Home of the BrewNosers

The wife has been on my ass about a blueberry ale recipe since last summer. She doesn't like wheat ales so that's off the table. Anyone have any recipes they've tried out before? She like pumphouse blueberry ale.

I've got a good one. Will get back to you later.

I am interested in a blueberry ale recipe as well.

sleepyjamie wrote:The wife has been on my ass about a blueberry ale recipe since last summer. She doesn't like wheat ales so that's off the table. Anyone have any recipes they've tried out before? She like pumphouse blueberry ale.

How about a blueberry lambic?

akr71 wrote:

sleepyjamie wrote:The wife has been on my ass about a blueberry ale recipe since last summer. She doesn't like wheat ales so that's off the table. Anyone have any recipes they've tried out before? She like pumphouse blueberry ale.

How about a blueberry lambic?

i'm doubting she's willing to wait another 2 years to get it

This is the recipe I've used a few times. My wife seems to like it.

This is for a 12L batch so scale up if you wanna go bigger. I keep it small cause blueberries ain't cheap.

1.5 kg Malted Wheat
1.5 kg Pilsner malt
500g Crystal 40

Double Infusion - Full body mash

60 minute boil
.75oz saaz for 60 mins
.75oz saax for 5 mins

OG - 1.061
FG - 1.012

Fermented on Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit

I usually make this every summer with fresh blueberries, but I've done it with frozen ones and its been okay. I usually use 5 pounds, half in the primary (which is probably pointless), and half in a secondary. I heat them in a pot with a bit of water, and smush them down to a jam, then just dump em in. Although next time I do it I think I'd put them in a bag. Otherwise, expect to lose a lot of volume to blueberries. The colour will be a deep hazy purple. hmm, I think I just named my next batch...

Tim Gregory wrote:This is the recipe I've used a few times. My wife seems to like it.

This is for a 12L batch so scale up if you wanna go bigger. I keep it small cause blueberries ain't cheap.

1.5 kg Malted Wheat
1.5 kg Pilsner malt
500g Crystal 40

Double Infusion - Full body mash

60 minute boil
.75oz saaz for 60 mins
.75oz saax for 5 mins

OG - 1.061
FG - 1.012

Fermented on Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit

I usually make this every summer with fresh blueberries, but I've done it with frozen ones and its been okay. I usually use 5 pounds, half in the primary (which is probably pointless), and half in a secondary. I heat them in a pot with a bit of water, and smush them down to a jam, then just dump em in. Although next time I do it I think I'd put them in a bag. Otherwise, expect to lose a lot of volume to blueberries. The colour will be a deep hazy purple. hmm, I think I just named my next batch...

Any blueberry flavor from that? I thought I remembered Nash saying you won't get much out of blueberries, and you are better off using extract...I may just have a terrible memory as well!

Tim Gregory wrote:This is the recipe I've used a few times. My wife seems to like it.

This is for a 12L batch so scale up if you wanna go bigger. I keep it small cause blueberries ain't cheap.

1.5 kg Malted Wheat
1.5 kg Pilsner malt
500g Crystal 40

Double Infusion - Full body mash

60 minute boil
.75oz saaz for 60 mins
.75oz saax for 5 mins

OG - 1.061
FG - 1.012

Fermented on Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit

I usually make this every summer with fresh blueberries, but I've done it with frozen ones and its been okay. I usually use 5 pounds, half in the primary (which is probably pointless), and half in a secondary. I heat them in a pot with a bit of water, and smush them down to a jam, then just dump em in. Although next time I do it I think I'd put them in a bag. Otherwise, expect to lose a lot of volume to blueberries. The colour will be a deep hazy purple. hmm, I think I just named my next batch...

thanks.

do you find the wheat comes through a lot in this recipe? the wife can't stand wheat in beer.

Here's what I came up with, using tims as a guide.

OG: 1.051
IBU: 25
Efficiency: 75%
SRM: 4.6
Batch Size: 5.5 Gal

5 lbs Canadian 2-Row (Canada Malting) (1.9 SRM) Grain 1 47.6 %
4 lbs Superior Pilsen (Canada Malting) (1.5 SRM) Grain 2 38.1 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.5 %
8.0 oz Caramel Malt - 40L (Briess) (40.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.8 %

2.25 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 23.2 IBUs
1.10 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 6 -
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 2.1 IBUs

1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 8 -

5 oz blue berry extract at kegging

BIAB Full Body

I've added blueberries to the cream ale from Brewing Classic Styles with good results a few times. Not too far off what you've got there except I used whole blueberries pasteurized in secondary.

Blueberries just don't don't taste like fresh blueberries after fermentation so if that's what you're looking for you should use an extract.

Not all extracts are good but at least a couple companies do a pretty good job at capturing the essence. Mane is about the best imo, not sure if that's what NG carries these days or not but I'm pretty sure they do stock a blueberry extract to give a try. Usage rates are different from the different manufacturers too but most that I have used would only need an oz or two at most in a 5 gallon batch. Add it to the bulk batch of finished beer at bottling or kegging, it's important to mix in about 1/2 the recommended dose to the batch and pull a sample for a taste then add more if it's not strong enough. Some of the usage guidelines on extracts can be sickly strong and artificially sweet overpowering any hint of the beer.

If you want the beer to smell and taste of blueberries instead of hops then leave the finish hops out of the recipe altogether. Something similar to the PH brew would be easy to make, brew a very simple beer to let the extract flavour come through without the need to use too much. With a propylene glycol preservative base extracts can get real nasty, ever have a raspberry beer that left a slick feel in your mouth?

1.048 OG

97% 2-row
2% light crystal
1% carapils

14 IBUs of any random hop for the 60 min boil

Pitch a good amount of yeast to avoid high ester production

Try to keep yeast pitch and fermentation temps down to avoid high ester production as well, at least below 70 f

Add the extract to the finished beer incrementally, tasting as you go

thanks. ill keep this in mind!

Good timing for this thread as I am planning on brewing this recipe in the next week or two.

7.00 lbs 2-Row
2.00 pounds Vienna Malt
0.25 pounds Honey Malt
0.25 pounds Crystal Malt 40L
0.25 pounds American Wheat Malt

1.00 oz Centennial @ 60 mins
0.50 oz Northern Brewer @ 30 minutes

I was originally going to use about 5lbs of frozen blueberries and add them to a secondary and rack the beer on top of them, but after reading Nash's post I am wondering if extract from NG would be best.

I certainly haven't got the experience Nash has, but my experience using the extract from Noble Grape was an artificial blueberry flavour in my beer. Since then I've done several batches with frozen blueberries and I've been much happier with the end beer. Tastes like there are blueberries in it to me and also got nothing but positive comments at a wedding reception last summer when it was served. I can't comment on what difference a high quality extract would make (assuming the one I used from Noble Grape is not one of the one's Nash mentioned), but I plan to stick with the frozen blueberries picked from my Dad's garden as i know exactly where they come from/how they've been treated. On a side note, I have found a big difference between cultivated blueberries (large berries) versus wild blueberries (also grown in a garden, but smaller berries).

Another thought too would be to make your own extract. I'm not sure how easy or if it's even possible to do at home though. I have it on my long list of things to look into when time permits...

I was happy with the wild blueberries I used. Not much flavour, but a good nose and a wild color. I think NCM sells extract....

NASH wrote:Blueberries just don't taste like fresh blueberries after fermentation so if that's what you're looking for you should use an extract.

Blueberries are great in beer. Good extract makes great beer taste and smell of fresh blueberries Try a bottle of blueberry wine

I just bottled my blueberry beer will let you know in a few weeks once fully carboninated how it tastes. I used 5 pounds of real blueberries and no extract. I had some out of the carboy and thought the beer was very good.

homebrewcrew wrote:I just bottled my blueberry beer will let you know in a few weeks once fully carboninated how it tastes. I used 5 pounds of real blueberries and no extract. I had some out of the carboy and thought the beer was very good.

Excellent, anxious to hear how it turns out.

Tried some a few days ago, turned out very good had a nice purple color to it. The taste is pretty good don't have much to compare it to but could use a bit more blueberry taste. May try the extract from NG next time, overall pretty good beer.

A few muddled blueberries in the glass might help. Generally though, with fresh, the flavour is pretty light.

mr x wrote:A few muddled blueberries in the glass might help. Generally though, with fresh, the flavour is pretty light.

Yes they do help and people get quite a kick out of it too.

I just racked over my beer onto the blueberries today. I am thinking that I'll be letting it sit on the blueberries for about 2-3 weeks. I heated the blueberries up to 160F to pasteurize them, let them cool down to 70F and then added them to a secondary. Hopefully this will turn out to be a decent brew.

Looks good!

Were the berries your own or supermarket? IQF berries are sanitary as they are so you don't need to go through all the trouble of heating them and possibly setting the pectins

I love that conical.

Sandy

NASH wrote:Looks good!

Were the berries your own or supermarket? IQF berries are sanitary as they are so you don't need to go through all the trouble of heating them and possibly setting the pectins

They were purchased at a local vegetable/fruit market. I actually purchased 20 lbs of them so I'll know next time. Temps didn't go past 160F so from what I understand pectins shouldn't have set........or at least hopefully not. Thanks for the info!