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Sanitizing pomegranates?

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T

The5thHerring

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 3, 2011
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Got a gallon hanging out in primary, just finished the bulk of its activity. 3 lbs of honey and 6 pomegranates in primary, so it should end up fairly dry. (I didn't take an SG reading at the beginning, so I can't tell you precisely what's going on.)

I shall rack it to secondary in a few days, and since there's no red color to it at all (it bleached these particular pomegranates bone-white and nothing to show for it!) I thought I'd rack onto 10 more pomegranates I hulled today.

Problem is, I forgot to consider sanitation. They're in the freezer right now, and though everything I used in preparing them was clean (incl. hands), I didn't take great pains to avoid contamination.

1. should I stick 'em in anyway?
2. if not, how do you keep pomegranates sanitary anyway? Their preparation is so involved...
 
If you're really concerned, you could let it sit overnight with a crushed campden tablet... but if you're chucking it into a must that's actively fermenting, there shouldn't be any problems as the CO2 and low pH produced by the yeasties should keep most nasties at bay.
 
What yeast was used? What were OG and FG? Personally, if the ABV is high enough, or an aggressive yeast was used, I wouldn't be too worried.

At worst (as far as I know, which admittedly not a whole lot in the scheme of fermentation...) you may end up with a Lacto infection. Most souring bacteria/bacteria in general that would normally be a concern can't survive the harsh conditions of finished mead. I guess a Brett infection could also be a concern, though again, I personally wouldn't be too worried.

Again, this is all personal opinion. If you're really worried, take comfort that nothing deadly can survive in alcoholic/acidic conditions found in things like this very well if at all. Chances are they get overwhelmed by the harsh environment before they can get established and cause a problem.

Someone with more microbiology knowledge can correct any misconceptions I've presented here, since I don't really know all the details/potential problems. :)

As for sanitizing the pomegranate seeds, that's a great question. I'd think you could quickly blanch them for a few seconds without destroying too much color. Again, I could very well be wrong.

Edit: Ah! CG totally nailed it. I completely blanked on using sulfites... :rolleyes:
 
The attitude here seems mostly to be "sanitizing is good but not really necessary" when it comes to putting adjuncts into fermenting must... so I'll go ahead and chuck it in. I'll let everyone know if it turns into a Disaster.

Oh, and I used K1v-1116, it's been at it for almost a month, didn't take OG (oops). Still bubbling very slowly in the airlock and it hasn't cleared *at all*, so it seems like it's still active.
 
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