I was thinking blueberry stout?

Plainbrad gave me this recipe for a "normal" stout

5G
60min boil

6 lb Pale Malt (2 Row)
1 lb Barley, Flaked
1 lb C120L
1 lb Roasted Barley

My addition; maybe 4lbs of blueberries at 5 minutes or flameout?

1 oz Fuggles (or Willamette at 60min

As or yeast I'm not sure I don't know any yeast flavors really..

And as I've been reading, I may get mixed up, lower mash temp = more fermentable beer while higher temp = less fermentable but dry crisp taste?

I was thinking mash in ( still learning terms sorry if they're incorrect ) at about 160*? And batch sparge at about 170*?

About 2.8 gallons I'll say 3 gallons to mash, 1 gallon to sparge and maybe 2 gallons to bring it to 6 gallons for boil then top off at 5 or 5.5 if needed?

Please correct me on my water usage this would be my second AG and last time I kinda winged it for the water for the sparge and top off :x

Well let me know if you guys think this may work? I saw threads on blueberry wheats, and I thought a blueberry stout would be good.
Prost! Brew on.

Higher mash temp usually means a heavier body or thicker mouthfeel, and more maltiness. The lower mash temp means more fermentable sugars, and a drier beer.

Blueberry stout sounds awesome. Might have to try that one, myself. Let us know how it turns out.

MrSpiffy said:

Higher mash temp usually means a heavier body or thicker mouthfeel, and more maltiness. The lower mash temp means more fermentable sugars, and a drier beer.

Blueberry stout sounds awesome. Might have to try that one, myself. Let us know how it turns out.

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Awesome thanks, with Thad said in thinking maybe a higher mash temp, maybe around 170*? And do you have any insight on the yeast that would be nice?

Adding fruit before primary fermentation will leave you with less than desirable results. The yeast will consume all of the fructose very quickly and the vigorous fermentation (as well as the boil if you add it at that point) will drive off almost all of the fruit aroma and flavor.

Either add the fruit in secondary or add fruit extract to keg or bottle. I've tried your method with purée and it turned out awful.

justins2582 said:

Adding fruit before primary fermentation will leave you with less than desirable results. The yeast will consume all of the fructose very quickly and the vigorous fermentation (as well as the boil if you add it at that point) will drive off almost all of the fruit aroma and flavor.

Either add the fruit in secondary or add fruit extract to keg or bottle. I've tried your method with purée and it turned out awful.

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Should I do while berries then? Maybe do a small split so juice gets out and throw them to secondary?

Not sure of your questions as stated, but if you're looking to add fresh blueberries, I would freeze them first (to partially sanitize and to help break down the fruit's cell walls), thaw and add to the fruit to secondary. If you're kegging and you don't have enough blueberry character, you can always add blueberry extract to supplement. The going rate for fruit beer is to add 1 lb of fruit per gallon. This may vary for different fruit but that's what experimentation is for. Good luck!

I did 3lbs of blueberry in 3 gallons of wheat. I could tell it had a fruit in it, but I couldn't tell it was blueberry. As mild as blueberry is, I would bump it up to 1.5lbs per gallon next time and I'm not even sure you could taste that in a stout.

I was asking if I should slice them open to allow the juice to freely come out, but I'll pick up like 6 lbs of blueberries tomorrow and throw them in the freezer. Does the recipe itself seem to be able to handle the blueberries? And do you have a yeast suggestion?

I put mine through a juicer, which could be why it was hard to identify as blueberry. A lot of their tartness is in the skin.

bleme said:

I put mine through a juicer, which could be why it was hard to identify as blueberry. A lot of their tartness is in the skin.

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Oh ok, so I should do whole blueberries in the secondary for about a week?

i did 10# blueberries in my 5gal blueberry oatmeal stout and it turned out like blueberry wine. added them to secondary, they were frozen from the store.

makes amazing pancakes though

another option would be to add 3.3# blueberry puree a few days into primary ferment, and then add 4oz blueberry extract at bottling time. this give both flavor and aroma.

ahaley said:

Oh ok, so I should do whole blueberries in the secondary for about a week?

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If you want that tartness, I would freeze them, mash them and warm them to 160F for 10 min. 160F will pasteurize them without giving them that cooked flavor. Put them in the secondary and rack on top of them. Leave it for a week.

Lots of people have also had success using half blueberries and then half blueberry extract at bottling. That seems to give the best flavor/aroma without the fake candy taste.

Awesome thanks guys! I'll have to do this!

Any thougts on using blueberry pie filling? Canned so sanitizing wouldn't be an issue.

william_shakes_beer said:

Any thougts on using blueberry pie filling? Canned so sanitizing wouldn't be an issue.

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I didn't think about that... That might work better

I saw that you live in Tracy, if you want to try a blue berry stout buffalo bills in Hayward makes one. I think you can even get it at bev mo.

MedicineMan said:

I saw that you live in Tracy, if you want to try a blue berry stout buffalo bills in Hayward makes one. I think you can even get it at bev mo.

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Oh really? I'll have to go to Modesto, I think that's the closest bevmo. I know we have a world market, soupy think that'll have it?

ahaley said:

Oh really? I'll have to go to Modesto, I think that's the closest bevmo. I know we have a world market, soupy think that'll have it?

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FWIW, I've been told that World Market has awful beer storage that you don't want to drink anything from there once the heat of summer has hit.

Last week, I made a Robust Porter that I plan on adding blueberries to. I'll be adding the blueberries to secondary this weekend and leaving it there for about a week.

bleme said:

FWIW, I've been told that World Market has awful beer storage that you don't want to drink anything from there once the heat of summer has hit.

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Oh really? I've has a few beers from there and they were good, it was my first young's double chocolate stout, but I'll keep that in mind thanks for the heads up.

pensphreak said:

Last week, I made a Robust Porter that I plan on adding blueberries to. I'll be adding the blueberries to secondary this weekend and leaving it there for about a week.


2 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
6.0 oz Acid Malt (3.0 SRM)
4.0 oz Midnight Wheat (550.0 SRM)
1.20 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.60 %] - Boil 60.0
0.80 oz Willamette [4.60 %] - Boil 15.0
0.75 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 0.0
2.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)

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Let me know how it turns out! Sounds good

ahaley said:

Awesome thanks, with Thad said in thinking maybe a higher mash temp, maybe around 170*? And do you have any insight on the yeast that would be nice?

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Definitely do not mash at 170F. That's a mash-out temperature (high enough to denature all the enzymes). 154F would be a better idea. If you really want to push up the FG maybe go as high as 160F max.

bdh said:

Definitely do not mash at 170F. That's a mash-out temperature (high enough to denature all the enzymes). 154F would be a better idea. If you really want to push up the FG maybe go as high as 160F max.

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Oh ok thanks, I didn't think of that high mash temp as the mash out to stop conversions

I'd agree that the mash temp should be much lower. I mashed my last beer, a molasses porter, at 158°F, and ended up with significantly less alcohol than I expected. I was expecting somewhere around 9% ABV, but ended up with only 5.6% because of the high mash temp (not necessarily a bad thing for all people, as it's less potent now). It created unfermentable sugars that add to the body of the beer, but that takes away from the fermentable sugars which provide the alcohol via yeast. I'd say 154°F is a good place, maybe going up to 160°F tops. But be prepared for a lower alcohol content than you might expect.

MrSpiffy said:

I'd agree that the mash temp should be much lower. I mashed my last beer, a molasses porter, at 158°F, and ended up with significantly less alcohol than I expected. I was expecting somewhere around 9% ABV, but ended up with only 5.6% because of the high mash temp (not necessarily a bad thing for all people, as it's less potent now). It created unfermentable sugars that add to the body of the beer, but that takes away from the fermentable sugars which provide the alcohol via yeast. I'd say 154°F is a good place, maybe going up to 160°F tops. But be prepared for a lower alcohol content than you might expect.

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Alright thanks, I'm going to try to get beer smith pretty soon and see what they say about my recipe

My personal feelings are that you're wasting good fruit in a blueberry stout, but that using fruit extract would be the way to go. Even in a blonde it's hard to get blueberry flavor across. It's a very subtle flavor. I would just be careful to not go crazy with it because strongly blueberry flavored stout sounds just plain nasty

bottlebomber said:

My personal feelings are that you're wasting good fruit in a blueberry stout, but that using fruit extract would be the way to go. Even in a blonde it's hard to get blueberry flavor across. It's a very subtle flavor. I would just be careful to not go crazy with it because strongly blueberry flavored stout sounds just plain nasty

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Well played sir, maybe I will just try an ipa or something of the sort! I want my first beer recipe to be a good memory not a " hey you remember your horrible beer recipe that no one liked? "

ahaley said:

Well played sir, maybe I will just try an ipa or something of the sort! I want my first beer recipe to be a good memory not a " hey you remember your horrible beer recipe that no one liked? "

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Hey, those are good memories too! For me personally though, stouts and porters lend themselves more to caramel/chocolate/nut flavors and lighter beers seem to work well with fruit. I have had a chocolate raspberry porter that was very good, it took a whole bottle of Chambord to secondary. It wasn't something you could drink a lot of though.

bottlebomber said:

Hey, those are good memories too! For me personally though, stouts and porters lend themselves more to caramel/chocolate/nut flavors and lighter beers seem to work well with fruit. I have had a chocolate raspberry porter that was very good, it took a whole bottle of Chambord to secondary. It wasn't something you could drink a lot of though.

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Mmm that sounds pretty good, did you use cocoa powder or did you get the chocolate flavored grains?

ahaley said:

Mmm that sounds pretty good, did you use cocoa powder or did you get the chocolate flavored grains?

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It was chocolate malt, a little cocoa powder at the end of the boil, and then cocoa nibs in the secondary. It wasn't my beer though, a friend brewed it. He is always doing weird crap with his beer, but this was one time it worked out for him.

bottlebomber said:

It was chocolate malt, a little cocoa powder at the end of the boil, and then cocoa nibs in the secondary. It wasn't my beer though, a friend brewed it. He is always doing weird crap with his beer, but this was one time it worked out for him.

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Oh gotcha, sounds pretty good I'm not sure now what I want to brew next, I am about to bottle a nut brown Wednesday... Then everyone on the forum says its stout and Porter time.

I'm thinking it is Pumpkin season...

It's just beer season for me I'll drink anything anytime of the year I'm not picky!