tart blackberry beer

[Grimsawyer]

Here's my idea! 7lbs of light malt syrup extract(figured i'm goofing with fruit, diddn't feel like having an even longer day by doing AG) and 8lbs of blackberries.

5.5 gallons
7lbs liquid light malt extract
8lbs blackberries
1oz goldings 4.3%
pectic enzyme
irish moss
yeast energizer
yeast nutrient

3191VSS Berliner-Weisse Blend


I'm going to use a blender on the black berries. Not going to puree them, just chop them up reallly good. I'm going to heat the now chunky liquid blackberries up to 170 or so and toss in my pectic enzyme. I've got a wire mesh strainer that i'm going to put on top of my boil kettle to catch the largest chunks of the berries, i expect 50% or more of the berry chunks to get through. I'm then going to toss what was caught in the mesh screen back into the large sauce pan, add some water and rinse them well, then dump that back through the mesh screen again. I'm going to bring the water/juice level up to about 3 gallons, add the extract and add1oz of goldings and boil for an hour. If it turns out good i'm going to do the same thing but with rasberries with some washed yeast/bugs! Only downside to this yeast is i'm going to have to buy another auto siphon/racking cane/blowoff tube/rubber stopper/bubble airlock and keep it away from all my other gear. (ok, ok... I admit i've been wanting a new auto siphon for awhile now. Darn, hate it when this kind of thing happens! hehehe, mine's just getting clrackled lookin, heheh) Any advise for the first time berry brewer?

 

[Revvy]

I don't, becasue I haven't done one yet...but would like to. I don't mind fruit in beers, and at the same time don't like wits, so I'm alway interested in someone who's making a non wheat fruit beer.

Keep us posted.

 

[david_42]

I just freeze them, put them in the VLGB & toss them in the secondary.

 

[landhoney]

I'm not sure about boiling the juice, especially for a long time. Otherwise it seems like a good idea/recipe to me. I just wouldn't boil it. Maybe make 3 gallons of 'normal' beer with water and then use the ~2 gallons blackberry juice/water to add to that unboiled and cooled? Just a thought.

 

[Grimsawyer]

ALRIGHT!!! FINALLY got around to brewing this beer. 3191 takes about 5 days to puff up the smack pack BTW. I had saved one for 2 months, got it as soon as it came out and just tossed it in the fridge. Smacked it and thought it was dead. One full day later it looked as if it hadn't activated so I bought another from my brew shop and smacked it as soon as I got home. 2 days later the first one I smacked started puffing up slightly. A total of 5 days elapsed between smacking the first pack and pitching the yeast. It wasn't fully puffed either.

About the brewing... I seperated the seeds out of the blackberries by pureeing the fruit. It diddn't chop up the seeds but liquified the fruit. I then strained the fruit through a wire mesh screen strainer and it caught all the seeds! I rinsed the seeds and re-strained them a few times and got about a cup and a half of blackberry seeds... then proceeded to call everyone I knew to see if they wanted to wage intrusive plant warfare on an annoying neighbor. Nobody did... *sigh* I boiled up 1oz goldings in one gallon of water for one hour 15min and strained it into the blackberries. I dumped the 7lbs of light malt extract into the berries and raised the volume of wort to 3 gallons. I raised the temp to 175 and held it there for 20 min then cooled. The wort tastes GREAT!!!! OG is 1056, which might be changed. Not sure if I like the idea of brewing such a small beer. It's going to be like heaven and I want it to have some staying power. If I can drink 5 before getting a strong buzz it won't be around long! HAHA!!! anyhow... CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS ONE TO BE DONE!!!!!!!!!!

 

[david_42]

Sounds really fine. Maybe I'll try some this year in addition to a batch of Revenge.

 

[Aclay]

any fresh fruit you use will have pectin in it, and boiling it will "set" the pectin (kind of like making jelly or jam). Because you boiled your fruit it'll be cloudy, but i'm sure it will taste great. If you want to avoid the cloudyness add the fruit at flame out to just sanitize it.

 

[landhoney]

any fresh fruit you use will have pectin in it, and boiling it will "set" the pectin (kind of like making jelly or jam). Because you boiled your fruit it'll be cloudy, but i'm sure it will taste great. If you want to avoid the cloudyness add the fruit at flame out to just sanitize it.

It doesn't sound like he boiled the juice, maybe I'm reading wrong.

Also, to the OP; its going to finish very dry so the ABV may be a bit higher than you think. Still not very high though, I agree that you should keep these around for a while. Which is not to say that you need to increase the gravity of this one. Because its going to take a while for the Brett to finish you could just brew another beer so you've got more. Also, the tartness should increase after its been bottled for a while.
And people think you shouldn't add fruit to beer This one will change your mind. Sounds great.

 

[Grimsawyer]

I added pectic enzyme, and it sat in the berries for 4 days(in the fridge) while the stupid yeast got going. Package said 12 hours... I'm sure it had plenty of time to work it's magic. Could have boiled it after that if I wanted, LOL!! 84 hours longer than what the package said... Guess I'm staying true to my motto: Go big or go home!

 

[Kevin Dean]

And this whole time I'm wondering "Why is someone mashing their phone?"...