Blueberry Ginger Ale

[aprichman]

My last batch of ginger ale was bottled about 2 weeks ago and turned out quite good. It tastes like a very dry ginger ale which is what was expected consider the final gravity ended up around 1.003.

This time I thought I would kick it up a bit and add blueberries to the mix. Here's my recipe:

0.5 lbs frozen blueberries
0.5 lbs cane sugar
0.33 lbs corn sugar (dextrose)
1 lemon (juiced)
0.25 lbs ginger
1 gallon H2O
Pinch of Azacca hops
Danstar Nottingham washed yeast
0.5 tsp yeast nutrients
0.25 tsp burton salts

Heat a gallon of water in a kettle. Add 0.5 lbs frozen blueberries, 0.25 lbs thinly sliced ginger, and the juice of 1 lemon. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add 0.33 lbs corn sugar, 0.5 lbs cane sugar, and a pinch of azacca hops. Let simmer for 30 minutes. Add yeast nutrients and burton salts and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and cool to ~70F before pitching yeast slurry. Fermenting at ~68F.

Original Gravity: 1.043 Expected Final Gravity: 1.004
Expected ABV: ~5.1%

 

[rocketsan]

Looks funky (in a good way)...

 

[mikeymjr23]

Never done anything like this before...how similar to Ginger Ale does it get?

 

[Ike]

What the hell are you people DOING to me?!?!

Everytime I come to this site, someone is posting some AWESOME looking idea that I immediately decide I need to try out. COUNTLESS beers, apfelwein, carmel hard cider, hard root beer, butterbeer, requiem raspberry ale, mead... In spite of government-appropriations-level expenditures at the LHBS, I still don't have enough equipment to keep up and the list of bookmarked recipes grows by one or two every single day. At the rate I'm going, I'm gonna have the entire HBT recipe base bookmarked by the time my current batch is through primary. So, we'll just add this one to the list.

I obviously have an alcohol problem. BUT, it's related to the uncontrollable urge to make it, not consume it. Hi, my name is Ike, and I'm a brewholic.

Bookmarked (not surprisingly). Post updates!

Ike

 

[aprichman]

Checked on this batch first thing in the morning (about 8 hours after pitching the yeast) and there was already tons of activity. Decided to take a picture although it's hard to see what's going on in there

Activity has only increased since this morning, everything looks very happy! So happy I decided to harvest my yeast. It's hard to believe I harvested ~$12 of yeast from one cake and then pitched the "leftovers" into this blueberry ginger ale.

Never done anything like this before...how similar to Ginger Ale does it get?

My last batch has a strong ginger taste, a bit of tartness from the lemon juice, and some fruity esters / yeast flavor. It's very dry (fermented out to 1.003) which is pretty unusual compared to "normal" ginger ale. I'm going to try adding a simple syrup into a glass and then pouring the ginger ale on top of it to add back a bit of sweetness. Pretty much my only option since it's already bottled and dry.

For this NEW batch of blueberry ginger ale I've been toying with the idea of adding a small amount of unfermentable sugar like lactose in during the bottling process. A careful touch is probably required though because too much lactose could result in a milky feel/taste which sounds pretty gross

My last batch fermented for 3 weeks, planning to give this one around the same amount of time.

 

[Ike]

Any pectin enzyme? Or just not worried about cloudy beer?

Ike

 

[aprichman]

Any pectin enzyme? Or just not worried about cloudy beer?

Ike

Didn't even realize pectin could cause cloudiness. Well, I guess it's too late now Blueberries don't contain a lot of pectin so maybe it will clear out just fine.

Next time I'll probably use a little pectic enzyme if I add fruits.