kill most but not all.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

From reading this entire thread, Its clear to me thare are several ways to REDUCE the bacteria in fruit before placing into the fermenting beer. Here is what I propose to do when I put blueberries in my first beer:

1. Soak fresh uncrushed blueberries in starsan 1-2 hours to neutralize microbes on the outside of the fruit
2. Place in ziplock bags and freeze
3. Thaw
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until berries are no longer whole
5. Ferment beer 2 weeks. Rack over blueberries
6. Complete fermentation, bottle as usual

Any thoughts?

 

[Denny]

1. You shouldn't need to soak it for that long since StarSan works in 30 seconds.