blue berry fermentation

[jeremybmx10]

so i want to make a blue berry ale! I was wondering how long and how many pounds should i put in my secondary without over powering the beer flavoir i was think something like 3 pounds that id let soak in vodka and poor them in? also another question i had was once they are in the fermentor wont they go bad after a few days causing an infection how do i proceed about this?

 

[TimFarAway]

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/beer-fruit-amount.html

I'm going to go for 1.5lbs per gallon, frozen, then heat with some water to 170 for 15 min to kill any bugs. Not sure about fermentation temp after I add the blueberries though. Thinking I'll add them to a 2ndary, after 3 weeks primary, and let it sit another 2 weeks. This is my first try with fruit though, so I'm interested to see what more experienced people think.

 

[Siberian]

I definitely wouldn't soak them in vodka. I'd freeze them to help release and then sterilize them by heating them up to 170 with a minimal amount of water. I'd mash them up a bit at the same time with a potato masher.

Probably throw that water (since it will have a ton of juice in it at that point) into secondary. Last Blueberry beer I did I'm not sure how many pounds of blueberries went in, but was about 1.5-2 gallons of blueberry mush in the bottom of the fermentor which I then racked the beer onto..

 

[abeasst]

I'm doing a blackberry beer. So the best way is to use frozen fruit, then boil it at 170 for 15 minutes and then just rack on top of that?

 

[TimFarAway]

That seems to be what midwest recommends.

Anybody know how much fermentable sugar is in one pound of berries? How does this affect OG/FG? Is there a mid-gravity after adding the fruit? MG?

 

[Siberian]

Amount if sugar will vary based on the type of berry and how ripe it was when picked. Most fruit sugars are highly fermentable.

It's easy to take the reading of sugar with a refractometer. You can just squeeze a few drops out of the fruit. Bit more difficult with a hydrometer though.


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