Blueberry Brew

I wanted to make a fruit beer, with of chocolate, with notes of honey and slight red coloring. I have an idea of how to do that, but I want it to be a high gravity beer with a strong head retention.

I know I can add honey, extra malts, certain sugars, etc. for increasing gravity, but I also heard that rice increases gravity without really affecting the flavor. How would I use rice in a brew to get my desired results? As for head retention, I read that wheat can help with head retention with minimum flavor changes. What could wheat possibly do to the flavor profile of a fruity chocolaty beer?

Flaked rice will lower the body of the beer and dry it out a bit, so those are some potential issues with using it. Wheat will also add some flavor that you may not want in your flavor profile. Why not just increase the amount of base malt and specialty grains you're using (be it grain or extract) until you get your desired OG?

If you're concerned about head retention and doing a partial mash you could add some cara-pils/dextrine malt (about 5%) to your grain bag with some 2-row (to convert the other grains) to both increase gravity and head retention without affecting body/flavor or adding other variables you may not want.

What kind of an OG are you looking for? I use oatmeal for mouthfeel and head retention. For a big beer, maybe 16-20oz.

Blueberries, blackberries, ect... will get you a reddish/purplish color. I like about a lb per gallon. Good luck!

I want it to be 9-10% ABV so I think I need like a 1.10-1.20 OG

zzARzz:

I was told and read wheat wouldn't alter the flavor very much. The guy that runs the shop where I get my supplies from said a pound would help with the head and not add flavor. Have you tried wheat for head retention? What are the flavor profiles like for cara-pils and dextrine malts have? Will they affect flavor/body at all considering they're malts?

This has my attention. I was thinking along the same lines here in a stout with a high abv. Black Berries are in the freezer waiting on a recipe.

Try a protein rest at 122-125 for head retention, it is debated whether or not this actually works to aid in head retention. As far as chocolate and honey goes, use some chocolate malt and a small amount of honey malt as well. For coloring add 5-10% of a medium range caramel/crystal malt to get some res coloring into it. Also, you can try to add cocoa powder, let it secondary on cocoa nibs, or add some chocolate flavoring at bottling from your LHBS. As far as high gravity you just need more malt or could add sugar during the boil which will dry your beer out due to the increase in fermentable sugars. As for the blueberry I agree on the pound per gallon theory on this one. I pasteurized mine at 170 for about 8 minutes and then puréed them and racked onto the blueberries. You will be introducing more sugar into the secondary and could see a some activity in your secondary from this as well. Hope this helps and good luck.

BlackAtack said:

zzARzz:

I was told and read wheat wouldn't alter the flavor very much. The guy that runs the shop where I get my supplies from said a pound would help with the head and not add flavor. Have you tried wheat for head retention? What are the flavor profiles like for cara-pils and dextrine malts have? Will they affect flavor/body at all considering they're malts?

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I've used carapils on my last few brews at around 3-5% and it does help with head retention and body. Carapils doesn't alter flavor or color at all, so that's why I use it in small quantities in pretty much any style I want to thicken up a bit (It's replaced any need for me to add powdered malto-dextrine).

You can use wheat, of course; Carapils is just another option.

zzARzz said:

I've used carapils on my last few brews at around 3-5% and it does help with head retention and body. Carapils doesn't alter flavor or color at all, so that's why I use it in small quantities in pretty much any style I want to thicken up a bit (It's replaced any need for me to add powdered malto-dextrine).

You can use wheat, of course; Carapils is just another option.

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Thank you, I will look into that option as well.

Another question, it's actually a two parter. The first time I tried brewing with fruit/berries (used raspberries) I did the boiling thing and I THINK I messed it up. I know that a vodka soak does the trick too, but do I still need to do any of the sanitizing treatments (freezing, boiling, soaking) if I'm just going to add them to my secondary anyway?

BlackAtack said:

Another question, it's actually a two parter. The first time I tried brewing with fruit/berries (used raspberries) I did the boiling thing and I THINK I messed it up. I know that a vodka soak does the trick too, but do I still need to do any of the sanitizing treatments (freezing, boiling, soaking) if I'm just going to add them to my secondary anyway?

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There's a BYO article on adding fruit that I've used in the past and it answered many of the same questions I had here.

subscribed.... Saw this one fermenting away in the "show us your fermenter" thread, and am really interested in seeing how it turns out! The concept sounds great!

If you do add the fruit, never boil it - ever. If you do you will extract lots of astringent and harsh flavors from it. I learned that the hard way. Add the to the secondary and either pasteurize them as mentioned above or freeze them to kill any bacteria. Add them to the secondary.

TahoeRy said:

If you do add the fruit, never boil it - ever. If you do you will extract lots of astringent and harsh flavors from it. I learned that the hard way. Add the to the secondary and either pasteurize them as mentioned above or freeze them to kill any bacteria. Add them to the secondary.

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I didn't actually boil them I froze them and then headed them to about 170-180 for about 15 minutes or so.

The heating of the fruit is what causes those off flavors from what I understand. When I brew my raspberry nut brown next I'm just going to smash the berries up a bit then freeze. Then I'm just going to add them to the secondary. I spoke to a brewer at at brew fest in Colorado a couple years back and he had an excellent raspberry brown. He is the one who told me to never heat the fruit.

I was told by most to heat it. It was was pain though, so I'll have to try this method next time. Is it better to smash then freeze or freeze then smash? Or does it not matter if you don't heat them? I didn't put them in the secondary because I didn't want the sugars in the blueberries to re-activate the yeast and blow over.

It doesn't matter when you smash them. This will help the berries start to break down, get the juices going and provide more surface area. You will get a little bit more out of your yeast but wont cause any blow over. Just make sure your primary is done and yeast is settled prior to racking to secondary. I am sure there are other methods, but after completely ruining a beer by cooking my raspberries in the wort, I will never heat them again. Also, raspberries are the only berry I have worked with so others might be different. Seems to make since with all fruit though. I think it might just breakdown to "cold-extraction" vs "hot-extraction" depending on what you want to impart to your recipe. You can get more bitterness and sourness out of cooking them and more sweetness out of lower temps.

I'll be doing up a RIS in the next month and plan to rack it off to 5 seperate 1 gallon carboys and then will have 1 gal of blueberry, strawberry, banana, cherry and jalepeno. Bazinga

Frozen fruit all gently smashed an thrown into secondary for 2 weeks. 1/2lb of fruit per gallon.

I'm hoping to bottle my blueberry Brew this weekend or something this week if I get home from work early enough. It's been stewing for awhile and I still haven't posted the recipe. I'll get to both soon though. Right now though, I'm working on a vanilla honey wheat that will hopefully be ready for summer.

Primary: Summer Solstice Ale (will post this delicious recipe)
Secondary: Blueberry
Bottled: Gingerbread Stout, Fireside Winter Warmer
Next Up: Vanilla Honey Wheat

Blueberry Stout Recipe

• 4 oz Chocolate Malt
• 12 oz Roasted Barley
• 1.1 oz Wheat Extract
• 7.5lbs Briess Light Malt
• 9 lbs Blueberries
• 1 oz Nugget
• Safale s-04

What I did for the brew was steep the grains for 30 minutes, then removed the pot from the heat and stirred in the extracts and malts, brought that to a boil and added the hops half an hour in and boiled that for another half an hour. I put my prepared blueberries (I can explain the method I use for prepping fruits if you don't know) in my fermenter VERY CAREFULLY! I had a rushed start and splattered blueberry juice everywhere! Once the blueberries were in the fermenter, I added my cooled wort in, aggregated it and pitched the yeast.

Fermenting timeline? I let it sit in the primary for about 4 weeks and the secondary for about 2 months, mainly because I never had time to rack it, but I also knew it'd make it better.

Try it out. If you make any mods to it that worked out well too, I'd love to hear. I tried adding a picture, but the app won't seem to allow it right now, sorry.

Primary: Vanilla Honey Wheat
Secondary: Summer Solstice Ale (being re-re-vistited for a July 4th party, this will be my first kegged beer)
Bottled: Blueberry Stout, Gingerbread Stout, Fireside Winter Warmer (Gingerbread and Fireside are being saved for the holidays)
Upcoming: Pineapple Saison

BlackAtack said:

Blueberry Stout Recipe

• 4 oz Chocolate Malt
• 12 oz Roasted Barley
• 1.1 oz Wheat Extract
• 7.5lbs Briess Light Malt
• 9 lbs Blueberries
• 1 oz Nugget
• Safale s-04

What I did for the brew was steep the grains for 30 minutes, then removed the pot from the heat and stirred in the extracts and malts, brought that to a boil and added the hops half an hour in and boiled that for another half an hour. I put my prepared blueberries (I can explain the method I use for prepping fruits if you don't know) in my fermenter VERY CAREFULLY! I had a rushed start and splattered blueberry juice everywhere! Once the blueberries were in the fermenter, I added my cooled wort in, aggregated it and pitched the yeast.

Fermenting timeline? I let it sit in the primary for about 4 weeks and the secondary for about 2 months, mainly because I never had time to rack it, but I also knew it'd make it better.

Try it out. If you make any mods to it that worked out well too, I'd love to hear. I tried adding a picture, but the app won't seem to allow it right now, sorry.

Primary: Vanilla Honey Wheat
Secondary: Summer Solstice Ale (being re-re-vistited for a July 4th party, this will be my first kegged beer)
Bottled: Blueberry Stout, Gingerbread Stout, Fireside Winter Warmer (Gingerbread and Fireside are being saved for the holidays)
Upcoming: Pineapple Saison

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Guess the picture attached. Too bad it's sideways

Looks great (even sideways)! How's it taste?

I love it! I used enough blueberries to get some of their flavor without taking away from the beer and the different malts gave it a nice little spice. It's a little heavy in body, but not overly and it has a very smooth finish. I wish people could see the ACTUALLY colors, because my flash lightens the head. It's really like a dark purple/brown kind of color.

BlackAtack said:

Guess the picture attached. Too bad it's sideways

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I'm newer to brewing, was there a reason for adding the malts/extract prior to boil as opposed to at flame out? Just curious.

ballsy said:

I'm newer to brewing, was there a reason for adding the malts/extract prior to boil as opposed to at flame out? Just curious.

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I'm a relatively new brewer too (a year of my craft in August I think, should make am anniversary batch...) but it's been fun. Anyway, I add the malts/extracts at like a post/pre-boil. I take them off the heat simply so as not to scorch them. When I get everything stirred in (and a few times I found some still at the bottom of the pot after emptying it),I heat it up to a boil again. It's like I said though, it's just to prevent scorching the pot.