Hive Mentality: Blueberry Honey Wheat

NPhill85 · Mar 5, 2015

I decided to use this recipe as a point to jump of from in developing an all-grain recipe for a blueberry honey wheat that's sitting in my primary right now. I'll update once it finishes with details on taste, body, what worked, what didn't, etc... I will also update any changes I may make in terms of fermentation times, as the days listed below are only what I am estimating to be necessary for full fermentation. For the time being, here is my variation on the recipe for anyone interested:
______________________________________________________

Hive Mentality: Blueberry Honey Wheat

Grains:

5lb Wheat Malt
3.5lb 2-Row Malt
1lb Dextrin Malt (Carafoam)
0.5lb Honey Malt
0.5lb Rice Hulls

Hop/Addition Schedule:

1.5 oz Tettnanger @ 45 min
0.5 tsp. Irish Moss @ 20 min
0.5 oz Bramling Cross @ 5 min

Yeast:

Wyeast 3333: German Wheat

Sugars:

2lbs Honey (approx. 2.65 cups)

Fruit:

3lb Homegrown Vermont Blueberries

______________________________________________________

Process:

Steep all grains in 3 gallons of water for 1 hour @ 150°F.
Sparge with water at 170°F to achieve around 6.5-7 gallons (I only sparged to 6 gallons and found that I needed to add about 0.5 gallons after boil to achieve 5 gallons due to evaporation).
Proceed to boil, following hop/addition schedule above.
After boil, top off to achieve a 5 gallon batch size if necessary.
Add honey during cooling at 170°F (This will allow more of the honey character to survive to the final product and will also pasteurize the honey to prevent activity from unwanted natural yeasts).
Ferment in primary @ 68-70°F until SG reading remains unchanged.
Pulse blueberries in a food processor and heat in a double boiler to 160°F for 60 seconds (some argue that you don't need to pasteurize fruit because the alcohol will kill of anything in it, but there is much debate on this point, so I figure better safe then sorry).
Rack over berries in secondary, ensuring sufficient mixing.
Ferment in secondary @ 68-70°F until FG is achieved.
Bottle or keg as you wish.

ss4ivan · Mar 5, 2015

I hope this works out for you. I tried making a blueberry beer with fresh blueberries using the NB american wheat kit. I used almost 2 lb's of fresh blueberries (Did not boil, froze the berries then thawed and lightly mashed) in the secondary and it came out very tart. I called it blueberry tart beer. My sister loved it. It mellowed out a bit after about a year and started to get some sweeter blueberry notes. Still very tart though. I would definitly like to hear about the finished product when done.

NPhill85 · Mar 12, 2015

Update:

So my OG was lower than I had anticipated, at 10.48, but I achieved a high attenuation and an FG of 1.006 heading into secondary after 7 days of fermentation. That puts the beer at about 5.5%ABV prior to fermentation of sugars from the berries and carbing. Doing the math based on fermentables present in my secondary, anticipating a small boost to end at about 6% when all's said and done.

Some notes on yeast activity for this brew:

-I had a couple of days of super active yeast in my primary and then, on day three, it choked back dramatically. I racked to secondary on day 7.

-24 hours into secondary I had a nice second spurt of fermentation going with steady airlock bubbles. At 48 hours, I timed one bubble every 20 seconds. At 72 hours I had a bubble every 30 seconds and had the same at 96 hours. Now 5 days out I'm getting about one bubble per minute. I expect fermentation will be finished in another day or two, but plan to keep the beer aging with the berries for a total of at least 10 days before bottling.

NPhill85 said:
I decided to use this recipe as a point to jump of from in developing an all-grain recipe for a blueberry honey wheat that's sitting in my primary right now. I'll update once it finishes with details on taste, body, what worked, what didn't, etc... I will also update any changes I may make in terms of fermentation times, as the days listed below are only what I am estimating to be necessary for full fermentation. For the time being, here is my variation on the recipe for anyone interested:
______________________________________________________

Hive Mentality: Blueberry Honey Wheat

Grains:

5lb Wheat Malt

3.5lb 2-Row Malt

1lb Dextrin Malt (Carafoam)

0.5lb Honey Malt

0.5lb Rice Hulls

Hop/Addition Schedule:

1.5 oz Tettnanger @ 45 min

0.5 tsp. Irish Moss @ 20 min

0.5 oz Bramling Cross @ 5 min

Yeast:

Wyeast 3333: German Wheat

Sugars:

2lbs Honey (approx. 2.65 cups)

Fruit:

3lb Homegrown Vermont Blueberries
______________________________________________________

Process:

Steep all grains in 3 gallons of water for 1 hour @ 150°F.

Sparge with water at 170°F to achieve around 6.5-7 gallons (I only sparged to 6 gallons and found that I needed to add about 0.5 gallons after boil to achieve 5 gallons due to evaporation).

Proceed to boil, following hop/addition schedule above.

After boil, top off to achieve a 5 gallon batch size if necessary.

Add honey during cooling at 170°F (This will allow more of the honey character to survive to the final product and will also pasteurize the honey to prevent activity from unwanted natural yeasts).

Ferment in primary @ 68-70°F until SG reading remains unchanged.

Pulse blueberries in a food processor and heat in a double boiler to 160°F for 60 seconds (some argue that you don't need to pasteurize fruit because the alcohol will kill of anything in it, but there is much debate on this point, so I figure better safe then sorry).

Rack over berries in secondary, ensuring sufficient mixing.

Ferment in secondary @ 68-70°F until FG is achieved.

Bottle or keg as you wish.

NPhill85 · Mar 20, 2015

After 12 days, I was no longer observing airlock bubbles. I plan to bottle tomorrow, priming for a standard American Wheat carbonation level of about 2.5 volumes of CO2. I really love the color I attained in this beer and I'm excited to see if the taste is what I had in mind. Stay tuned for more updates.

NPhill85 · Mar 20, 2015

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1426898201.599291.jpg
This was from the day after racking to secondary. The picture makes the beer look a little darker than it really does to the naked eye.

NPhill85 · Mar 22, 2015

Bottled yesterday (under the careful supervision of my son). A taste test yielded mixed feelings. The body, color, and malt-flavor in the beer were all unite nice. However, it did seem to take on a slight sourness, presumably from the blueberries. We will see how the flavor evolves after a couple weeks of bottle aging. The tartness wasn't so strong as to make the beer "bad", but it isn't what I was really going for either. If it remains after carbing is complete, I will want to figure out a way to get more of the blueberry flavor to come through next time around without the sourness. Perhaps blueberry concentrate would be a better choice. I just really like the idea of using local, whole berries... Will report back after tasting the finished product.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1427048421.251536.jpg

kingboomer · Apr 4, 2015

Ok, I'm following this one too, and I'm curious how it turned out with some time in the bottle?

-Kingboomer

Beek · Apr 4, 2015

I've noticed that often times a standard american wheat will have a tartness to it. But I assume that's not what you mean. A couple years ago I made a blueberry wheat where I got the color from the blueberries and most of the flavor from concentrate. To this day it's everyone's favorite beer that I've ever made.

NPhill85 · Apr 5, 2015

I'll be cracking one open to try this evening... Stay tuned...

Beek · Apr 7, 2015

NPhill85 said:
I'll be cracking one open to try this evening... Stay tuned...

Verdict?

NPhill85 · Apr 8, 2015

It's decent, but not world-changing. The blueberries, while giving the beer a beautiful color, did not impart as much to the flavor profile as I was hoping. The sour flavor I mentioned at bottling did subside quite a bit, but there was still a mild tartness to the beer, but it actually added a level of complexity to the flavor. Also, the mouth feel was a bit thinner than I was going for and the carbonation was less than intended (not sure if I needed more priming sugar or if the yeast had become unviable). There was no noticeable honey flavor. I think that next I will use more honey malt, possibly more hops, a less attenuative yeast strain, and will likely replace half of the fresh blueberries with a blueberry concentrate in an effort to retain more of their flavor and less tartness (likely caused by some of the berries being slightly under-ripe) in the finished product.

Hive Mentality: Blueberry Honey Wheat

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