Purple honey SWMBO slayer

I'm looking to make a refreshing purple ale for a wedding this summer that's also deceiving in its alcohol (like 5.5-6%). BierMuncher's https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/swmbo-slayer-belgian-blonde-26599/ seemed like a perfect place to start for a base, so I took that and am making a few tweaks to what I want. The biggest thing, is I need to make this brew purple, so I figure the best way is with some berries. I've never brewed with fruit and the only fruit beer I actually like is abita's strawberry lager (incredibly refreshing if you haven't tried it), so I looked thru some recipes here to gauge around what I need to add. I'm thinking like 1lb each of blueberry and strawberry (cuz blue and red makes purple!) would get me the color I want without overpowering berriness. I got a couple weeks until I need to start this so let me know if you have any suggestions.

5gal batch
OG: 1.058ish
IBU: 24ish
SRM: hopefully purple (6ish to start)
5# white wheat
4# pilsner (belgian)
0.75# flaked rye
0.5# honey malt
0.25# honey
0.6oz citra (FWH)
0.5oz citra (flameout)
WLP400 Belgian Wit
1# each frozen blueberries & strawberries (secondary 2 weeks?)
mash around 154F for 60mins, boil 60mins, ferment around 64f

A couple quick questions too:
I haven't used citra, but I figure with all its fruitiness it should complement the berries. Should I swap for a more neutral hop or do you think that'd work?
Will any honey come through?
Is the 1# of each fruit enough to get the color I want with some flavor/aroma out of it? and how long do I keep the beer on them before bottling?

Blueberries alone should give you a pretty purple beer, I think. Maybe adding a bit of color with some malt would complement the blueberries- a small amount of chocolate, perhaps.
My blueberry beer came out pretty sour, so be careful about that.

jamesnsw said:

My blueberry beer came out pretty sour, so be careful about that.

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ya definitely don;t want that, that's why I was thinking a mixed berry batch. I'll probably be using stuff from a 4# frozen mixed berry (strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry) bag.

can too much berry make it sour or did something else cause that?

Most berries are pretty tart, and the sugar in them will ferment out (unless you kill the yeast first and then force carb) leaving a pretty tart beer. I've only done it once, so perhaps others with more experience will be able to give more specific directions.

Also, on frozen berries, watch out for weird ingredients. I found one that had "liquid sugar" in it. I contacted the company, and it wasn't just sugar and water- it was some weird mixture of sweeteners that I was glad I hadn't put in my beer.

just checked, the bag doesn't list anything but the berries for ingredients so I think I'm in luck.

hmm, maybe I'll try emailing abita to see how they get a sweetness from the strawberries instead of tartness. thanks for the tips

edit: email sent, hopefully I hear some good news in time

If you raise your mash temp pretty high (like 158-159*) and/or add lactose it will sweeten it.

HotbreakHotel said:

If you raise your mash temp pretty high (like 158-159*) and/or add lactose it will sweeten it.

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I'm not looking for a sweet beer, I'd just prefer sweetness from the fruit not tartness. I'm actually considering lowering the mash temp to give a lighter body.

Just had the wedding yesterday and the beer was a big hit. I only did half with the berries and it ended up more pink than purple though. It came out really light and easy drinking.
final 5.5g recipe:
OG: 1.056, FG: 1.01, 23 IBUs, 4.5 SRM
4lb white wheat malt
4lb pilsner malt
0.5lb Flaked Wheat
0.5lb Flaked Rye
0.5lb Crystal 20
1lb honey at flameout (LHBS was out of honey malt)
0.675oz Citra FWH
0.5oz Citra Flameout
1.5lb blueberry,raspberry,strawberry,blackberry mix in half
WLP400