I currently have a vanilla porter in my primary fermenter. I plan on adding sliced up vanilla beans at secondary fermentation. The question I have is how do I sanitize the beans prior to adding them to the fermenter? Can I just spray them its star san first? I’ve read some soak the beans in vodka for a while but I’m not yet convinced I want to go that route.
How do you sanitize other things like fruits you want to add in the fermentation? My next brew I plan on is a tripel that calls for grapefruit in the secondary fermenter.
Ive done three fruited beers, so not a huge data base. But I have 100% no problems. I get frozen fruit, in my case cherries or peaches, thaw them to about room temp, and dump them in. Very technical.
Ive used vanilla beans once but it was before I knew anything and that beer sucked anyway.
With vanilla and cacao nibs and that sort of thing I usually nsoak them in vodka for about a week and then add entire contents to beer (I usually add to primary as I do not use a seconday even with most fruit beers). For fruits I just freeze it and hope for the best. For oak I toast it at 380-400 in my oven.
Beer is fairly stable once fermentation is finished. To be honest I use the vodka to help extract flavors, not so much to sanitize. I would have no qualms just adding the beans directly to the fermentor.
I’ve been experimenting with some coffee beers and the beans get ground and added directly to the fermentor for 12-12 hours, no sanitizing. That’s after they are run through the local coffee shop grinder.
For vanilla beans, I would personally use 100 proof rum. From what I have read, you need to use at least 100 proof alcohol to truly sanitize.
For fruit pulp, I would do what wine makers do. Crush up a campden tablet add it to the fruit pulp in a gallon ziploc bag, mix it up, and let it sit at least 24 hours. You’re not truly sanitizing it, but you’re creating an inhospitable environment for any bacterial growth.
I add fruit puree to secondary and vanilla, cacao nibs and coffee beans to the keg unsanitized, and trust the low pH and alcohol to protect the beer. I’ve never had an infection doing this. Denny adds fresh mushrooms to secondary with no ill effects.
Actually, it tastes fruity with a bit of earth to it. I doubt anyone would ever know there are mushrooms in there if I didn’t tell them. Same with the Matsutake Golden strong.
I have found no need to sanitize or alcohol soak vanilla, fruit, or mushrooms…yes, mushrooms, picked right out of the forest behind my house. By the time you add stuff in secondary, not only is alcohol there, but the pH is very low which makes the beer very resistant to infection. And I hate the extra heat that alcohol soaking adds to the beer.
I don’t disagree that the vodka isn’t necessary (as I said I feel like it speeds up extraction times) but I do disagree that you will get any “hot” flavors unless you use too much vodka. We are talking just enough to cover the spices. An decent neutral vodka should have minimal heat. I would not get the cheapest, rot gut crap you can find because it will have heads/tails from the distillation process. But even then, at such a low concentration I find it hard that you could pick those flavors up.
Regardless, as Denny says, sanitizing isn’t really necessary.
Drew says the same thing about heat, and I believe you guys. Maybe I did use too much, but I had a lot of mushrooms so it took a lot of vodka. But for me the bottom line is if it isn’t necessary, why do it? YMMV
I have had an infection that I blame on cinnamon sticks added directly to the secondary, but everything else I have used without sterilization/sanitization has been fine with no issues.
For whole fruit, I freeze them in a ziploc or foodsaver bag, then thaw and mash with my hands to help break down the cell membranes. They then go right into the fermenter with no further processing. Vanilla gets split and scraped.
