Adding Berrys

[vicelore]

Hey guys

Well there has been tons of fruit beer talk going on latley and i was just wondering what you have to do to the fruit before adding into the fementer ? i was thinking there might be nastys on the fruit ?

Are they always added into the fementer and never into the boil ?

thanks guys. looking forward to making some beer that the girls will love. Plus i like them myself :icon_cheers:


Cheers Vice

 

[newguy]

I freeze them beforehand as this breaks down the cell walls so that the yeast can access all the fruit juice. I also pasteurise mine as I'm very leery when it comes to infections. I know a lot of people that just dump them into the secondary without pasteurising too - and most of them get away with it. To pasteurise, I just bring the lot up to 80C, cool, and dump into secondary. If you can get your hands on pectic enzyme (pectinase), put about 1 tbsp into the fruit whilst pasteurising it. It will help break down the pectin in the fruit which will result in a clearer beer.

 

[vicelore]

Thanks for the reply New guy.

When you say "bring the lot up to 80c then cool i take it your adding water and boiling then chilling ? or just chucking the berries in a oven then a freezer ?

Cheers Vice.

 

[3G]

The berries once frozen give out alot of juice. Place the berries in a pot and bring up to temp on the stovetop.

 

[brettprevans]

check out the 'flavour of the week thread' for fruit beers


funny thing about the whole freeze/cook thing. i did it arse about and heated then froze. oh well, so far so good.

 

[newguy]

No water, I just throw the frozen berries in a pot and turn on the heat. I use a potato masher to mush them up. Once they hit 80C, I put a lid on the pot and wrap it using cling film to form an airtight seal while it cools. If I'm in a hurry I'll put the pot in a water bath to cool, otherwise I'll just leave it to slowly cool. If you have room in a fridge or freezer, that would definitely speed things up. Beware of fridges, though. They're awash in bacteria and fungi. Make very sure your pot is well sealed if you try.

 

[barls]

i dont heat mine i chemically treat them with camden tablets. just mix up and leave overnight in a container and add to the secondary.

 

[quantocks]

I just used frozen raspberries from Coles, they come in packs of 500g already frozen so anything living in there will be long dead. Defrost them partially in the sun for an hour or two then throw them in the bottom of secondary fermenter. Siphon the beer on top of that and seal it up for 2 weeks.

 

[newguy]

I just used frozen raspberries from Coles, they come in packs of 500g already frozen so anything living in there will be long dead.

Freezing doesn't kill bacteria; not sure what it does to wild yeast. I know of a few people who have successfully used frozen wyeast packs, so I don't think freezing will do that much harm to wild yeast.

 

[stillscottish]

I use the jars of fruit from Aldi (cherries, mixed berries). Just chuck em into secondary. I haven't had a problem yet.

Cheers

Campbell