On July 4 I brewed a Saison with 565. At high Krausen, I pitched Brett Trois. Today I pitched a small pile of microwaved, then chilled and smashed (in a ziplock bag) blackberries that tasted nicely tart in a smoothie this morning.
What can I expect from this goofy experiment?
sounds pretty good to me although you will need a lot more than that to get much character from them. is this 5 gallons? I’ve not worked with blackberries but I would start at about 1 lb/gallon to get good flavor
I’ve experimented with blackberries a bit and I’ve never been 100% satisfied. You need at least 1 pound/gallon to start getting blackberry flavor, but I’ve never really gotten the rich berry flavor that I’m looking for. You will get tartness and tannins, though. And that might work pretty well in a Saison.
Let us know how much you used and what you got as a result.
I used about a pound and will be adding a bunch more now! They grow wild behind a relative’s house nearby. And yes, it is a 5gallon batch on this one.
That sounds great ! I would drink a few of those. Blackberries, being less acidic than cherries or raspberries, do need to be used in larger amounts to be as noticeable as those. Sounds like a winner.
lucky you, I wish I had that access to blackberries. I’m currently drinking an Am. Hefe that I intended to make a blackberry ale but instead went with 5 lbs of the frozen berry mix (blueberry, raspberry, blackberry). It has ended up fantastic, next time I’ll go with more like 3 lbs and a touch more hops to balance the sweetness. The color on this berry brew is awesome though, literally glowing.
I like the 1 lb/gallon starting point for pure blackberries, they tend to be a bit more subdued than the others I used.
Since the beer is likely to be very dry, I suspect that the acidity and tannins of blackberries will stand out more than in regular ales. I would add less than 1 lb of blackberries per gallon until I tasted the beer and felt more was needed.
I also agree about the 1 lb/gallon ratio. I used blackberries in a sour beer at this ratio and the flavor came through nicely. The flavor isn’t quite as articulate as raspberries but overall very tasty.
If you decide the one pound wasn’t enough to get to the level of blackberry flavor you wanted then the easy solution is to just add more.
P.S. be prepared to siphon through a filter to keep all the broken down fruit material out of your kegs/bottles.
I was guessing that the siphon part might be tricky at the end…I figure that I will sanitize a new nylon hop bag and put it on the end of the racking cane (autosiphon). But I have plenty of time to consider other options - I get the rest of the blackberries tonight!
That’s what I do. It’s a PITA keeping the bag on the end of the siphon but less of a PITA if the siphon gets clogged.
Zip ties.
Bingo. The other option is to use a paint strainer bag. Those are long enough where you can hold the other end with your hand so it stays on the racking cane/autosiphon.
I also find that if you get enough gunk on the end of your racking cane it can break the siphon. I usually keep moving the tip in a figure-8 to keep it from getting too thick on the bag.
Overall, I used 6 pounds of blackberries in a 5 gallon batch…good stuff, I am sure. I microwaved them to blanch them, then chilled the batch for dumping. The yeast is going nuts within about 3 hours of pitching the blackies.