DaftCaskBC
Active Member
What SRM is purple?
I am brewing a blueberry sour and need a target. I honestly have no idea.
I am brewing a blueberry sour and need a target. I honestly have no idea.
You would target the base beer. Not the final product. Beer color scales don't take into account color provided by ingredients other than grain.
Do you have a planned base beer? Or not yet?
There is no SRM for purple, period.
There is no SRM for purple, period.
You guys are killing me. Obviously purple is not in the color gradient of beer. All of that color must come from the blueberries. The real question is how many pounds of fruit per gallon of wort will it take to get the color you're after? I'm thinking a pound per gallon is a good starting point. As far as the base beer, since you want to sour it, I would go with a very pale base, low srm and ibu. Let the fruit and bugs do the talking.
If you really need a purple beer, use some food coloring.
My logic is that if SRM 15 with grains approximates red and American brown ales begin at an SRM of 18; then with blueberries a purplish beer should be somewhere in the SRM range of 16-17.
I'm shooting for a base beer with an SRM of 12. Then adding the 3 lbs of blueberry puree which should bring it up.
Why is the final color so important to you? I would be more concerned about taste than appearance.
Blueberry beers can come in all SRMs:
http://www.darkhorsebrewery.com/tres-blueberry-stout/
Why is the final color so important to you? I would be more concerned about taste than appearance.
Blueberry beers can come in all SRMs:
http://www.darkhorsebrewery.com/tres-blueberry-stout/
IMO 12 is too high. Early on in my brewing days I made a blueberry pale ale. It was a very light SRM, maybe 5-6. IIRC, I steeped about 3# of blueberries in the wort at the end of the boil. The resulting beer was very purple, almost violet. I think you'd get a deeper purple around 8 SRM but I think above that the brown from the grains would start becoming more dominant.
This is ~15 year old experience so all the numbers might not be exact, but I think they are in the ballpark.
Also, IIRC I mashed the blueberries enough to break all the skins (but not pureed).
Enter your email address to join: