Mike B

Recipes 

I have some questions about a Blackberry Hefe I'm working on. Here's the recipe that I got from my LHBS:

7 lbs Wheat LME
2 lbs Wheat (grain)
1 oz Hallertaure (Boil)
1 oz Hallertaure (Aroma) . . . Yes, I now realize that this is too much . . .
wYeast Strain 3333 German Wit

6 lbs blackberries (frozen)

Steeped Grains @ 155F for about an hour and a half. Removed grains and brought to boil; boiled LME and boil hops for an hour, adding aroma hops for last 10 minutes.

One week later, put the blackberries in the secondary, after pasteurizing on the stovetop (about 150F for 15 mins), and racked the beer on top of it.

Two weeks later, racked to tertiary, where it has now been for over two weeks (I've been damned busy). When I tasted it at this point, there was a little fruit flavor upfront, but was pretty bitter, with a sour aftertaste. It's pretty bad.

Looking back, I realize that I have too much hops. I didn't really question the numbers that the LHBS gave me, I just got brewing on it.

Anyway, the main question is: what can I do to fix this beer? Should I add some unfermentable sugar to try to backsweeten it? That's what I'm thinking, but I wonder if any of you have had a similar experience.

Also, it has now been about a month and a half since it was originally brewed. I've been putting off the bottling so I can figure out what to do, but I just haven't gotten my s#!t together. Am I going to be in trouble since I've waited so long?

Any help y'all can provide is MUCH appreciated. If I've left out any important details, please let me know.

Thanks,
-Mike

bummerkit

Recipes 

in for answers.

Melana

Recipes 

Just let it sit in bottles and age? My Blackberry hefe wasn't as pronounced a blackberry flavor as i would have liked... but then i used puree into primary and bottled shortly there after. it is a killer hefe but not so much berry. My husband (who is a hop head and hates Wheat beers) likes it so i'm thinking it will be too bland for me.

lackofstyl

Recipes 

If you want to sweeten it up... you could always use honey for your priming sugar.
use this link to figure out how much to use for your batch size

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

RedSun

Recipes 

The honey certainly is an option. So you're at 5 total weeks with the berries in play now if I got it right? Seems blackberries are a little tougher to manage than other fruit, but bringing it back from the edge to drinkable should be possible.

Mike B

Recipes 

To clarify: when I racked to the Tertiary, I left the berries behind. They were only in the brew for about 2 weeks.

So, prime with honey, eh? I'll read up on it. Thanks for the help, RedSun, and thanks for the link, lackofstyl!

Anyone else have any suggestions?