badducky
Well-Known Member
Last year I made a very light, crisp, summery, session-strength blueberry beer for the Georgia heat that's about as foolproof and simple as could be. I'm thinking of brewing it again for my sister when I visit her in Texas, but I wondered if anyone has any thoughts about improving this recipe.
I loved it last year, even though, as a beginner, I messed up the bottling phase with too little carbonation. It wasn't a "beer drinker's beer" in that it was definitely a light beer, but all those blueberries fermented in the primary really dominated the flavor, kicked up the alcohol, and without a lot of malt and hops to push against them, really shone through with a clean, crisp flavor.
So, I'm planning on brewing this again at my sister's house in a couple weeks, because I can make it all the way to bottling before I leave, and leave her a lot of light, fruity beer to drink in the Texas heat. Also, because the size of the boil is so small, I can use her kitchen pots.
Before I do that, if I do that, what changes do you more experienced folks recommend I make to improve the recipe from last year? Anything I can do to improve the "malten" core without overpowering the blueberries? (Note: this is supposed to be a Light Blueberry Beer, and I don't want to make it too hot, or give it too many calories by upping to 6 pounds extract and 10 pounds blueberries!)
Light Blueberry Beer
5 gallons
5.5 ABV
181 Calories per 12 oz
OG 1.055
FG 1.014
Ingredients:
5 gallons of Spring Water
5 pound bag of frozen blueberries
3 pound bag of Bavarian Wheat Dry Malt Extract
1 ounce of French Strisselspalt Hops
1/2 teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
Safale US-05 or Wyeast American Ale
5 oz Corn Sugar to Bottle
So, most of you have already figured this whole recipe out. For the beginners, like me, I'm going to go ahead and list out the steps. (Also, if I'm doing something crazy, I hope someone will let me know! I'm getting better at this stuff, but I'm still a beginner!)
Blueberry Phase
Step 1:
Put the five pounds of frozen blueberries in a large stewpot and cover them with spring water. Heat this up to a boil, and immediately turn off the heat. Cover and let the berries sit a few minutes in the hot water, to pasteurize and defrost.
Step 2:
Puree with a hand blender or mash with a mash potato masher or wooden spoon to break all the skins of the blueberries and make a nice, soupy puree.
Step 3:
Put this blueberry soup mess into the sanitized brew bucket or carboy.
Beer Phase
Step 1:
Bring two gallons of spring water to a boil in the pot just used for the blueberries. At boil, take the pot off the heat, and stir in the entire bag of dry malt extract. Keep stirring until it is all incorporated into the water.
Step 2:
Bring the water with the malt extract back to a boil, stirring constantly. Once boil is reached start the timer.
Step 3:
Add 1 ounce of French Strisselspalt Hops to the boil, with 1/2 teaspoon of Pectic Enzyme. Stir it in.
Step 4:
After fifteen more minutes of boiling, take this off the heat. Cool it down by putting it in an ice-water bath in the kitchen sink. Once it's down to blood temperature (about 98 degrees) add this wort unfiltered into the sanitized carboy or brew bucket.
Final Brewday Phase:
Top up the bucket or carboy to 5 gallons with room temperature spring water. Add yeast. Aerate.
Fermentation will be fast and furious with all that blueberry to feed the yeast, and with only 3 pounds of malt sugar. In about seven to ten days, this should be safe to bottle. Take gravity readings starting on day six to make sure there aren't any changes, and when the yeast has stopped fermenting, we're ready to filter and bottle.
Filtering and Bottling phase:
This beer will be in need of filtering, but a simple household strainer should do the trick since we're only really concerned about stray blueberry skins. Set up a secondary fermentation device just to catch the filtered beer, and hold a kitchen strainer under the siphon tube to catch blueberry bits.
Dissolve priming sugar in boiling water, allow it to cool to blood temperature, and add it to the beer. Genrly stir it in.
3) Bottle Condition at least one week, preferably two. The peak flavor of the beer will be between 6-9 months.
So, that's the recipe for a light blueberry beer. What would you do differently? How would you improve upon it?
Thanks,
Me.
I loved it last year, even though, as a beginner, I messed up the bottling phase with too little carbonation. It wasn't a "beer drinker's beer" in that it was definitely a light beer, but all those blueberries fermented in the primary really dominated the flavor, kicked up the alcohol, and without a lot of malt and hops to push against them, really shone through with a clean, crisp flavor.
So, I'm planning on brewing this again at my sister's house in a couple weeks, because I can make it all the way to bottling before I leave, and leave her a lot of light, fruity beer to drink in the Texas heat. Also, because the size of the boil is so small, I can use her kitchen pots.
Before I do that, if I do that, what changes do you more experienced folks recommend I make to improve the recipe from last year? Anything I can do to improve the "malten" core without overpowering the blueberries? (Note: this is supposed to be a Light Blueberry Beer, and I don't want to make it too hot, or give it too many calories by upping to 6 pounds extract and 10 pounds blueberries!)
Light Blueberry Beer
5 gallons
5.5 ABV
181 Calories per 12 oz
OG 1.055
FG 1.014
Ingredients:
5 gallons of Spring Water
5 pound bag of frozen blueberries
3 pound bag of Bavarian Wheat Dry Malt Extract
1 ounce of French Strisselspalt Hops
1/2 teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
Safale US-05 or Wyeast American Ale
5 oz Corn Sugar to Bottle
So, most of you have already figured this whole recipe out. For the beginners, like me, I'm going to go ahead and list out the steps. (Also, if I'm doing something crazy, I hope someone will let me know! I'm getting better at this stuff, but I'm still a beginner!)
Blueberry Phase
Step 1:
Put the five pounds of frozen blueberries in a large stewpot and cover them with spring water. Heat this up to a boil, and immediately turn off the heat. Cover and let the berries sit a few minutes in the hot water, to pasteurize and defrost.
Step 2:
Puree with a hand blender or mash with a mash potato masher or wooden spoon to break all the skins of the blueberries and make a nice, soupy puree.
Step 3:
Put this blueberry soup mess into the sanitized brew bucket or carboy.
Beer Phase
Step 1:
Bring two gallons of spring water to a boil in the pot just used for the blueberries. At boil, take the pot off the heat, and stir in the entire bag of dry malt extract. Keep stirring until it is all incorporated into the water.
Step 2:
Bring the water with the malt extract back to a boil, stirring constantly. Once boil is reached start the timer.
Step 3:
Add 1 ounce of French Strisselspalt Hops to the boil, with 1/2 teaspoon of Pectic Enzyme. Stir it in.
Step 4:
After fifteen more minutes of boiling, take this off the heat. Cool it down by putting it in an ice-water bath in the kitchen sink. Once it's down to blood temperature (about 98 degrees) add this wort unfiltered into the sanitized carboy or brew bucket.
Final Brewday Phase:
Top up the bucket or carboy to 5 gallons with room temperature spring water. Add yeast. Aerate.
Fermentation will be fast and furious with all that blueberry to feed the yeast, and with only 3 pounds of malt sugar. In about seven to ten days, this should be safe to bottle. Take gravity readings starting on day six to make sure there aren't any changes, and when the yeast has stopped fermenting, we're ready to filter and bottle.
Filtering and Bottling phase:
This beer will be in need of filtering, but a simple household strainer should do the trick since we're only really concerned about stray blueberry skins. Set up a secondary fermentation device just to catch the filtered beer, and hold a kitchen strainer under the siphon tube to catch blueberry bits.
Dissolve priming sugar in boiling water, allow it to cool to blood temperature, and add it to the beer. Genrly stir it in.
3) Bottle Condition at least one week, preferably two. The peak flavor of the beer will be between 6-9 months.
So, that's the recipe for a light blueberry beer. What would you do differently? How would you improve upon it?
Thanks,
Me.
