Blackberry season

[Jim Brewster]

Picked a few of the first ripe Blackberries today and it's got me thinking about using them in beers. I love Blackberries, wheat beers and plum porter so the obvious plans are a blackberry porter and possibly a blackberry wheat.

Am I right in thinking the best way is to rack to a secondary after initial fermentation, onto some frozen blackberries?

I've done a couple of stouts but haven't done a porter so not sure what I'd need for a porter. Wheat beers I can do OK.

Does anybody have good recipes they've done? How many blackberries per gallon are required and is the extra ABV something to factor in or is it negligible?

 

[An Ankoù]

Never done it, I must confess, but i was thinking along the same lines with elderberries and I thought the best way forward might be to make elderberry wine ( or blackberry) and then add it to the beer, Might need that the wine is made with more fruit and less sugar so as not to dilute the beer too much. Just a thought.

 

[Stu's Brews]

I did a Sloe Stout last year and did pretty much exactly what you described (rack to secondary onto the fruit) except I defrosted them first. Left it for 3-4 weeks and then bottled, worked a treat.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I would use 1000g of blackberries in 23 litres and add to the secondary. Put them in a muslin bag.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I've had a blackberry mild which worked well.

Sugar content of commercial blackberries is about 5% (per Tesco website) - they tend to be more watery but riper than typical wild blackberries. So I'd assume 70g of sugar from 1kg of blackberries as a first approximation.

Commercial fruit beers in Belgium generally use somewhere around 200g of fruit per litre, varying a bit depending on the intensity of the fruit.

 

[HSD]

I’ve got a Coopers devil
Half Porter to use up+ 1.2 kg MJ lme, MJ M47 abbey yeast, planning to brew to 20 litres and secondary onto 1.5kg of blackberries from the allotment for 1-2 weeks. To sanitize the fruit plan was to freeze to break down, then wash in no rinse but rinse off before mashing up into FV, any thoughts appreciated. Fruit should be ready in a week or so. Going for a rich fruity winter porter.

 

[trummy]

Picked a few of the first ripe Blackberries today and it's got me thinking about using them in beers. I love Blackberries, wheat beers and plum porter so the obvious plans are a blackberry porter and possibly a blackberry wheat.

Am I right in thinking the best way is to rack to a secondary after initial fermentation, onto some frozen blackberries?

I've done a couple of stouts but haven't done a porter so not sure what I'd need for a porter. Wheat beers I can do OK.

Does anybody have good recipes they've done? How many blackberries per gallon are required and is the extra ABV something to factor in or is it negligible?

Have you seen the thread on Damson Porter? A recipe given to a friend by the Head brewer of Bass back in the day - ends up about 17% so not a session drink (but very nice)

 

[Random Badger]

I’ve got a Coopers devil
Half Porter to use up+ 1.2 kg MJ lme, MJ M47 abbey yeast, planning to brew to 20 litres and secondary onto 1.5kg of blackberries from the allotment for 1-2 weeks. To sanitize the fruit plan was to freeze to break down, then wash in no rinse but rinse off before mashing up into FV, any thoughts appreciated. Fruit should be ready in a week or so. Going for a rich fruity winter porter.

Sanitising fruit for wine making seems to consist of freeze the fruit, hit it with some boiling water (presumably not too much if adding to beer) then a campden tablet and leave for 24 hours before using.

 

[Sadfield]

Once brewed a English IPA (?) with some in, hopped with Bramling Cross throughout the boil and a hint of Mosaic with the Bramling at flame out. I quite enjoyed the result, as they added a subtle tartness and dryness to a fruity hoppy beer, making it very drinkable. I used 3g/L of pureed Blackberries in the last minute of the boil, as a replacement for a sugar addition. The grist was Pale Malt, Biscuit (10%) and Crystal and Carapils (2.5% each). Fermented with WLP028 Scottish Ale.

 

[Hanglow]

I only use them for jam, they are an autumn crop here though. I do have a thornless blackberry plant in my allotment, it crops earlier and is much less flavoursome than wild black berries, I should get rid of it

 

[Clint]

Ooo! Thought you said blackberry SAISON!...

 

[HSD]

I only use them for jam, they are an autumn crop here though. I do have a thornless blackberry plant in my allotment, it crops earlier and is much less flavoursome than wild black berries, I should get rid of it

I ripped my old thornless ones out last year and replaced with Merton Thornless, much better flavour than earliest thornless varieties, taste I’d say better than any shop ones but not quite up to wild, easier on the hands though!

 

[Jim Brewster]

Just got round to picking some wild ones. I picked 400g and have frozen them, think that will do for a 4L batch of Stout. I'll defrost them in boiled water tomorrow, mash them up and then rack to a secondary and leave for a few weeks.

I might open a bottle of Saison and pop a few in there too

 

[Covrich]

Yeah I stick in about 100g per litre.. I did a wheat last year and a raspberry one which was 2.5kg for 20l.

Personally I just carefully dumped them in frozen..

 

[dad_of_jon]

We had 3 ice-cream tubs worth plus redcurrants by the time we finished last saturday. Dang Mrs has made pies with them.

 

[Anglezarke]

2 galls of blackberry wine on the go. Good crop this year.

 

[Jim Brewster]

Personally I just carefully dumped them in frozen..

I decided to use that method, although I wasn't particularly careful. Bit difficult to get them into a DJ carefully. It's kicked off a bit of fermentation again as expected.

Had some left over so I've also go a litre of Blackberry Saison conditioning in the bottle which I'll just decant into another bottle down the line

 

[user 41945]

I now have ten insect bites, about fifteen thorn scratches, two gallon batches of blackberry wine and two gallon batches of blackberry turbo cider fermenting.

For the cider, about a pound of berries, a handful of black grapes, and two large Bramley apples, all frozen, liquidised and pasteurised. Washed down with 500ml of strong tea, Aldi apple juice and a commercial cider yeast. Started in a 5l Kilner jar (they "self burp" to release pressure). Smells nice.

The wine is 2kg fruit to 1 kg sugar, handful of grapes and fruit treated as above. Pectolase all round. Red wine yeast, started in fermenting bucket.

The cider is experimental, I've made blackberry wine before and loved it.

 

[sifty]

I've just made a blueberry American wheat that came out well. Had a freezer full of local blueberries and we needed to use them to make some space.

I fermented the wheat brew for 7 days (used US-05) then racked this onto 3kg of thawed mashed frozen blueberries. Colour is spectacular and beer will become a summer favourite.
I expect other fruits will be similar to brew with, maybe adjust the amount of fruit depending on their characteristics...?

I made a video of the process with my girls (10 & 12) and put a link on the 'Beer brew days' forum thread if you're interested...

 

[Jim Brewster]

I've just made a blueberry American wheat that came out well. Had a freezer full of local blueberries and we needed to use them to make some space.

Sounds nice, I'm sure I'd like that. I like the Coach House blueberry beer although I think the taste is a bit fake in that. I don't think I have ever seen them growing wild