I currently have a saison in primary. I want to add peaches to the secondary but I’m worried about any bit of wild yeast the fruit may have. I would normally add camden tablets but I want to bottle condition this batch. Help! If I add camden tablets, will there be enough yeast left over after secondary to bottle condition? Should I just not worry about the peach yeast and go ahead normally? All input is greatly appreciated!
Just wash em and freeze them. Yes, there will be yeast on the skin but the beer will be stable enough that you won’t have any problems especially with a saison yeast being so highly attenuated. I have used fruit like this many times and if you secondary ferment it till completely still you won’t have any issues.
Freezing isn’t necessary for a puree but it will kill off some of the bacteria and yeast on the exterior. It certainly won’t hurt.
You might get some bacteria and yeast carryover from the fruit but they will be at such low levels that it will likely take a long time in the bottle before you see any potential impact. Whatever might happen is likely going to add a rustic edge to the beer that works really well with saisons. The likelihood that you develop something unpleasant in the beer is fairly unlikely. If you want to drive the probability to zero then you’ll need to pasteurize the fruit.
You could even toss the peaches in some star san prior to putting them in the blender if you were really worried about after washing them first of course.