Adding blueberries?

[nickel23]

I am brewing a 5 gallon batch of pilsner that has been fermenting for about a week. I wanted to add some fresh blueberries for flavor. When and how would I want to add them? And how much? I have brewed with orange peel but have never added fresh fruit to a batch.

 

[Cyclman]

Add them to secondary. I would start with 1 pound per gallon, I like fruit beers subtle. Cook them at about 150 for 30 min., freeze them, then warm em up and add them to secondary.

 

[timrox1212]

Never did blueberries but I just did a raspberry lager with 6 lbs frozen raspberries blended in my blender then added to the secondary and racked my 5 gallons of lager ontop. Let it sit for 4 weeks. Came out amazing. Everyone loved it and it was nice and fruity.

 

[RM-MN]

Blueberries are difficult to brew with because the flavor is delicate and by the time you get enough blueberries in to get the flavor you will get more acidic flavor than blueberry. Go for blueberry flavor by adding blueberry extract. Choose a good quality extract though. The one I got tasted pretty artificial.

 

[K5MOW]

Can you add fruit to any style of beer. How about
Rasbeerys in an American brown Ale. Would this be good.

Roger

 

[timrox1212]

Can you add fruit to any style of beer. How about
Rasbeerys in an American brown Ale. Would this be good.

Roger

In my opinion you can add fruit to almost any style of beer. My buddy makes a blueberry tangerine chocolate porter that sounds weird but is fantastic.

 

[K5MOW]

In my opinion you can add fruit to almost any style of beer. My buddy makes a blueberry tangerine chocolate porter that sounds weird but is fantastic.

Thanks so much.

Roger

 

[Darwin18]

I brewed a blueberry Kolsch that won numerous 1st places in the Fruit Beer Category last year. The key is to retain enough of the base beer's qualities so that the fruit complements the beer without overly dominating it. However, you want to have fruit flavor and aroma. My blueberry kolsch used 7.5 lbs of blueberries for a 5-gallon batch and I tasted it daily until I was pleased with how it tasted. It only took a few days for the right flavor and aroma to be reached. I'd recommend freezing the berries and adding them to secondary.

 

[mischill01]

I added 1 lb per gallon, heated them to pasteurize, and added them to the secondary with good results. EXCEPT, make sure you use a strainer bag for the fruit. Racking and bottling were a friggin nightmare because of all the fruit.

 

[nickel23]

Could I use prefrozen/packaged blueberries that I can buy at a grocery store?

 

[mischill01]

Sure. I got mine from a berry patch I work at in the summer, froze them til I needed them. I thawed them and then pasteurized them before using them though.

The pasteurization process essentially makes them into pie filling, BUT, this process worked very very well for me.

 

[mdbrewer1]

I brewed a blueberry Kolsch that won numerous 1st places in the Fruit Beer Category last year. The key is to retain enough of the base beer's qualities so that the fruit complements the beer without overly dominating it. However, you want to have fruit flavor and aroma. My blueberry kolsch used 7.5 lbs of blueberries for a 5-gallon batch and I tasted it daily until I was pleased with how it tasted. It only took a few days for the right flavor and aroma to be reached. I'd recommend freezing the berries and adding them to secondary.

Would be so kind as to share the blueberry Kolsch recipe and your fermenting and post fermentation schedule (temperatures/length of each step/etc.)? I only have ability to bottle now, so if you kegged, would you have any suggestions on to handle bottling?

Thanks so much!