Anyone ever try making a fruit stout?

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

I searched for other threads relating to this one and I couldn't find any recent threads on it, so here goes.

My neighbors did not trim their blueberry bushes last year, so we have an unlimited supply of blueberries! I will be making your typical blueberry wheat, but since we have so many blueberries I was thinking about trying a blueberry stout. Has anyone ever tried this?

I am considering keeping it on the 'lighter' side for a stout, and then adding a generous amount of blueberry puree to the secondary. Any thoughts or comments on this?

Also, I've used canned purees before which are sterile (or maybe sanitary?) from the factory, but am not 100% sure the best way of ensuring they will be sanitary. Perhaps adding it right before I turn the wort chiller on? Is there a good way to ensure sanitary conditions while adding the puree to the secondary?

I have not done this before as a brewer so there may be a better solution, but as a cook I'd try to hold the berries at 170-180 for fifteen or so minuets. That should kill any and all nasties and hopefully retain most of the flavor.

PS - Also, keep in mind that the flavor of blueberries is a very delicate one. So, you would need to use more blueberries than, say, raspberries to get it to show up. Especially considering that it would be competing with roasted malts. Your idea of keeping it "light" is probably a good one. I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know though!

Blueberry stout? A beverage made in large part with blueberry juice as a ferment-able getting into the 8+abv range? Sounds like wine to me hehe!

A local brewery, buffalo bills, makes an incredible blueberry stout.

Dark horse brewing makes a phenomenal one as well. Very dark, great mouthfeel and just enough blueberry. I'd email them.

Score! I think it would turn out killer.

I haven't brewed with blueberries but have used fresh raspberries and cherries from the farmers market. After seeing bugs come out of the raspberries I thought my brew would be hosed but it turned out just fine (after a year in the bottle it still doesn't taste contaminated).

I am highly against adulterating the fruit with pasteurization but I guess it does add risk for contamination if you don't. I have always soaked the whole fruit or berries in a bowl of warm starsan water with some light stirring / agitation for ~ 30 minutes or so. Before hand, I go though each piece and toss out the rotten or moldy ones because those are the ones where bacteria or fungus has broke the skin and gotten inside of the fruit.

After that I usually wash several times with hot water to rid the bugs and san water then put the fruit / berries in a freezer bag and freeze them over night. The crystallization of the water helps break down the cells of the fruit to make them mushy but will also do the same for bacterial cell walls ( this doesn't completely sterilize but should kill some bacteria).

I thaw the bag in hot water when ready, mush everything up by squeezing the bag and then pour the mush into the secondary. I figure with he combo of picking out the rotten, sanitizing the outer skin, freezing, and pitching into beer with alcohol and hops is a fairly decent process to avoid contamination without having to compromise flavor and aroma via pasteurization.

I haven't had a contaminated batch yet but maybe I am just lucky!

I have done Blueberry Stout. It takes a LOT of blue berries because their flavor is so subtle. Think in the range of 1.5-2 lbs. per gallon in a stout. A method similar to Columbus above is how I do them too. Star San and the freezer.