Slowfro

Recipes 

So I brewed an extract beer following the blood orange hefe except I used blueberries instead of oranges. Typically I would have removed the beer from the fruit after 2 1/2-3 weeks, but I was out of town for work and couldn't do it until 4 weeks after brewing. When I went to bottle it I took a sip of the gravity reading it tasted sour. Is this from leaving the fruit in there too long? I still bottled it hoping that it mellows out as it conditions but I'm not sure it's going to be good. Just looking for some thoughts on what others think. Thanks!

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ACbrewer

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did you do anything to sanatize the blueberries? Like soak in vodka? or include in your boil?

david_42

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Most likely it is from an infection and it won't go away. If anything, it will get worse. Sometimes you can add a non-fermentable sweetener to rescue the batch.

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Slowfro

Recipes 

I did sanitize the blueberries by putting them in a separate pot and covering them with water, bringing it to 170° and letting it cool as I did the rest of the brew.

I've never had an infected batch before, so I'm sure the sour sense could be that. I guess my next question would be is that a reasonable plan to make a blueberry beer or should I be proceeding with another plan?

Thanks for the help!

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Jayhem

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I've read of a lot of problems with adding actual fruit to beer. I plan to make a raspberry wheat this spring but I will be using raspberry extract instead of actual berries to try to avoid problems with the fermentation.

I would still bottle it and see what happens in a few weeks.

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TheOnionKnight

Recipes 

Are you sure its not just tarty? How many #'s of blueberries did you use? I made a blueberry hefe a couple weeks ago that is now kegged and its way too tarty for me. I used 2 pounds of blueberries and 1 cup of sugar. If I make this recipe again Im going with 4#'s of blueberries.

Slowfro

Recipes 

I used 4# blueberries. Seemed like a lot but I had read that a lot of the blueberry sense dissipated during fermentation so I up'd it a bit. I still bottled it so I'll check it in a few weeks to see what it comes out like.

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