Members of my family are not big beer drinkers, however they all love Blue Moon. For Christmas I'd like to brew biermuncher's Blue Balls beligian wit but add cranberry flavor. I've read through a bunch of the cranberry wheat threads and looked at a few recipes.
I'm thinking about sparging with a half gallon or so less water and using cranberry juice (100%, no preservatives) to make up the rest of the boil volume. This would primarily be for color, and would probably add a bit of tartness. I would then add cranberry extract at bottling if needed to get to the cranberry flavor desired. I would compensate with a bit more base grain to account for the decreased efficiency due to a lower sparge volume.
Is this good idea? I was hoping to avoid using actual cranberries because I would like to avoid doing a secondary if possible.
Thanks!
I'm thinking about sparging with a half gallon or so less water and using cranberry juice (100%, no preservatives) to make up the rest of the boil volume. This would primarily be for color, and would probably add a bit of tartness. I would then add cranberry extract at bottling if needed to get to the cranberry flavor desired. I would compensate with a bit more base grain to account for the decreased efficiency due to a lower sparge volume.
Is this good idea? I was hoping to avoid using actual cranberries because I would like to avoid doing a secondary if possible.
Thanks!