Berry Weiss is in the fermentor

Heres the recipe I decided on...

6.0 lbs of Wheat extract
1.0 light dry extract
1/2 lb crystal malt
1/2 flaked wheat
1 tsp irish moss
1.5 oz Tettnanger pellet hops
.5 oz cascade leaf hops
WL Belgian whit yeast
4 quarts frozen elderberries from my back yard tree

Crystal malt and flaked wheat in a grain bag while heating 3.5 gallons water, remove grains just before boil begins, added extract, tettnanger, irish moss...boil for 1 hour.

After boil, flame out, and steep cascade and elder berries for 20 minutes.

Couples things I should/could have done differently.....

I am thinking I should have left the elder berries in the wort, and put them in the fermenter. I dunno what difference that would make. I still have more elder berries( about 6 quarts and more to come from the tree) and thinking about putting some in when I rack to secondary.

My OG was 1.045, NOT where I wanted it, but it will work. I am thinking I should have left the crystal malt in the grain bag during warm up only, and added the flaked wheat in a second grain bag during boil. May have increased the OG a bit. Also, I boiled off a full gallon, maybe more, during boil. I had to add about 3 gallons of water. I should/could have only added 2 gallons and left myself with a 4 gallon batch and a higher OG.

Still the wort was VERY purple even after adding the nearly 3 gallons of water. Much darker than the Leinies Berry weiss I was attempting to emulate.

Something tells me this will be a way sweet brew.

Thoughts, suggestions, third degree?

Each time I brew beer, I make a mistake or two and learn alot from it.

The more I brew, the better I get.

No, you don't want your grain over 170 degrees, so pull it out way before the boil. Especially the flaked wheat- take it out before you hit 170, don't put it in the boil.

I don't imagine it'll be overly sweet- the sugars in the berries will be fermentable.

i don't think it'll be very close to Leinie's Berry Weiss, which is a lager made with wheat malt, but it might give you what you're hoping for.

As an aside- Irish moss goes into the boil with 15 minutes left. Don't boil it for the whole time. But it doesn't matter anyway- if you've boiled fruit and in a wheat beer, you won't get clarity anyway. Boiled fruit= jam.

Your OG was not where you wanted it because the wort and the top off water didn't get mixed well enough. This is nothing to worry about, it happens all the time. Like Yooper said you never want to boil grain.

If I was going to add fruit, I would do it in secondary. Since you added it at flame out you cooked those berries pretty well. You are probably not going to get much flavor/aroma from them.

Thanks for the replies, I modified a recipe for black berry beer, using the elder berries and what I had on hand. The original recipe called for putting the berries in at flame out, and the irish moss in during the entire boil.

I know this brew wont be identical to the Leinie version, I had the beries and wanted to try something similiar.

I have plenty of beries, so I think I will try and add some to the secondary. Maybe I will pull a gallon out during racking so I have something to compare it to.

Any thoughts on putting the berries in the keg?

NTOLERANCE said:

Any thoughts on putting the berries in the keg?

Click to expand...

They'd probably clog your diptube and/or poppits.

YooperBrew said:

They'd probably clog your diptube and/or poppits.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I had thought about that and was thinking of a hop bag.

Sent this to the keg today. Very clear for 1.2 gallons of berries.

Its not too tart like a raspberry would be. Crisp is how I would put it.
I added about 2 quarts of elderberries to the secondary.

My last berry beer was a Honey Blackberry Wheat. I did put the berry in in the last 10 min of the boil. I guess what Im looking for when adding fruit is not to really taste the fruit but to let the fruit compliment. Turned out great. Couldnt taste what the fruit was until pointed out. I still want to taste the beer and have whatever I put in be a compliment...not the flavor. If your wanting bigger berry flavor.. maybe an extract in the #2?