I'm in mourning

[mkling]

Well, I came home tonight, went to tap a pilsener out of my kegerator. Now, let me prefix this by saying that I've not made a collar yet & having been using picnic taps for the past year. Additionally, I've only got a single regulator that I switch back & forth between my kegs.

So my wife had tapped a half pint of my blueberry wheat which she loves as much as me. One of the 3 or so best beers I've brewed in the past year. Great stuff. Well, when I went to get a beer, I noticed that the doppelbock in a pail in there fermenting was covered in something. I thought something screwy happened with the doppelbock, but no because there's also at least 2 inches of purplish beer sitting in the bottom of the kegerator. Yes, when she tapped her beer, she left the picnic tap on top of the keg, and the lid of the kegerator pushed it down. Absolutely heartbreaking. It really was a stunningly good beer.

My wife helped clean out the massive amount of beer sitting in the bottom of the kegerator. The only redeeming feature here was that because I only use that single regulator & because it wasn't connected to the blueberry wheat, only about 2.5 gallons drained out until there was no more pressure in the keg. This left what I'm guessing is about a gallon of beer left.

At least I have a recipe that I know I love. Now I'll have to wait til next summer to pick more blueberries to make another.

 

[skyzo]

Thats a bummer, at least there is still a little left. That blueberry wheat beer sounds good though, would you mind posting the recipe?

 

[Frankdaatank24]

Man thats a bummer. What you could do instead of waiting for summer to hit is go to Costco and pick up 5 lb containers of blueberrys. I know its not the same thing but their blueberries are actually quite delicious.

And yes, could you post your recipe?

 

[TheBeerNerd]

That is a bummer... blueberry wheat does sound great!

You're in Tuscaloosa? I'm relocating to Birmingham in a few weeks, would love to try that beer if you get another batch on

 

[eriktlupus]

i truly feel your pain..i just cleaned my freezer out yesterday from the same issue, cobrahead was jammed open and i lost all 2 g left of my shandy blonde

 

[HalfPint]

You guys need some faucets and a collar!

 

[Rick500]

At least it didn't end up in the carpet.

 

[mkling]

Man thats a bummer. What you could do instead of waiting for summer to hit is go to Costco and pick up 5 lb containers of blueberrys. I know its not the same thing but their blueberries are actually quite delicious.

And yes, could you post your recipe?

I'll have to look for their blueberries. It's a remarkably simple recipe:

4.25 lb 2 Row
4.25 lb Wheat Malt

Mashed at 154F with .5 lb rice hulls

Sparge & boil with .5 oz Northern Brewer for 60 minutes and .5 oz Mt Hood for 15 minutes. Cool & ferment with Sweetwater IPA yeast (which seems a lot like WLP001). OG was 1.046.

After 1 week of fermentation, I added 4.5 lbs of frozen then thawed blueberries. I mashed then up a bunch in the ziploc bag they were stored in.
Put them in secondary & racked the beer on top. Fermentation took off again like crazy. My best estimate is that this added about 0.006 to the gravity, so I'm considering my OG to be 1.051. It fermented out a bit dry to 1.010. Because it was kind of dry which muted some of the blueberry taste, I added 2 things at kegging: 1) 1 tsp of acid blend which brings out some brightness to the blueberry taste, and 2) 1 Tbsp of Sweet'n'Low to up the sense of sweetness to go with the blueberries a bit. I played with both of these a bit in sample cups to get it just right. The beer turned out a spectacular purple color with a light purple/pink head. Definitely tasted like beer but with a strong fruit presence much like you see in some of the New Glarus beers that have out of this world strong fruit character.

And yeah, over the Christmas holiday I've got to get my collar made & some faucets installed!

 

[skyzo]

Mmmm, thanks looks good. I might try brewing this recipe in the wintertime.