Blueberry extract users:

Got a question for you...

I picked up a 2oz bottle of it just to sample and see if I liked it for a future American wheat batch. I put a couple drops in the bottom of my glass and poured a Widmer hefe on top. Yum, but now the beer felt like it was missing something. It felt like it should be sweeter or maltier - just something to make that blueberry taste like it fit.

I have a vial of WLP320 yeast for a future batch, but I was thinking of using my vial of WLP011 to lower the attenuation and leave some sweet maltiness behind... or maybe even sweetening with lactose at bottle time and perhaps doing some research and picking a hop that would work well with these contemplations.

Thoughts?

Experiences?

Blueberry Pie Ale?

I used apple in an IPA that I did a while back, yes I know apple is an off taste, It was actually really nice though. However, the batch was a little light on maltyness for an IPA the apple flavor would of been much better with more body.

I have seen that unless a beer has a good amount of body to it that it does seem like its lacking something with flavors

When I make my blueberry wheat I use WLP 001 so it will ferment out clean and not leave the banana or clove taste that hefe yeasts do. I added 2oz of extract to 5 gallons in the bottling bucket while adding the priming sugar.

I have not attempt to add any additional malt flavor.

When I did mine I used WLP320, and added blueberry extract to taste in the bottling bucket. I think I ended up with about 1oz in 5 gallons (I think they recommend 2oz/5gal) and that was plenty of blueberry flavoring for me. It got rave reviews from the friends...the batch was gone within a week of cracking the first bottle. It was a great one to give out, because I ended up not caring for it all too much. It was certainly tasty, like blueberry jam on a piece of toast, but just not my style. Here was my recipe:

[size=+1]Ingredients:[/size]
1 lbs Pale Wheat Malt
.5 lbs Carapils®/Carafoam®
6.625 lbs Liquid Wheat Extract
1 oz Perle (8.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.00oz Blueberry Extract - added to bottling bucket to taste
1 ea White Labs WLP320 American Hefeweizen Ale

That sounds exactly like what I was planning on doing originally, mrkristofo, aside from the type of hops (not sure what I'll use as I don't know much about them yet, but I have 5 different kinds in my freezer right now - Perle not being one of them).

Any comments on the sweetness, maltiness, and hop bitterness you can provide for me?

PS: I'm glad to hear it was gone in a week - I'd like a novelty crowd pleaser that's good in small doses.