First fruit beer

[LLBeanJ]

Take a gravity reading today and another on Thursday or Friday. If it's stable, bottle it. If not, then rack it off the fruit into a tertiary vessel with minimal headspace and let it sit until you return, then bottle it.

 

[iambeer]

Sounds like a plan. Many thanks. I really do hope it's done or close to done even though it's still bubbling. Unfortunately I think this will probably end up in a third vessel. Oh well this will give me an excuse to drink a little beer at 11:00 am.

 

[iambeer]

So close to closing this thread! I tested the beer, gravity: 1.010.

The gravity and something about the taste told me I need to bottle it now.

Basically: It is a tiny bit dryer than before the fruit. And surprisingly, a bit lighter colored. As if the fruit juice watered down the beer.

It tasted just a tiny bit like blueberries, and somewhat like dry berry juice in general. I think the best part of this beer is the beer itself, and the blueberries add a slight sour berry fruitiness. I would love to try it again and this time make certain the blueberries don't clump up, and possibly use less of them, and maybe let them soak in Campden tablets a little longer. I would also consider straining the juice off a bit so that they don't water down the beer. As I was washing the carboy, that fresh blueberry smell was still there.

Looking forward to tasting it fully carbed.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Yep, sounds like it's ready. I'm sure it will be great once it's at serving temp and carbed up.

 

[iambeer]

This beer came out good. Deep purple with purpleish/bone white head. I am comparing this to three fruit beers. Sobrehumano Palena'ole (Maui & Jolly Pumpkin; passionfruit and cherries), Bar Harbor Blueberry ale (Atlantic), and Abita's Strawberry + Lager. Obviously it is not like any of those but it does have some good comparisons. But I used them as a frame of reference. Abita is the sweetest but still has some berry acidity. Maui's is really out there, puts the berry wine in front along with strange yeast tastes. Atlantic's Blueberry Ale is reduced to crappy ale with blueberry extract or something... beyond the initial aroma, it is barely drinkable, which I hate to say. I had better memories of it.

My blueberry beer has a nice yeast character from the european yeast and a mellow fruit wine taste trying to blend in with a dark wheat and barley beer with caramel tones barely coming through... not as sweet at Abita but not as sour as Sobrehumano Palena'ole.

I am surprised that 4 pounds of whole blueberries immersed in room temperature water with two campden pills/(tablets) took care of all organism in only about [EDIT: a couple of hours].. maybe I got lucky, and that my blending them in a star san dipped blender was also fine... I am going to try the same recipe with 3 lbs of bbs just to see the difference.

 

[iambeer]

I pull one bottle from this batch out every week or two (I always look forward to it), and the flavors are just really melding. Not a perfect balance but it's hard to argue with 'clean', fresh, and 'damn tasty'!.