I don't soak anything in Star San. I just pour in about 500mL into my 6 gal fermenter and slosh it around. Or sometimes I just use a spray bottle and mist the heck out of everything. I've never had a contamination issue.
Just a quick update: The berries are still floating but not as much. Over the past 2 weeks I have been periodically and gently tipping the carboy to about a 45 degree angle in all directions. This has the effect of gently (GENTLY!) rolling and soaking the floating berries with beer. some of the...
I realize this reply is 2 years after OP but as it turns out, I'm doing an almost identical beer. I racked my brew into secondary on top of about 3.5lbs of cranberries. They were fresh when I bought them. I froze them overnight, thawed them out and crushed them before funneling them into my 6gal...