Adding fruit to carboy

[Jimmy]

What's the general consensus on this? Do they need to be pasteurized, mashed up to a puree, soaked in vodka, etc? Do you wait until primary fermentation is complete, then rack to a secondary on top of fruit? Is there a "general guideline" for the time it should sit on the fruit?

[mr x]

Unless it's a sour beer, i make sure the fruit has been taken to 170f for 10 minutes. I always use a secondary, and probably wait 3-4 weeks to rack off.

[KMcK]

Regardless of how you sterilize, fruit is best left until the secondary. The alcohol present offers extra defence against infection from the fruit and the reduced effervescence is less likely to carry away the fruit's flavour and aroma.

[mr x]

Nash says the iqf(individually quick frozen) fruit is pretty safe as the rapid freezing fucks with the bad organizms.

[Jimmy]

Is that just regular frozen fruit from the grocery store?

[mr x]

That I don't know...

[Jayme]

I usually add fruit to secondary. Freeze it, then thaw in a pot, bring up to 67C for 10 min, and let it cool. However, I did make a watermelon wheat last summer and decided to just at it in at the end of the boil. More of an experiment than anything, but it worked great! Awesome watermelon flavour. So I don't know if other fruits would behave the same way, but I certainly had great success in that instance!