Hello all, I am brewing two 5 gallon batches of the American Wheat Extract on Friday. Size of kettle is limiting me to two separate brews. I am planning on making a blueberry beer for friends for a vacation in July. My questions are any way to increase the ABV a little in this? Add LME, Honey, Sugar? I am fairly new to brewing and have never added anything extra before.
Then second questions is blueberry flavoring… I ordered the blueberry flavoring off of NB and it is a 4 oz bottle. I have read some places that 2 oz have been added to 5 gallons, but was just curious if anyone had any other input on this. Should I use frozen or fresh blueberries?
I have two fermentors but nothing for secondary. Since I will have both brew in primary at same time. Any way I can just add blueberries to primary after 2 weeks? Does the flavoring go in just before bottling?
[quote=“Mroberto1010”]Hello all, I am brewing two 5 gallon batches of the American Wheat Extract on Friday. Size of kettle is limiting me to two separate brews. I am planning on making a blueberry beer for friends for a vacation in July. My questions are any way to increase the ABV a little in this? Add LME, Honey, Sugar? I am fairly new to brewing and have never added anything extra before.
Then second questions is blueberry flavoring… I ordered the blueberry flavoring off of NB and it is a 4 oz bottle. I have read some places that 2 oz have been added to 5 gallons, but was just curious if anyone had any other input on this. Should I use frozen or fresh blueberries?
I have two fermentors but nothing for secondary. Since I will have both brew in primary at same time. Any way I can just add blueberries to primary after 2 weeks? Does the flavoring go in just before bottling?
Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers, :cheers:
MR[/quote]
You can use lME to increase the ABV but this can also make your beer more malty, something you are probably not looking for in a wheat. Honey works but can take a while to ferment and may leave a faint flavor. Sugar is great just keep the amount reasonable like lb. or less. I use table sugar but some prefer corn sugar. Just dump it in the last 15 min or so of the boil.
For blueberries I would opt for frozen since the skin will already be burst. Fresh should be washed, Pastuerized but not boiled before use and crushed. another popular choice is buying canned puree. It is sanitary, simple to use and less risk of off flavor from tannins associated with the skin on fruits. It would be best in a secondary but if you are not doing one after the primary fermentation has stopped. The blueberry flavoring goes in before bottling but some say it has a chemical flavor. I have read that Bickford flavoring is good but it is made for baking so I’m not sure how much to use.
[quote=“Mroberto1010”]Hello all, I am brewing two 5 gallon batches of the American Wheat Extract on Friday. Size of kettle is limiting me to two separate brews. I am planning on making a blueberry beer for friends for a vacation in July. My questions are any way to increase the ABV a little in this? Add LME, Honey, Sugar? I am fairly new to brewing and have never added anything extra before.
Then second questions is blueberry flavoring… I ordered the blueberry flavoring off of NB and it is a 4 oz bottle. I have read some places that 2 oz have been added to 5 gallons, but was just curious if anyone had any other input on this. Should I use frozen or fresh blueberries?
I have two fermentors but nothing for secondary. Since I will have both brew in primary at same time. Any way I can just add blueberries to primary after 2 weeks? Does the flavoring go in just before bottling?
Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers, :cheers:
MR[/quote]
Yes LME will boost your gravity, I would avoid sugar on this, yes it bumps gravity but that is it. USe LME or DME and get some flavor from the bump to.
IMO I would throw out the blueberry flavorings, all those flavorings taste medicinal/cough syrup gross.
Freeze them first f you buy fresh to break cell walls.
You could add right to primary when racking out put a few mesh bags around racking cane or auto syphon to keep shit out
Thanks for the responses! So I think I will go with frozen Blueberries. Should I put blueberries in right away and add wort to fermentor and let it go, or should I add blueberries after a week or so after fermentation has come to an end? Then let it sit for another week before bottling?
Common practice is to let the primary ferment go first. THen sipohon the beer into a secondary fermentor that contains the fruit and let it sit for another 1-2 weeks.
The only fruit wheat that I have done is apricot. I used two cans of the Oregon puree and let it sit for 2 weeks. It was very good.
I have tasted a blueberry wheat recently at a local micro. It was terrible, and I would bet that they used extract flavoring. It tasted like a blueberry muffin, but not in a good way. Too artificial.
Just a thought as I have also had some really bad blueberry beers (by professional breweries), did you have any thought to doing a blueberry syrup and making beer cocktails?
Don’t mean to throw a monkeywrench in your plans, but its just one of those fruits that is tough to work with in beer.
Raspberries, apricots, cranberries, we’re in good shape. Some fruits just don’t translate well though.
[quote=“Pietro”]Just a thought as I have also had some really bad blueberry beers (by professional breweries), did you have any thought to doing a blueberry syrup and making beer cocktails?
Don’t mean to throw a monkeywrench in your plans, but its just one of those fruits that is tough to work with in beer.
Raspberries, apricots, cranberries, we’re in good shape. Some fruits just don’t translate well though.[/quote]
blueberries are fine in beer, just dont use extract crap and use a beer that compliments and dont go over board
I’ve never had a good one, and Randy Mosher cites it as one of the ‘problem’ fruits along with strawberries and peaches, essentially the fruits that are all aromatic compounds and fructose, and little to no acid. All the aromatics blow off with the fermentation, which is why people make these with extracts/tinctures.
But, brew on OP, and good luck. Hopefully it works for what you are going for-
I’ve never had a good one, and Randy Mosher cites it as one of the ‘problem’ fruits along with strawberries and peaches.
But, brew on OP, and good luck-[/quote]
well then it must be true…Doesnt he talk more about imparting flavor? Strawberries are hard to impart flavor I know from use
Peaches? Peaches work great in some beers
[quote=“Pietro”][quote=“grainbelt”]Doesnt he talk more about imparting flavor? Strawberries are hard to impart flavor I know from use
[/quote]
Isn’t that the goal here? Most fruits taste similar if not identical to people with no sense of smell.[/quote]
What? No smell tasting? Not sure where that is going.
It has been a while since reading his book but doesn’t he talks about which ones impart different flavors differently not if they are good or not. It’s been a while since I have looked at that book.
