My brewing buddy recently tossed out the idea of brewing a blueberry wheat beer. Does anyone have any recommendations or recipes that they may have used in the past? I’m thinking something like a blueberry witbier, but also thinking that a blueberry Kolsch would be nice.
I’ve done it as an American wheat. Which I personally liked a lot. Pretty basic recipe, 47-ish% each wheat malt and 2-row, some light crystal, about 15 IBU bittering addition (I used Centennial). Added two 49 oz cans of blueberry puree as fermentation was winding down. If anything, I might go with three cans next time.
+1. I’ve done very much the same. Using an American Wheat yeast strain works great, and keeps the fruit front and center.
Blueberry stout. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/205/40177/
Had it once. Not my thing, but pretty good
You can also use Blueberry extract. I made one last year and used blueberries just because I always wanted to and sometimes I seem to make things harder than they have to be. It turned out purple which I called “Purple Drank” and I used a hefe type yeast strain. If I made one again, I would use a cleaner yeast strain (to let the blueberry flavor shine more) and Blueberry extract. I think the extract would be easier to dial in the amount of flavor that you want.
Yeah, I made the mistake of brewing a Blackberry Wheat using a hefe strain shortly after I just started homebrewing. I know they call it “American wheat”, but weissbeer strains are a bad idea. The flavors clash and the beer ends up murky. Better off using an “American Wheat” strain, or something else neutral like Chico.
I have a blueberry-pomegranate sour that is almost ready to bottle. I used RW Knudsen pure juices. No added sugar, HFC or other fruits. I used 2 quarts of blueberry juice and 1 quart of pomegranate juice added to about 4.5gal of sour beer.
I took one small sample after the juice fermented and there was no doubt it was made with blueberries. It will be about a month before I can drink it. First time brewing with blueberry juice. Hopefully, it will taste ok.
Well, I spoke a little too soon. The blueberry flavor at bottling time was trumped by the pomegranate. The beer tasted dark fruity, sour and good, but I’m not sure I’d say blueberry if I didn’t know it was there. The same can be said for a few pro blueberry beers I’ve tried.
It depends on what you want it to taste like. If you want it to taste like Boo Berry cereal, use blueberries and some blueberry extract. If you want it to taste like fermented blueberries, try 96oz of blueberry juice. The juice tastes great. Fermentation makes it taste less like blueberries, but still good.
My opinion might change when it’s ready to drink at the end of the month.
50% wheat and 50% pilsner less than 15 IBU’s 1056/05/001, extract to taste. Experiment with the different extracts to get what you want as far as flavor and aroma.