Brainstorming my next IPA - Huckleberry IPA

[madcowbrewing]

So a friend pitched me an idea to make a Huckleberry IPA, goes with the love of hops and outdoors in the NW. I started to think of revipe formulation and this is what I have so far:

Malt bill would be similar to my regular IPA.
66% - Two Row
22% - Pilsner
7.35% - Wheat
3.9% - Carapils
0.75% - Carafa 2

Hops, I was going to use some the compliment "berry" flavors and aromas.
Mosiac, Pacific Gem, Meridian, and Citra

For the actual Huckleberry flavor I am going to use an extract. The actual berry itself is difficult to come by at the moment.

Thoughts?

 

[Pappers_]

Sounds interesting. Not entirely sure what a huckleberry tastes like, am going to have to find some to try.

I'm not sure about the Carafa 2. Instead of that and the carapils, maybe use a half pound of less of a Crystal 40 or 60 malt? Also, rather than Pilsner, I usually add either some Munich or Vienna to my pale ales and IPAs.

Those hops will be nice. Pacific Jade has a kind of blackberry-ness to it, sometimes, if you wanted to try something else.

 

[MacAle]

Huckleberry is like a blueberry only much more intense in flavor.

 

[dreaded_rust]

I love huckleberries!
Great idea.
I find the pilsner in your malt bill a little odd but you've got that bill as your regular so as long as you like it.
SWMBO would flip if I made a huckleberry IPA. I'll be following this thread.
Living here in SW Idaho huckleberries aren't super hard to get ahold of but a little spendy.
I'll be very curious as to what hops are being suggested.

 

[jessup]

I never tasted a huckleberry but did a lil BIAB smashberry ipa today using 2row, my homemade Blueberry Candi Syrup & mosaic. Come on berry madness!! Got high hopes for this blueberry candi syrup...

You would be best off ordering dried berries than using an extract. Billberries are interesting too try em out!

 

[madcowbrewing]

I love huckleberries!
Great idea.
I find the pilsner in your malt bill a little odd but you've got that bill as your regular so as long as you like it.
SWMBO would flip if I made a huckleberry IPA. I'll be following this thread.
Living here in SW Idaho huckleberries aren't super hard to get ahold of but a little spendy.
I'll be very curious as to what hops are being suggested.

I used to run all the base malt as two row, but started adding the pilsner to help round out the bitterness to the sweetness the malt was lending to the final beer. My regular IPA jammed full of hop flavor and the extra malt flavor helps balance it out.
Here in the PNW there are a lot of areas with huckleberries but they are time consuming to pick, and yes the ones I have found to buy are upwards of $12.50/pound, which is why I want to attempt the extract and compliment with hops that lend some of the same flavors.

 

[JKaranka]

Is it like a bilberry or whortleberry? Never heard of huckleberry before.

 

[madcowbrewing]

Is it like a bilberry or whortleberry? Never heard of huckleberry before.

They are related. They grow wild in the NW.

 

[Chadzilla]

I've played around with huckleberries in the berry form which were flash freezed after being picked and it was alright in a porter. It sorta takes a lot of berries to get the taste you will be trying to extract. So I think the extract would be the best way to go, which you are doing. Instead of doing a IPA which is going to hide a lot of the flavor profiling, I would probably lean towards pales or something lighter in body.

 

[JKaranka]

They are related. They grow wild in the NW.

Cool. Checked the wiki entry and it suggests the name is derived from whortleberry. They grow wild in the UK but are incredibly numerous in Scandinavia. The typical ones are much smaller and much darker than blueberries, with a flavour that is several times more intense. I grew up with Finnish bilberries (Huckleberry Finn now makes a lot more sense) and I have had to search hard for blueberries that can in any way compare. Wikipedia suggests also that several different plant species are called huckleberry.

 

[jessup]

Cool. Checked the wiki entry and it suggests the name is derived from whortleberry. They grow wild in the UK but are incredibly numerous in Scandinavia. The typical ones are much smaller and much darker than blueberries, with a flavour that is several times more intense. I grew up with Finnish bilberries (Huckleberry Finn now makes a lot more sense) and I have had to search hard for blueberries that can in any way compare. Wikipedia suggests also that several different plant species are called huckleberry.

Finkle is Einhorn!?!
So huckleberries are a/k/a billberries??? Cousins perhaps?

 

[madcowbrewing]

Going to do this one this weekend along side of my fresh hop IPA. Was thinking about backing off the pilsner a bit to help the hops and fruit flavors to come forward.