Talk to me about Campden tablets in regards to Fruit additions

[Acaciadrian]

Hey all!
Here is the meat and potatoes. I have two different beers in the fermenters right now and both are going to be racked onto fruit now that fermentation is complete. One will be kegged the other bottles. I have read that you can use Campden Tablets to make a fruit purée to sanitize the fruit and was thinking of giving it a try but after lookin through the forums and text I found, like most things in brewing, two different opinions.

#1 Puree your fruit(add water if needed) and add 1 Campden tablet per gallon of purée and allow that to sit for 24 hours to let the gas dissipate. This has then sanitized the fruit of any foreign contaminants.

#2 Don’t use Campden tablets as it will shock your yeast and put them in a dormant stage that can cause problems if you are bottling or looking for additional fermentation from the fruit sugars. Instead pasteurize your fruit by bringing it up to the proper temperature or a brief boil and then add them to your beer.

Any thoughts? Personal techniques?

Brew on!

 

[karch]

I would suggest proceeding with step #1. Cooking/boiling fruit tends to alter the taste and aroma, in my opinion.

Add one Campden Tablet per each gallon of juice, or for each 8 gallons of crushed fruit. Crush your tablets and pre-dissolve them in a small amount of water before adding to the juice. Allow the juice to ventilate in an open container for 24 hours before adding yeast.

In your case, just rack the beer onto the fruit puree 24hr after adding the tablets.

 

[Acaciadrian]

I would suggest proceeding with step #1. Cooking/boiling fruit tends to alter the taste and aroma, in my opinion.




In your case, just rack the beer onto the fruit puree 24hr after adding the tablets.

As far as satiation of the vessel, in this case it s Big Mouth Bubbler that the fruit purée will sit in. I have heard that the gas release of the potassium metabisulfite tablets will actually sanitize the vessel. Is that something you have ever done or do you just sanitize the vessel prior to adding the purée/Campden?