Parboiling Blueberries for secondary

[cox8611]

Hey,

I have a Blueberry Buckle beer with Pecan, Cinnamon and going to add blueberry to the beer in the secondary. I was wondering for ways to try and sanitize ~5lbs of blueberries for this batch. I currently have them in the freezer. any techniques of how exactly to parboil the fruit, or add something else to make it sanitize before adding it to the brew? I would prefer not to make an essence of blueberry from steeping in vodka, 1) because i hate vodka and two, that's a lot of vodka for 5lbs.

any ideas would be most excellent!

N8

 

[mkling]

I've made multiple batches of blueberry beer & I've always smashed em up to break the skins & just put em in secondary. No parboiling, no vodka steeping. Just treat em like dry hops & put em straight in. The alcohol in your beer will prevent anything inappropriate from taking hold..

 

[cox8611]

I've made multiple batches of blueberry beer & I've always smashed em up to break the skins & just put em in secondary. No parboiling, no vodka steeping. Just treat em like dry hops & put em straight in. The alcohol in your beer will prevent anything inappropriate from taking hold..

Would you need to sanitize the masher / strainer device you use to smash em up? Just curious. Thanks for the tip.

Just as a double check, i was thinking of 1#/gallon of blueberries. will this overpower the cinnamon ( 2x @ 5min boil) and the pecans?

Thanks!

 

[mkling]

Would you need to sanitize the masher / strainer device you use to smash em up? Just curious. Thanks for the tip.

Just as a double check, i was thinking of 1#/gallon of blueberries. will this overpower the cinnamon ( 2x @ 5min boil) and the pecans?

Thanks!

I freeze mine loosely in a ziploc bag. I then just mash them up in the bag. I usually just use the palm of my hand & fingers to do the mashing. All the mashed up goodness stays in the bag and my hand stays clean.

I use 1 lb/gallon. You'll end up with very purple beer but blueberries are not strongly flavored -- they will accent the cinnamon & pecans & vice versa, not overwhelm, I suspect.

 

[SBC]

Steep fruit @ 150 F for 20 minutes. Do not boil as it will set the pectins

 

[DubbelDach]

My vote (and experiences) go with mkling, not SBC... Pasteurizing is just another step and not necessary when your beer already has alcohol.

 

[cox8611]

Update on the beer...

After 4 months in the bottle, the beer has finally hit its stride. the combo is not one i think i'll use again, as it clashes a little bit.

As far as using blueberries, honestly i just put them in a ziploc bag, squeezed the juice into a tupperware container and then dumped it into the primary, which then fermented out and then bottled. No contamination whatsoever.

Thanks for the tips!

 

[DubbelDach]

In the time since I posted above, I have made a blueberry stout which is not very blueberry-ish. I used 1 lb/gallon... Next time I will use at least 2 lbs/gallon.

How did your "blueberryness" turn out? Also, what was the base style of the beer? I am thinking my bb got lost in the roastiness of the dry stout base. If you did a wheat beer, 1 lb might have worked, as I added bb to a blonde before and it turned out well.

 

[SBC]

Mine was a Golden Ale. I keg mine and do not let it ferment out.

 

[cox8611]

In the time since I posted above, I have made a blueberry stout which is not very blueberry-ish. I used 1 lb/gallon... Next time I will use at least 2 lbs/gallon.

How did your "blueberryness" turn out? Also, what was the base style of the beer? I am thinking my bb got lost in the roastiness of the dry stout base. If you did a wheat beer, 1 lb might have worked, as I added bb to a blonde before and it turned out well.

I used around 1lb/gallon, ended up squeezing around 1.5-2L of juice into it. Problem was the beer started at 1.040 from low efficiency on my old system with an american wheat base i use. The blueberry comes out fine but the 1.008 FG causes the taste to seem more tart than sweet, and it loses that sweet refreshing taste i was going after.

 

[Tska]

I use 1 lb/gallon. You'll end up with very purple beer but blueberries are not strongly flavored

If this turns the beer purple, how do commercial breweries make blueberry beer without much altering its color? I'm looking to brew a blueberry in a few batches, so I'm compiling info.

 

[mkling]

Blueberry beer that doesn't turn purple usually uses extract, not real fruit.

 

[Tska]

Blueberry beer that doesn't turn purple usually uses extract, not real fruit.

Is it easy to find blueberry extract? Maybe use a mix, so you get a light purple tint without making it look like grape Kool-Aid?

 

[mkling]

A lot of homebrew stores carry it.

 

[RM-MN]

I've used blueberry extract and while it imparts a blueberry flavor/aroma it also added a flavor and a bite to the beer that I wasn't fond of. Your extract may work different than what I got. I think I will drink the last of the blueberry extract beer next week so it isn't undrinkable, just not as good as I wanted.

 

[BrewingRob]

I had a beer at a micro once that actually had blueberries in it. Not offensive... but nothing to write home about either. I'm debating using them in my wheat next week. Anyone use them with Bavarian Blend from Wyeast?

 

[KCBigDog]

I had a beer at a micro once that actually had blueberries in it. Not offensive... but nothing to write home about either. I'm debating using them in my wheat next week. Anyone use them with Bavarian Blend from Wyeast?

I'm currently doing an AHS 20th Anniversary Hefeweizen using the Wyeast Bavarian Blend.

After 2 weeks of Primary, I plan to rack onto 4 pounds of Dole Frozen Blueberries into Secondary. I can't decide if I will pasturize the blueberries or just thaw, smash, and dump.

I also plan to add 1oz of blueberry extract when I keg. That way I should get a nice blueberry flavor and color.

Any thoughts?

 

[BrewingRob]

I'm not the biggest fan of Hefe. Why did I make two cases of it? ... Well, I guess it was a good experience. So, I've been using them for cooking. This past weekend, I made the pancake recipe from BYO for my wife. Fantastic! I didn't have the right ingredients for the syrup, but I did have a freezer full of blueberries. I made a nice blueberry syrup by steeping the berries in 12 oz of Hefe, added a good bit of sugar, an old banana, cinnamon, and cloves. It made a great syrup. I saved the left overs in the fridge, and I've put a tablespoon into a few glasses of hefe. Also fantastic! The blueberry taste almost needs the sweetness of the syrup.

So... I've been thinking about how to duplicate this in he fermenter. I'm convinced that the Blueberry Hefe is going to taste better if its a little sweeter than normal. What about steeping some blueberries to extract their sweet flavor and adding some lactose?