Ye Olde Blueberry Ale....are blueberries a good compliment to an Old Ale?

[beowulf]

Right now my brew partner and I have a primary filled with a Fuller's 1845 clone (pretty close to a clone anyway). It's ready to bottle, and my brew partner and I are entertaining ideas of racking this onto a secondary filled with blueberries (~5 lbs or so). I've been reading some of the existing posts, and still have a few questions for those who may have experience in this area...

1) This beer is about 47 IBUs right now. I've heard comments that indicate I may want a beer with less hoppiness for blueberries. Is 47 IBUs a bit much, or would it compete too much with the blueberry flavor?

2) We're thinking of about 5 lbs for a 5 gallon batch. Does that sound about right?

3) If we move forward with the blueberry addition, should I be concerned with just crushing them and dumping into the secondary, or for safety's sake should I boil them or prepare them in any way prior to racking the beer on top of them?

4) Any other concerns or considerations I should have about this? I know a Fuller's 1845 clone would be awesome by itself. We may be racking a new batch of the clone (only what I think would be closer to the real thing) onto the yeast cake left behind by this batch, so it'll all work out.


We're also considering adding the blueberriees to a stout or porter, and are open to taking the road less traveled. Adding them to a wheat beer is out of the question....sort of wheated out...

Thanks in advance....

 

[PintOfBitter]

In my opinion, this beer is too heavy, dark, and bitter for a fruit like blueberry. Blueberries are probably better reserved for meads or lighter beers.

 

[beowulf]

Thanks for offering your opinion...Is this because blueberries themselves are not very aggressive, flavor-wise, and might take a back seat to the other flavors? I know a fellow homebrewer that is reputed to make a killer blueberry imperial stout, so maybe I would just need a lot of blueberries to put the flavor up front???

Have you any experience with blueberry preparation? I've heard some say boil, others say use frozen and others to just crush it a bit into a pulp....I want the awesome flavor, but I don't want the beer to get infected. I'm new to brewing on fruit, so maybe I'm just being unnecessarily cautious.

 

[svraines]

I would only do a gallon of the beer with blueberries to lower the risk (not worried about contaminating, just weird tasting beer) and use two pounds of blueberries. You are probably not looking at in your face, taste like blueberry beer, but just some complexity and fruity notes to a beer that can handle some fruitiness.

I don't think the IBUs will clash because the beer is big enough that the balance will be toward sweet especially with some age on it. If it was only a 1.050 beer at 47 IBU then the fruit might clash.

 

[PintOfBitter]

Thanks for offering your opinion...Is this because blueberries themselves are not very aggressive, flavor-wise, and might take a back seat to the other flavors? I know a fellow homebrewer that is reputed to make a killer blueberry imperial stout, so maybe I would just need a lot of blueberries to put the flavor up front???

Have you any experience with blueberry preparation? I've heard some say boil, others say use frozen and others to just crush it a bit into a pulp....I want the awesome flavor, but I don't want the beer to get infected. I'm new to brewing on fruit, so maybe I'm just being unnecessarily cautious.

Yes, my opinion is that the flavor of blueberries is too mild or soft to pair well with a more aggressive beer. I could be wrong, and it may be fantastic.

I have always rinsed fruit in vodka, crushed it, and added it to the secondary. It has seemed to work well.

 

[beowulf]

Thanks...from the posts in this thread and in others I've found, it looks like I'll be racking onto raw fresh or thawed fruit. I'd like to have a strong blueberry flavor, not just a blueberry accent, so now I'm questioning whether 5 lbs is enough. I know it isn't the same style or technique, but I'd be thrilled to have a blueberry version of Kasteel Rouge, which has a very strong fruit presence.

 

[PintOfBitter]

cool. not what I'd choose to do, but I'm interested to know the outcome. I'm pondering adding huckleberries to a portion of a 2.5 year old mead I have. Your thread got me thinking this direction.

 

[beowulf]

We're still looking into this, but considering a bit of a switch. Once we get our porter recipe nailed down, we're thinking of splitting a batch of that. One half would be on blueberries, and one half on scotch-infused oak chips. That way we get to experiment a bit, but not on a whole batch. Of course by the time we get to that point, we will have changed our minds again

 

[brrman]

In my opinion, this beer is too heavy, dark, and bitter for a fruit like blueberry. Blueberries are probably better reserved for meads or lighter beers.

I brew a Blueberry Porter several times a year and it rocks (6-7lbs mashed frozen berries to 5 gallons). I would not use blueberry in an IPA, but the flavor can definitely survive in a heavy dark beer if it is not overly hopped. Blueberry and malt blend quite nicely.

 

[beowulf]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, brrman! I did some searching on the site and came across an earlier post of your Sycamore Oatmeal Porter. Was the blueberry porter just an extension of that? It looked to be so, based on one of your responses. Sounds awesome... With your porter, does the blueberry flavor have an assertive presence, or is it just an accent in the background?

 

[brrman]

Yessir! I take the very same recipe and fruit it with blueberries. More recently I have been dropping the 0 minute hops addition though, so it clears the way for the blueberry flavor.

The blueberry flavor is pronounced enough to notice it but it is not the first thing you taste - nor did I want it to be. It is not a berry bomb - I don't think you will ever get something super-flavored with just the actual berries. The aroma counts for much of the flavor too and that is fantastic in this beer. The berries also add a slight purple color to the head.