Blackberries in beer

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Tuesday Feb 13, 2007 11:29 am

Yup, did a search for blackberry and came up with a few ideas, mainly from the fruitmaster himself, Dogger Dan.

So my partners olds have a whole heap of blackberries growing wild on their property and if i pick em, i can ave em. Partner is making me pie, as she should

and i want to throw them in a beer, most likley a wheat beer.

From my research of Doggers previous posts, i plan on washing them, freezing them, then squashing them and pouring the almost boiling wort on to them. Racking after 5 days. Not too much on the hoppy side.

Anyone see a flaw in my plans? Recipes anyone. Was thinking a wheat kit, plus wheat malt, wheat yeast.....

Cheers and funny coloured beers
DrSmurto

gregb · Post by **gregb** » Tuesday Feb 13, 2007 12:00 pm

Cartman wrote:missy, get in tha kitchen and make me some pie!

Cheers,
Greg

derfly · Post by **derfly** » Tuesday Feb 13, 2007 12:01 pm

Doc,

May I suggest you do alittle research on the subject of blackberry wine?

If your berry supply can produce this kind of quantity, this is the direction I'd take.

DerFly

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Tuesday Feb 13, 2007 12:23 pm

beer with a hint of blackberry flavour sounds sweeeeet... i'd go wheat kit as well, the tartness should really complement the berries. i personally would also make it a pretty high SG beer with plenty of malt added (perhaps some barley malt too?).. but that'd be to make it more a sipping beer than a quaffing beer, with a decent body, decent alc % and rich flavour.

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Tuesday Feb 13, 2007 1:16 pm

KEG wrote:beer with a hint of blackberry flavour sounds sweeeeet... i'd go wheat kit as well, the tartness should really complement the berries. i personally would also make it a pretty high SG beer with plenty of malt added (perhaps some barley malt too?).. but that'd be to make it more a sipping beer than a quaffing beer, with a decent body, decent alc % and rich flavour.

Wheat kits have about half barley in them, in fact some wheat kits don't even have wheat malt...

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Tuesday Feb 13, 2007 1:46 pm

yeah, but was just thinking that making a high-gravity beer would need a LOT of extra malt, and the wheat tartness might come on too strong if all the additional malt was wheat..

just my 2c though

timmy · Post by **timmy** » Tuesday Feb 13, 2007 2:34 pm

What yeast would you use for this?

I've got an apricot wheat that I'm planning to put down next and a high gravity one sounds good.

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Tuesday Feb 13, 2007 2:41 pm

Safale K97 'wheat' yeast for my first attempt before i even touch the wyeast beasts which no doubt many will recommend......

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Tuesday Feb 13, 2007 2:41 pm

Could use K97 for dry, but it's not really that great...you could get some good liquid yeast or propagate a Hoegaarden (even though it is a secondary yeast).

I've got an apricot wheat planned too, I have about 2.5Kgs frozen. If you want high gravity I would just add an extra 1.5Kg Coopers Wheat Malt Extract. It's a barley/wheat blend, about half and half I think.

For me a wheat already has a refreshing taste with good body and interesting flavours, so I don't know if I'm game for a higher gravity one. Let us know how it goes!

BierMeister · Post by **BierMeister** » Tuesday Feb 13, 2007 2:50 pm

Timmy,

Good timing. I've just been up in the hills picking blackberries myself and was looking in my receipe book for ideas. I came across a belgian cherry beer that I think could work with blackberries as it states rasberries can also be used, so why not blackberries. I would use a belgian yeast of some kind, probably something from this list.

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_ ... GIAN_YEAST

My receipe is an AG for an ale with the blackberries added either after 2 months maturation in secondary or adding in the last 15min of the boil. I'll be doing the last 15min trick as I don't have the patience for the former. I also agree that you would want to have a fair amount of malt in the brew to make it more of a sipping beer and I would suggest adding hops that bring a little spice to it.

Balls · Post by **Balls** » Tuesday Feb 13, 2007 3:16 pm

I've used fruit in Ale's in the past and have always used US-56. I find that it ferments out the brew better that some of the other Ale yeasts.

Cheers

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Wednesday Feb 14, 2007 9:23 am

With the blackberries, instead of pouring the boiling wort over them, consider heating them in a pot with a little water (to around 75*C for 30mins).

Aside from homogenising the mixture, and killing off the wild yeasts, you will also extract more juice from the berries, reducing the ferment time, maximising the blackberry flavour, and making it easier for the yeast to get into the fruit. I also recommend attacking the mixture with a potato masher (or equivalent).

And use 3kg+ of berries.

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Wednesday Feb 14, 2007 9:36 am

Was getting all excited about this last night. Then the missus pointed out how many hours it takes to pick 1kg of blackberries, remembering these are wild bushes, thorny little bastards apparently.

But, being the trooper i am, i will be picking as many as i can see, HB in hand, naturally.

Chris - a steep sounds easy enough, treat the same as grains. Any suggestions on hops? I know wheat beers arent generally very hopped (for bitterness or flavour) so am i right in thinking the kit will be bitter enough and no finishing hop will be required.

Pale_Ale - you volunteering a source of liquid yeast?

Cheers
DrSmurto

DarkFaerytale · Wednesday Feb 14, 2007 10:27 am

make sure you wear long thick gloves dr. smurto, can be very painfull if you don't. trust me!

-Phill

BierMeister · Post by **BierMeister** » Wednesday Feb 14, 2007 10:39 am

The berries up in the basket range are a plenty at the moment and I picked a kilo in an hour or so last weekend. I'll be using Belgian Abbey liquid yeast as its the only belgian yeast my HBS has left. I'm using Astyrian Golding(25gm) and Tettnang(15gm) for bittering and Saaz(15gm) for finishing. I'll have to go pick some more berries though as the girlfriend laid claim to a kilo and I only have 1 1/2 kgs at the moment. It is a lot of work for some berries and if they were for jam or something I wouldn't bother, but when it comes to beer, that is a different story all together.

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Wednesday Feb 14, 2007 2:05 pm

drsmurto wrote: Pale_Ale - you volunteering a source of liquid yeast?
DrSmurto

Volunteering, no, but a liquid yeast swap may be a good idea!

I'm going to try propagating more proactively, someone like yourself might even be able to get hold of some 50ml vials??

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Wednesday Feb 14, 2007 2:39 pm

Pale_Ale wrote:
drsmurto wrote: Pale_Ale - you volunteering a source of liquid yeast?
DrSmurto
Volunteering, no, but a liquid yeast swap may be a good idea!

I'm going to try propagating more proactively, someone like yourself might even be able to get hold of some 50ml vials??

how many thousand do you want/need? Plastic ones come in boxes of 1000 and we have a few

am sure if a few went missing they wouldnt be noticed. Gives me ideas!

Would be nice to have a CPA culture on hand since i dont buy commercial beers much these days. Possibilities are endless!

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Wednesday Feb 14, 2007 3:31 pm

dr,

I'll start with an initial order of 50 plastic vials

I'll pay in homebrew

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Wednesday Feb 14, 2007 3:49 pm

I guess they are paid for by the taxpayer.

And i am partial to a few homebrews........

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Thursday Feb 15, 2007 1:14 pm

I'd go for a low AA noble hop. Keep the spiciness, and avoid overpowering bitterness.