We live in Oregon, where blackberries literally grow like weeds. I have about 15 lbs of hand-picked yard berries to make a beer with right now, and it's all currently frozen. I am tasked with making something sweet like cider, but I want to put my own twist on it.
Here's what I was thinking of doing for a 5-gallon batch:
14 lbs Great Western Northern Two-Row, BIAB mash at 152° F to ensure there are both fermentable and unfermentable sugars. No idea on time, I'll just test with iodine until it's over.
15-minute boil for sterilization.
0.25 oz of whole-leaf Citra at flame out (as a floral, non-bittering preservative only), chill, pitch yeast, ferment to resting gravity, whatever that may be, however long that might take.
Bring 10 lbs of crushed blackberries to 150° F to pasteurize, then chill to 75° F.
This should yield a little over a gallon of pulp.
Pour into a fresh carboy, then rack ale onto blackberry mush.
I'm hoping this will trigger a secondary fermentation, and I will taste the progress daily with a thief.
Before all the blackberry sweetness is gone, rack to another carboy with potassium sorbate (unless you think I can just pour it in?), then allow to rest for a day, then refrigerate the carboy for a few days to drop as much protein out of suspension as possible before kegging.
I want the blackberry to be extremely obvious, and to have an overall sweet product.
Any thoughts? I appreciate your time.
Here's what I was thinking of doing for a 5-gallon batch:
14 lbs Great Western Northern Two-Row, BIAB mash at 152° F to ensure there are both fermentable and unfermentable sugars. No idea on time, I'll just test with iodine until it's over.
15-minute boil for sterilization.
0.25 oz of whole-leaf Citra at flame out (as a floral, non-bittering preservative only), chill, pitch yeast, ferment to resting gravity, whatever that may be, however long that might take.
Bring 10 lbs of crushed blackberries to 150° F to pasteurize, then chill to 75° F.
This should yield a little over a gallon of pulp.
Pour into a fresh carboy, then rack ale onto blackberry mush.
I'm hoping this will trigger a secondary fermentation, and I will taste the progress daily with a thief.
Before all the blackberry sweetness is gone, rack to another carboy with potassium sorbate (unless you think I can just pour it in?), then allow to rest for a day, then refrigerate the carboy for a few days to drop as much protein out of suspension as possible before kegging.
I want the blackberry to be extremely obvious, and to have an overall sweet product.
Any thoughts? I appreciate your time.