What to do with fruit?!

[jcelgin]

Okay I'm just about to start my boil of my first all grain batch, and I'll use my counterflow chiller for the first time as well. When I've done fruit beers in the past, I've cooled down the boil, through in the fruit for 30-40, and then chilled. This won't exactly work with my chiller...

What do I do?!

 

[WkendBrewer]

You could either go back to your previous chiller and use your CF on your next batch, or your could strain out the fruit after the boil, CF chill and then add the fruit back into your fermenter - just need to be extra careful on handling the extra steps and not contaminate the batch.

Good luck.

 

[BigKahuna]

I would avoid getting fruit that hot...You don't really want Pectin Haze.
Just toss it all into the secondary.

 

[wildwest450]

Leave it in the bowl, fruit doesn't belong in beer.

 

[SourHopHead]

Not too hot and I steeped mine till secondary. Cherry Wheat still the overall favorite! Got me a medal too.

 

[EamusCatuli]

Leave it in the bowl, fruit doesn't belong in beer.

Im starting to agree more and more with that, but then my watermelon wheat that everyone raves about is gone

 

[PseudoChef]

I'd add fruit to the secondary, if at all.

 

[DubbelDach]

Yeah, don't boil fruit. Secondary it.

 

[plumber]

So how do you sanitize the fruit without boiling?

 

[SourHopHead]

Steeped it 30m, but not boiled.

 

[BigKahuna]

Kinda Don't.
If you are wild enough to use Fruit in your beer, you can use fruit without sanitizing it.

Just wash it good...use clean utensils...It'll be ok...usually.

I usually rinse berries with StarSan. I don't know if it'll help, but it makes me feel a little better about it.

 

[Warped04]

Leave it in the bowl, fruit doesn't belong in beer.

When summer comes and it's 104 degrees, there is nothing better than a light beer with fruit in it. I'm with olllllo and I like a little fruit in my beer. Too each his own.

So how do you sanitize the fruit without boiling?

ETOJ taught me to pasterize it at 160-170 for 20 minutes (I think that was the temp). Just did my first Apricot beer, and it's tasting tasty.