First "Real" Fruit Beer

[downhill_biker]

I just wanted some help figuring out how I am supposed to do a "real" fruit beer. I am wanting to do a Huckleberry Wheat, since I already have frozen Huckleberries.

When do I add the berries? Secondary?

I don't really have a secondary, but I was thinking I could rack into the bottling bucket and back into the firmenter after cleaning the firmenter and use it as a secondary?

How much Huckleberries would I add for a 5g batch?

Does this sound like something that will turn out tasting good? I want a hint of huckleberry flavor, nothing major.

 

[Calder]

Add to secondary, you want to do it after the main fermentation is complete so you retain some of the aromatics. Do it the way you have proposed. About 1 lb per gallon. Crush the berries before adding.

Pasturize before adding. Heat in a small amount of water to 160 F and hold at that temperature for about 10 minutes. Do not boil.

An alternative would be to collect the juice from the berries, measure the SG, and the volume of collected juice, and calculate the equivalent sugar, pasturize and use for bottling. Example, say you get 2 quarts of juice (0.5 gallons) and the SG is 1.030. That would be the equivalent of 1/3 rd a pound of sugar, or 5.3 ozs of sugar. That would be about the right amount to bottle 5 gallons with.