Clean Raspberries Before Brewing?

[Slightly]

Just wondering about using fruit, such as raspberries in the kit brewing process.

I know everything that comes into contact with the beer is meant to be clean and sterile. And I also know that raspberries are sorted by human hands before they are enclosed in plastic bags, so I wonder... is cleaning of the raspberries necessary? And how?

Using boiling water will take flavour out of the raspberries, so my only guess is cooled boiled water in a sink... if they have to be cleaned.

Cheers

 

[barls]

try reading the wiki on the use me fruit. Personally i just mash my frozen berries with a little metabisulpite

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I'm fermenting (well, the yeast is) a cider with some raspberries in it right now. I used frozen raspberries which I figure have been through some sort of coarse cleansing process before they got frozen. I've done this with meads a'plenty and not had an issue, but whenever I use fresh fruit for stuff, I think it warrants cleaning.

When I had Herlisil in the house, I would rinse everything in a weak solution of that, but nowadays I would/will probably use a weak solution of iodophor or Starsan with perhaps a quick rinse afterwards. I don't think I would use heat.

 

[Nick JD]

What do they do with grapes for wine? Boil the juice?

 

[Tyred]

What do they do with grapes for wine? Boil the juice?

Chemical treatment.

From memory, some sort of sulphate/sulphite. It kills wild yeast and then dissipates over a couple of days to a point where it has little effect on added yeast.

 

[phinnsfotos]

How about sort of making raspberry jam. Don't bother with the actual setting of the jam, just chuck it in.

For what it's worth I just did a ESB 3kg Wheat and I used 500gm of commercial raspberry jam and it's it's tasting pretty good.