Blueberry Moon (blue moon clone) question

Gonna be doing an AG Blue Moon clone, looking to achieve a very well pronouned blueberry flavor that balances out with the sweetness of blue moon.

I've never made any beers with fruit, nor have I ever made a hefeweizen...so it'll be interesting to see how this turns out. I'm here on this this thread to find out what would be a foolproof blueberry incorporation method.

I've read on this site that anywhere from 1lb to 15lbs of blueberries can be used in the secondary. Looking for the right amount, right times, and possibly the best preparation methods for the blueberries. Want a big blueberry flavor!

I posted a blueberry wit recipe on here somewhere. If you look under my started threads its in there. Not exactly a blue moon clone but its one of my favorite beers i make and is enjoyed by all.

I've done 2 blueberry recipes so far. A blueberry wheat with 5lbs frozen blueberries in secondary (5gal batch) and a blueberry porter with 4.5lbs of frozen wild blueberries in secondary (also 5gal batch).

Both of those ended up perfect. If I were making another blueberry beer, I would use those amounts of blueberries again.

As for preparation of the blueberries... For both my recipes, I thawed/refroze the blueberries twice, then put them (still frozen) directly into the secondary and racked on top of them. I didn't sanitize them at all.

How did you guys counter for the yeast eating the fruit sugars and making the beer tart? When I did a white peach Wit it came out quite tart. For my Apple Pie Ale's I've simply been making a sweet malty grain bill and mashing at higher temps and also adding a slight bit of flavor extract to help boost the flavor from the cider. That's been working well so far but I'm curious how one gets the sweetness without back sweetening (since I bottle carb and need the yeast alive and working).


Rev.

I'm kinda sketchy about just straight racking over skinned and unpasturized berries. Thinking about making a mash or puree in a blender, bringing them to a pot and letting them reach about 160 to pasturize, THEN racking over the mash/puree in the secondary. It makes sense that the skins need to be broken in order for the flavor to be accentuated.

I would 100% pasteurize the berries, better to be safe than sorry. You could always buy 100% pure already pasteurized berry purée but that would likely cost more.


Rev.