Blueberry Wheat question?

I am about to brew a NB American Wheat and I wanted to make it a blueberry for the summer. I have read many threads and I am not sure how to get the best blueberry flavor. My plan was to rack beer onto 5 pounds of frozen/thawed blueberries into secondary and then adding extract to bottling bucket. I would love to hear if anyone has made this before and ended up with a beer that doesn't have an artificial flavor. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Cheers.

 

boiled mine yesterday. northern brewer american wheat extract kit. split the LME in half both in volume amd cook time to lighten color a bit, added lb. of DME to slightly increase ABV. Two oz. of blueberry extract at pitch. Let's see how this goes!

 

I used a lb of frozen blueberries per gallon after fermentation was complete, left in 5 days, tasted great!

 

I used 3.5 lbs of raspberry purée in my raspberry wheat during secondary and it turned out awesome. The chicks in the neighborhood love it.


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Can the blueberry extract run the risk of contaminating the wort since it probably isn't exactly sanitized itself? Should it be heated up first then allowed to cool before pitching it in primary?

 

i couldn't help but open my primary to get a smell as the yeast and blueberry are doing their thing. the smell is definitely "off," but it's got so far to go still. i hear a lot of the "magic" in fruity beers takes place during conditioning anyway. we'll see! i'm just one big experiment.

 

i have visited multiple brew supply shops and tasted many beers that have used extract, and not a one has mentioned heating, or "sterilizing" the extract. i DID place my tablespoon and the bottle of extract itself in my star san mixture. hell, if the yeast pack needs to be sterilized, i figure everything should. the extract itself though, i think is good-to-go. *shrug*

 

After 10 days in my primary ( I added blueberry extract when pitching yeast), I went for a gravity check, all good there, and moved it to a secondary in hopes this wheat kit will marry better with the blueberry flavor. A secondary may do nothing for that. Maybe a little time spent in bottles for a few weeks will make some magic happen? Beer tends to be better when carbonated in my experience. I'm not thrilled with this right now, but it's only 10 days young. Maybe age will make it better ...

 

If you use frozen fruit, or freeze fresh fruit before adding to brew, the freezing sterilizes it, as well as breaking the capsules within the fruit for better utilization. This is how I've always done it when adding fresh or frozen to beer/wine

Its not good to boil fruit, as that would release pectin and create pectin haze on your beer, also heard it can cause off flavors.

Cold > Heat for sterilization

 

I was thinking of doing a 5g blueberry blonde ale with 2# of frozen blueberries and 32oz of blueberry juice I hope it's not overwhelming but I really want the flavor to be pronounced

 

I like the mix of both too. I think real fruit plus extract gives it depth/complexity. I've went with 1 lb/gallon fresh blueberries (frozen then mashed) and 5 ml/gallon blueberry extract to good success. Dint go more than the 5 ml though, imho. It'll start getting to be too much.