Blueberry pancake beer? Hmm

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titanangus

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Just yesterday I brewed a 5 gallon batch of American wheat. In my mission to boost the booze factor I added 12 oz of organic pure maple syrup, and about 8 oz of honey. Hoping extra sugars make me an extra alcoholic finished product. During scavenging the freezer for ice to cold crash the wort I noticed frozen blueberries and thought "why not? Blueberry pancake beer sounds friggin awesome" I crushed em and threw em in the bucket. I can smell the maple through the airlock so I hope some of that flavor comes through. But I have read fruit added early doesn't make a difference in flavor usually because fermentation scrubs it out. Think I ought to add blueberry extract at bottling time? Or does all this have bad idea written all over it?


🍻Angus! Angus!🎸
 
You are right about the blueberries losing most of their flavor if you add them to the primary. I would add, crushed, to the secondary. The fruit will cause fermenation to restart so consider a blow off tube. I've never used blueberry extract, if you try it error on the side of too little. Goodluck. Maybe take the idea further, use pancakes in the boil.
 
Maple syrup will ferment out completely if you use an A-grade syrup. When did you add the syrup and honey? If you boiled the honey, then it too will lose flavor.

How many blueberries did you add? They have a pretty subtle flavor, so you may not be able to taste much, but may add a bit of tartness since they were added for primary.
 
I agree that nearly all of the sugars will ferment out and it is hard to say how much flavor the syrup will lend. You have to be careful with adding any fruit- frozen or fresh- as they could have wild yeast or bacteria present.
This will be an interesting trial for you to really try to draw the flavors from, or the lessons. It's how we all learn what works and what doesn't. You could end up with a really funky or sour or exactly blueberry pancakes.......... Let us know
 
Now I'm starting to think.. Maybe some blueberry extract at bottling time? I've heard they work well. And would it hurt to add more syrup later on in the process? I'm not running a secondary. And I put the syrup and honey in about half way through the boil. Is like to get those flavors to come out. I just don't wanna do anything stupid until I know it's safe


🍻Angus! Angus!🎸
 
If anyone sees this id like to know if it would be alright to add more syrup or honey directly to primary. It's been going for 2 days now. Really would like to see this brew become more than a 4 percent abv beer. I've already added 12 oz maple syrup, 12 oz blueberries, and about 8 oz or so of honey . Thoughts please


🍻Angus! Angus!🎸
 
I have had pretty good results using maple syrup it tends to require a bit more aging as does the honey. It doesn't make for a good "green" beer. If you have ever made a mead then you will get the idea, the flavor tends to be a bit "hot" if that's the right word. If not its the first one that comes to mind. There i a company around where I live called Pisgah Brewing and they make a summer special blueberry wheat that comes off a lot like blueberry waffles without being cloying. I'd love to master my own batch in the future. Let us know how your experiment turns out.
 
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