I've got a bunch of fresh blueberries....

[aboule13]

and i have a pale ale recipe i was thinking of adding them to....

i'm looking for any suggestions.

i could:

-abandon the ale recipe and order a wheat based recipe

-add them to secondary in my pale ale recipe

-(more of a question) could I use them during the boil? also what amount should i be using

my mother picked them and she is pressuring me to put them into a beer! help!

 

[mkling]

My advice would be: 1) add them to secondary, not primary -- you'll get much better fruit flavor this way. And 2) adding them to a pale ale is fine instead of a wheat beer, but if you do this, back way off on the hops. Pale Ales are generally pretty hoppy, and strong hop flavors & aromas will compete with the fruit flavors and aroma. I think this is why lots of people do fruit wheat beers, not because the wheat somehow goes especially well with the fruit but because wheat beers generally have low hopping & this does go well with fruit.

 

[aboule13]

thanks man i really appreciate the imput... i'll freeze them until its time for 2ndary and plop them in there. and i will back off the hops a bunch.

i've been brewing since january, so just now im getting to the point where i want to get really creative. took the time to get all grain setup and build a kegerator and keg my beer, now its time to get wild!