Inection in fruit beers?

[wnybear]

I am currently working on a cherry cream ale beer that is nothing short of frustrating at this point. Being as I am not a fan of flavorings and extracts I have gone to the source to get fresh picked then flash frozen cherries. The first batch I blanched them before adding to the secondary and got a minor infection with little cherry flavor. At that point I changed my approach and steam juiced the fruit, but still came up with an infection. On my third attempt I left the cherries in the steam juicer for a full hour, rather than the half hour the first run, and still getting the infection. Each time I have increased my efforts to prevent infection in sanitation. I have also gone as far as buying a new racking cane and air lock. Any suggestions on how to treat the fruit to help prevent this would be appreciated as that seems to be where it is coming from.

 

[Nosybear]

Heat it to and hold it at 180 degrees for at least 20 minutes. The oven works nicely for this.

 

[Nosybear]

I'm assuming the steam juicer heated the fruit to at least 180 degrees: If so, you have a different problem, not the fruit.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

sanitize the steam juicer parts maybe? , but oven on a sanitized container would work too....don't forget your hands

had a problem once and went through my whole routine to find it but finally changed my carboy and it went away

 

[bilhelm96]

For my beers with fruit, I add the fruit at flame-out and wait about 10 minutes before chilling. It pasteurizes the fruit and extracts the flavors.

 

[GernBlanston]

Are you sure its an infection? Fruit beers can ferments out, with the yeast consuming all the sugars, and can leave the final beer tart to sour. If this is what you have, then its not an infection. Its a fruit beer. Back sweeten it with Splenda , or other non fermentable sweetener.

 

[Hogarthe]

I gotta agree with Gern. Even a lot of commercial fruit beers I've had the fruit doesn't taste like the fruit normally does. Once all the sugar is out of the fruit it can taste way different. A local brewery does an awesome peach cobbler beer, and it tastes like peach cobbler. They use lactose to add back a bit of sweetness and it makes the peaches taste more like peaches.