Fettucini said:
Has anyone tried using campden tablets to sterilise fruit before it's added to secondary fermentation? We wanted to produce an unpasteurised fruit beer but found it was inconsistent, always depending on whether the fruit pulp had some wild yeast in it or not.
Tried pasteurising fruit too at 70 oC, but find it takes quite a bit of character and aroma away from the finished product.
Thinking campden tablets could be a good alternative, although a little worried about sulphur tastes/ smells.
Anyone used these?
Typically, a 24 hour soak of potassium meta will burn off and the secondary fermentation will not produce significant sulfur. You may have to allow another week or so if you detect some, but it does reduce.
There are excellent aseptic purees available, which may solve the issue for you. Look into companies that create ice cream fruit purees.
I've also experienced the inconsistency of whole fruit, and usually keep those to special or seasonal releases. You can only be as consistent as your source(s). My experience has been that anything that's year-round needs a little bit of fruit concentrate and/or natural flavoring to be consistent because of the changes during the year. Often, a similar or slightly contrasting fruit will bring out more of the intended flavors. For instance, in the past I made a pomegranate beer that needed just a little strawberry to round out the flavor and make it recognizable to more people. I'm currently refining a specialty IPA that uses an unusual citrus fruit puree as the base with the same process.
In the US, adding alcohol to a beer or an additive is fortifying it if the total exceeds 0.5% by volume. That can cause tax issues which no brewer wants. There are many fruit additives that use alcohol as part of their formula, but are not approved by the TTB for beer.