I picked 8 pounds of blackberries last weekend and plan on brewing with them this weekend. I would appreciate any info/experiences that y’all might have as it relates to styles that would marry well with blackberries.
I was thinking of a Northern English Brown. Also, I was intrigued by the Golden Strong with raspberries that was discussed on the last Sunday Session.
I imagine big-ass hoppy beers are out of the question. Also, it’s for the holidays, so beers that need to age over 2 months are out.
I have a gallon of hefeweizen I am going to put some blackberries in this week. Should be nice, maybe. Long Trail in Vermont has a black Beary wheat that a lot of people like.
So I too have black berries but I bought frozen lol.
My question is this I let my beer ferment in the primary first with out the berries then I racked the beer over 4 pounds in the secondary. How will I know when is done? Will the berries settle to the bottom? Was putting them in the secondary correct?
you should get a secondary fermentation from the sugars in the blackberries so when that subsides you are ready to go. secondary is a fine place to put fruit.
Not to hijack the thread but will a secondary fermentation make for a clearer beer in the end by removing the heavier sediment? Just trying to figure a few things out.
After 3 days of fermentation in the primary, I transferred the beer (5 gallons) into a secondary (bucket) on top of the fresh blackberries. I decided to go with six pounds. Everything seems to be going well but I have not tasted it yet. I’ll post an update after I sample it this weekend.
One thing I may do next time is put the fruit in a large meshed hop bag to avoid transferring solids when I rack the beer. At this point I’m not sure how I am going to avoid clogging when I rack the beer. Some of the berries sank to the bottom and some floated to the top. Any thoughts?
The ROT is to use 1 lb./gal. For something subtle like blackberries or blueberries in a porter, you might want to up that a bit. I made a blueberry porter once with that ratio and you could hardly tell there were blueberries in it.