Blueberry Wheat critique

I'd like to do a blueberry wheat ... but I have never done a fruit beer before. I could use some feedback on tis recipe:

Blueberry Wheat

5 lbs Maris Otter
4 lbs Wheat malt
.5 lb carapils

hops
1 oz Willamette 5.5% 60 min

Yeast:
WLP320

As for the blue berries, I'm not sure whether to add puree, fresh, or juice ... or how much to use What would you recommend. If fresh/frozen, how should I prepare them?

With wheat beers, there is usually a little more wheat than barley.

I make my fruit wheats with US-05 and fruit extract. I don't like a "wine" taste and real fruit tends to give that.

I add 2oz of extract at kegging.

YMMV

I brewed this about 2 weeks ago, and am going to transfer to secondary w/ blueberries tonight (6/28). If I keg and force carb this on Friday, do you think it will be reasonably drinkable by the 4th (Sat) ??

lyacovett said:

I brewed this about 2 weeks ago, and am going to transfer to secondary w/ blueberries tonight (6/28). If I keg and force carb this on Friday, do you think it will be reasonably drinkable by the 4th (Sat) ??

Click to expand...

Not unless you shake the keg. You can force carb pretty quick that way.

Hit the keg with 30psi. When the sound of the CO2 entering stops, disconnect the gas, pick up the keg and shake the crap out of it. Repeat the process a couple of times, then hook it back up to 30psi of CO2 and leave it overnight.

You should have a fairly carbed keg.

Yeah, I know how to force carb, I was more concerned about it being too green, and not having enough time on the blueberries, I would only get 4 days or so on the fruit.

You've got a whole second fermentation going on with the fruit. 4 days won't give the yeast that are reactivated & energized by the new sugars much time to flocculate & precipitate out. However, if you want it as a blueberry hefeweizen, you'll be fine with force carbing.

OK, one last question on this .... I hope.

The second ferment of the fruit is done. The color is pretty awesome, but the flavor/aroma is kind of weak. I would still like this for saturday. Would you dose with more blueberries to get some more flavor quick, or will 3 more days really make that much of a difference.

I added 4 cans of oregon blueberries (not the puree), and 1 lb of frozen berries. Should I expect alot of flavor from this amount of berries?

I suspect the difference of 3 more days will be in how much yeast & trub & stuff precipitates out of your beer -- more days = clearer, cleaner beer. If you dose with more blueberries, you will just get a third fermentation & you'll just have to wait for that, so I wouldn't do that.

Two things that really help bring the berry character of my blueberry wheat to the forefront are adding a bit of acid blend (1 heaping teaspoon for 5 gallons) and a bit of artificial sweetener (probably be blasted for this). I added just shy of 1 Tbsp of Sweet'n'Low at kegging. The problem for fruit beers is that the taste of fresh fruit comes from the combination of 3 things: 1) the actual fruit flavors, 2) sweetness, and 3) a bit of acidic tartness. Only when you've got some of each do we really interpret it as "fruit flavor". However, after secondary fermentation all the sweetness is fermented out & the tartness gets lost in the beer's acidity. Adding them back can help.

I played with it in a small 1 oz glasses, adding them in different combinations & amounts then blindly tasting them (since they all looked the same). This is what I found I liked best when tasting & generally speaking it is one of my most loved & requested beers by others. Your mileage may vary.