I'm racking a saison onto pureed blueberries this weekend - specifically, fresh blueberries that I bought, froze, and puree, not the canned puree which is already sanitized - but I have a couple specific questions about the process that I haven't been able to find a clear answer to online: 1) Can I put the fruit in the secondary fermenter and hit it with campden tablets in there, then wait 24 hours and rack the beer onto the (now sanitized) puree? Or do I need to put the puree and campden tablets in a separate bucket, wait 24 hours, and pour that into the secondary fermenter? 2) While the campden tablets are working on the blueberry puree, do I need to keep it refrigerated, or is it fine sitting at room temperature (70 - 75*)?
From Flat Tail after they appeared on the Brewing Network talking about potassium metabisulfate (campden tablets) "Thanks for listening! Sulfites are tricky, especially on a Homebrew scale because you have to use so little. I can give you our dosage, and you can scale, but be careful, as sulfites can be dangerous in excess. For a 23 barrel batch of cucumber Berliner, I used one ounce of a solution made of 8oz hot water and 1oz straight sodium meta bisulfate. This solution went into app. 15 gallons of cucumber juice, rested 24 hours, then injected into secondary fermentation. The idea is that you over sulfite the **** out of the fruit, but then blend it down to a healthy level when mixed into your fermenting beer. Best of luck! Cheers, Dave Owner/Brewmaster Flat Tail Brewing Co. Corvallis, Oregon"
No need for Campden tabs in homebrew unless you're trying to '86' your yeast. Two things... 1) Some say it's not necessary to sanitize fruit additions b/c the alcohol content and low pH environment of the wort is enough to prevent problems. 2) More better: sanitize your fruit addition by heat-pasteurizing (~160°F) for 30" in a double-boiler. No double-boiler, then use a plain ol' sauce pan and be careful not to let the fruit puree come to a boil as it will cause the naturally occuring pectin to 'set' and contribute haze to the final product.
Campden can be added to fruit additions for 24 hours to sanitize them. Campden can also be added to beer / wine / cider to kill yeast and stop fermentation. Now if you want to sanitize the fruit addition with campden and not kill your yeast, all you need to do is the following: 1. puree / juice the fruit 2. add 1 campden tablet per gallon to it 3. let it sit for 24 hours at room temperature Then you just pour your fruit addition into secondary. The 2 keys to not killing your beer yeast when using campden to fruit sanitize is to: 1. campden sanitize the fruit separately (instead of adding the campden to the beer directly) 2. allow the campden treated fruit to sit for 24 hours (so that the sulfur dioxide gas created by the reaction of the campden and the water in the fruit has time to dissipate before the fruit is added to the beer). Now on the flip side, if you want to prevent your fruit (puree / juice) addition from fermenting you can add the campden directly to the beer in secondary and it will kill your yeast while simultaneously sanitizing the fruit addition. I haven't experimented with this idea yet, but I'm curious to see if you could actually add the campden tablets mid-secondary fruit fermentation.
Thx. Process sounds sound. More flavor is more better. Might could give it a try next month when Herb's 'Early Tap' Rural wheat comes up again in the rotation.
