Blueberry ale

[NoleKyle]

I racked 5 gallons of blonde ale onto 10 pounds of mashed fresh picked blueberries last night. When I woke up this morning all the berries had already come up top and the beer had turned to a great looking purple color, and has been bubbling like crazy all day. There's also a lot of foam on too with the berries. Should I mix the berries back into the beer or just let it sit?


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[seagondollar]

just let it sit. 10lbs will be quite the fruit beer.

 

[Roughster]

10lbs?!? Yeah man, you better like liquid blueberry! I did a 5g/5# of a blonde and blueberries and it was a almost a little too blueberry for my liking, but people's tastes certainly vary. So it might be what you are going for! My next blueberry blonde I was going to scale back to 4# to try and get more "beeriness" coming through and less blueberry orgy in your mouth

 

[NoleKyle]

Haha thanks for the help, it's for the lady so I thought I'd go all out with the blueberries...and they were only $2.50/lb to pick them. I thought about making wine but I'm not patient enough for that!


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[NoleKyle]

10lbs?!? Yeah man, you better like liquid blueberry! I did a 5g/5# of a blonde and blueberries and it was a almost a little too blueberry for my liking, but people's tastes certainly vary. So it might be what you are going for! My next blueberry blonde I was going to scale back to 4# to try and get more "beeriness" coming through and less blueberry orgy in your mouth

Did you add the berries in secondary? How long did you let it sit before bottling?



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[Roughster]

5 lbs in the secondary and let it sit for two weeks.

 

[Darwin18]

Did you attempt to sanitize the berries before you racked on to it? You really shouldn't be seeing that vigorous fermentation with racking in secondary....

 

[NoleKyle]

Did you attempt to sanitize the berries before you racked on to it? You really shouldn't be seeing that vigorous fermentation with racking in secondary....

Yes, as the berries were thawing I put them in a colander (sanitized) and lightly sprayed them with star san. Then tossed them a little to spread it all around and rinsed with a little spring water I bought. Then mashed them up in my brew pot (also sanitized) and poured them in the carboy. I had to add a bit of spring water to get the mashed berries to flow into the carboy but it was probably about 2 cups worth. My "research" has led me to believe that the vigorous fermentation is from the added sugar from the berries.


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[csanborn26]

I was thinking o adding a little lemon zest to a blueberry ale. I've never made a blueberry ale before my wife loves em so I thought I would give one a try... When baking a blueberry pie I use a hint of lemon zest (not enough to notice it there but without it you would miss it) has anyone here made a blueberry ale with zest just curious

 

[RedRaiderDavid]

Stupid n00b question...fermenting fruit yields moonshine or brandy which can have very high alcohol content. Wouldn't the added sugar from 10 lbs of blueberries yield a beer with a very high alcohol content?

 

[Brettomomyces]

Stupid n00b question...fermenting fruit yields moonshine or brandy which can have very high alcohol content. Wouldn't the added sugar from 10 lbs of blueberries yield a beer with a very high alcohol content?

It's going to add some sugar, which will raise the alcohol, but not nearly as much as you're thinking. Moonshine or brandy only really have the % alcohol they have because the distiller chose to make it that way. Most spirits start their life as a ~15% abv wash after the initial fermentation and then the distiller takes it from there to how the spirit will end up. You could just as easily run it through a refract column and come out with a 95% "brandy".

 

[worlddivides]

Stupid n00b question...fermenting fruit yields moonshine or brandy which can have very high alcohol content. Wouldn't the added sugar from 10 lbs of blueberries yield a beer with a very high alcohol content?

Actually:

Fermenting fruit yields wine.
Distilling wine yields brandy.

Fermenting is the process where living organisms such as yeasts or bacteria convert sugars into alcohol, carbon dioxide, and other by-products. Distillation is when you take the finished product of fermentation (such as wine or beer -- or more commonly something made specifically to be distilled) and concentrate the alcohol content by boiling off the alcohol (which has a lower boiling point than water).

So, in short, you cannot get a distilled drink like brandy no matter what you add to a beer. One reason why fermented beverages cannot get above 20% alcohol is because the yeasts cannot tolerate the high alcohol level. Most beer yeasts can't take anything above 10% and most wine yeasts can't take anything above 16%, but there are a few that can get up to 17 or 18%. That said, however, I really doubt the blueberry ale in this thread will get above 8%.

It is true that adding 10 pounds of blueberries to a secondary fermentation stage in a beer will increase the alcohol content of the beer, but most likely not THAT much.

 

[RedRaiderDavid]

Thanks for the clarification. Not criticizing by any means, just trying to learn. Heck I haven't brewed my first batch yet so I certainly don't know the chemistry.

 

[csanborn26]

I was thinking of doing a blonde ale with 2# of frozen blueberries and 32oz of organic blueberry juice in the secondary I was curious if anyone has used juice or just berries