Fruit Beer Blackberry hefeweizen

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Gritsak

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2009
Messages
611
Reaction score
20
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
WLP300
Yeast Starter
Yes
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.5
Original Gravity
1.43
Final Gravity
1.009
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90
IBU
11.9
Color
3.6 SRM (see notes)
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
4-7 days @ 65-68 degrees
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
5 days @65-68 degrees
Tasting Notes
Very light with slight tartness. Clean aftertaste makes it easy to drink
6.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 60.00 %
4.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 40.00 %
0.50 lb Rice hulls
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.70 %] (60 min) Hops 7.9 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.70 %] (15 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) [Starter] Yeast-Wheat
4.00 lb Blackberries (secondary)

This is basically a weihenstaphaner hefe clone that i added in blackberries. Mashed at ~152 for 60min. Fermentation was quick with the starter and low OG, so it was down to 1.009 within 3 days. After day 5 the beer was racked onto 4lbs of blackberries. I bought these in the frozen foods section at Kroger. Thawed and steeped in 160 degree water for 15min. I drained off most of the excess water/blackberry juice before i put it in the carboy. Let this sit for 5 additional days total, but on the 4th day i put the carboy in the fridge to cold crash. Siphoned into the keg with a fine grained nylon bag over the hose to filter any bits of blackberry. Kegged and force carbed to drink on memorial day. In total, it was right around two weeks from grain to glass.

Color was pretty pale before the blackberries, and a rosy/pink color afterward with a thick, lacy head. The flavor is pretty light with a hint of blackberry tartness. Finish is very clean with no lingering aftertaste, so it was easy to drink a lot of these. It was well received by everyone--the 5 gallons was gone in a few hours.
 
Hey, thanks for writing me. This looks very very similar to the recipe I had came up with. I know you said in the message that you wrote that I could adjust the berries. What do you think? Do you think that if you made this again you would adjust the berries? I'm not sure if you looked at my recipe I posted in the first thread here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/fruit-beer-lovers-brewers-help-183639/, but that beer is a little bit bigger than yours. With that being said, do you think you'd up the amount of berries?

Thanks for the help,
Jacob
 
This looks good, I made one last summer and I loved it but mine was a mix of blueberries and homegrown blackberries. I planned on doing another but haven't found the time. Maybe this weekend?
 
Hey, thanks for writing me. This looks very very similar to the recipe I had came up with. I know you said in the message that you wrote that I could adjust the berries. What do you think? Do you think that if you made this again you would adjust the berries? I'm not sure if you looked at my recipe I posted in the first thread here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/fruit-beer-lovers-brewers-help-183639/, but that beer is a little bit bigger than yours. With that being said, do you think you'd up the amount of berries?

Thanks for the help,
Jacob

Just for the sake of experimenting, i would probably up the berries by 1lb next time just to taste the difference. With that said, i was pretty pleased with the amount i used with my recipe. But if you like lots of fruit flavor definitely bump it up. Mine also got drank really quickly at a party, so if you are going to be drinking on it for a couple weeks i would increase the amount of berries or time in the secondary since most say fruit flavor fades quickly.

I wish i had taken a good picture because the blackberries impart a really nice rosy color to the beer.
 
Just for the sake of experimenting, i would probably up the berries by 1lb next time just to taste the difference. With that said, i was pretty pleased with the amount i used with my recipe. But if you like lots of fruit flavor definitely bump it up. Mine also got drank really quickly at a party, so if you are going to be drinking on it for a couple weeks i would increase the amount of berries or time in the secondary since most say fruit flavor fades quickly.

I wish i had taken a good picture because the blackberries impart a really nice rosy color to the beer.

Alright, then I'll go with 5 lbs of berries!

Thanks for the replies,
J
 
In another thread about berries that was what was recommended, 1lb per gallon.

Yeah, I've read a lot of threads where folks have suggested that amount, but then I've read others who said differently. I think 1 lb/gallon, is a good starting point.
 
Yeah, I've read a lot of threads where folks have suggested that amount, but then I've read others who said differently. I think 1 lb/gallon, is a good starting point.

If you can get ahold of the last? issue of Zymurgy it has recommended amounts for a variety if different fruits. I think it actually recommended near 7#'s for blackberries, but that seems like a lot to me!

It would be really cool to do a 5 gallon batch, then split it up into 5-1gallon batches secondaried with varying amounts of fruit. Figure out the best then scale it up for a 5g batch. If i didn't keg I'd think about trying it.
 
If you can get ahold of the last? issue of Zymurgy it has recommended amounts for a variety if different fruits. I think it actually recommended near 7#'s for blackberries, but that seems like a lot to me!

It would be really cool to do a 5 gallon batch, then split it up into 5-1gallon batches secondaried with varying amounts of fruit. Figure out the best then scale it up for a 5g batch. If i didn't keg I'd think about trying it.

Yeah, I keg as well plus I'm too lazy to do all of that work! I think I'm going to do 5 gallons with 5 lbs of fruit. That just sounds right to me.

I have a book Extreme Brewing by Sam Calagione and he says around 6 lbs for raspberries/blackberries, but that was at flame out, not in the secondary.
 
Yeah, I keg as well plus I'm too lazy to do all of that work! I think I'm going to do 5 gallons with 5 lbs of fruit. That just sounds right to me.

I have a book Extreme Brewing by Sam Calagione and he says around 6 lbs for raspberries/blackberries, but that was at flame out, not in the secondary.

Be sure to let me know how it turns out. Takes some pictures if you can!
 
I will.

What do you think about wheat yeast vs neutral ale yeast in this brew?

The hefe yeast i used didn't stand out nearly as much as it typically does after adding the fruit, but you could still pick up a little of the flavor. I've always been told that you need a solid base beer before adding fruit. I personally like the flavor of a traditional hefeweizen, so i decided to go that route.
 
The hefe yeast i used didn't stand out nearly as much as it typically does after adding the fruit, but you could still pick up a little of the flavor. I've always been told that you need a solid base beer before adding fruit. I personally like the flavor of a traditional hefeweizen, so i decided to go that route.

Yeah, same here. I will probably use Danstar Munich since it's cheap and actually really nice for the wheat style.
 
I'm bringing this thread back from the dead. It seems that there are hundreds of Blackberry wheat threads & recipes on the forum here, so I was a bit overwhelmed when I got inspired to make one. I landed here, since I'm familiar with the Weihenstephaner clone from the "Beer Captured" book. I'm still doing partial mash right now, so it looked like this:

1.5lb American wheat
1lb German pilsner
4oz Rice hulls
4.5lbs Wheat DME

Mash grains & rice for 90min @ 150F in 2.5gal water
Sparge w/ 1gal @ 165F

1.15oz Hallertau 3.9%AA @ 60 minutes
(I added some Whirlfloc at 15 minutes to help clear, even though that is against style)
Yeast: WLP 300
In Secondary, rack onto 4lbs 6oz frozen organic blackberries (the cheapest I could find)
Cold crash before kegging / bottling

OG: 1.060 @74F (target 1.053)
FG: 1.012 @66F (target 1.011)
ABV: 6%+ (???)
Notes:
Brew day was hot, so I couldn't get my OG sample down to a respectable temperature.

The goal was to brew something low-cal for the wife, but still interesting, so I liked the low OG/FG of this beer. Too bad I missed it :) The color going into primary fermentation seemed dark for a wheat beer, and stayed fairly dark (straw at edge of glass fading to gold) throughout primary. Very light bitterness which faded away entirely by the time it went into secondary. Beer had a mild banana / coriander nose at the end of primary ferment and was 1.015 @68F. Steeped blackberries in 160F water for 10 minutes, then threw away water and added blackberries to the beer. Tried to keep the berries as whole as possible. Color changed to murky blood red.

At end of ferment, cold crashed for 24h at 50F. Color is now a dark pink - when photographed looks like a mild black tea. When cold has no aroma, but releases an aroma similar to the base beer when at room temp (66F). Leads with the sweetness, but not as much as the 1.013 FG would lead you to believe. Berry taste is rather generic. There is no bitterness, and it is not as crisp as I remember Long Trail Blackberry wheat to be. I haven't carbed it yet, I'm thinking of going to the high end of the wheat style. So far, it has been well received but we'll take a growler to the river this weekend and see what folks say.

This beer makes me a bit nervous; it seems like there are lots of ways it can go poorly during the brew. Since I have to go to the store and buy my blackberries, it certainly wasn't cheap, but it was fun!
 
Thanks for the report; I'm making this recipe right now. Plenty of blackberries everywhere and I'm gonna use some cascade I picked last week so it's gonna be a cheap experiment! what's the advantage of the cold crash? i don't have any facilities for that right now. using the original all-grain recipe.
 
Cold crashing stops fermentation and helps the suspended bits settle, making the beer a bit clearer. I was somewhat emulating a Lomg Trail Blackberry wheat, so I did whatever I could to clear the beer short of using gelatin. I'm sure the wife-and-family won't mind a lagering fridge in the corner, too...
 
OK, good to know. I don't need clear I need delicious!
I have a bunch of frozen blackberries I picked a couple weeks ago, and the beer has been in primary for nearly two weeks. I'm going to rack it in the next couple days. Was the berry steeping at 160 f degrees just to kill pathogens? seems like a good idea I guess I'll do that. What was the final ruling on the beer?
 
. Was the berry steeping at 160 f degrees just to kill pathogens? seems like a good idea I guess I'll do that. What was the final ruling on the beer?

Yes on the first part. I haven't made the beer since i made the original post, but it went over very well at a party. To me, blackberries aren't "fruity" in the same way of strawberries or cherries, so even budlight drinkers liked the beer. The blackberries really just at a nice color and a bit of tartness to the finished product without making it taste artificial.
 
My beer turned out a pleasant pink. We put it up against Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat, which wasn't really fair, but that was the original goal. With 4lbs6oz of Blackberries, the beer has a distinct berry taste & color - it's reasonably prominent, not as much as a Raspberry wheat or other fruit beer, but not as understated as the long trail. The beer also has a hefty wheat component, compared to the crystal wheat of the Long Trail. This could very easily be turned into a pretty good sour or Belgian with some different yeast (that would be a fun project!). The high carbonation I went with (almost 4.0 vols) give it a lighter mouthfeel & I believe offset the high sugar level of this beer. You do have to watch those bottlecaps when opening, though.

I would say that I'm not sure what we are going to do with the remaining 4gal - between my wife & I we drink mostly IPA, but I'm sure the guys @ work who live on Heineken & similar will happily enjoy the rest of it. Next time I'll probably dial the blackberries back to about 3 to 3.5 lbs and maybe it'll be a nice lawnmower beer!

Edit: Yes, the 160F steep is to pasteurize the berries. Probably not necessary if they've been hard-frozen, but it didn't hurt anything, except staining the shirt I was wearing.
 
Mines a rose-purple, and smells decent out of the airlock...the sample I took for a gravity reading tasted bad but I'm going to assume that's bc it was the first squirt out of the rack and was mostly trubbish.
 
Keep us posted. Mine is all gone - it disappeared pretty quick when I brought the remainder to a party last weekend.
 
It was ruined- don't know what happened. I went to rack it off the berries and took a gravity sample which I tasted. It induced vomiting, immediately. Think I must have allowed a stray yeast in there or something- it was the same issue present when I first racked it.
 
I'm gonna give this a shot. I was shuffling through our freezer and found several pounds of frozen blackberries that were picked last season. should work nicely.

Thanks for the recipe!
 
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