Blackberry Wheat recipe review

One of my brew buddies wants to do a blackberry wheat, and after some research came up with the following recipe, mostly pilfered from "Brewing Classic Styles".

Do you guys think this will turn out okay? I'm not too concerned about color, I'm more interested in flavor.

Malt:
5.6# two-row
5.6# wheat malt
0.5# Crystal (15L)

Hops:
0.85oz Willamette 60 min

Fruit:
3# puree or parboiled fresh blackberries (whichever is cheaper), secondary for 14 days

Yeast:
1 pkg US-05 (rehydrated)

Stats:
Pre-boil = 7 gallons, 5.5 gallons into the fermenter
OG = ~1.050 (before fruit, don't know how to calculate the fruit addition)
FG = ~1.015 (my guess after the fruit ferments out)
IBU = 18

I have a Blackberry wheat in secondary now. Going to cold crash and keg it in a couple days. I will let you know how it turned out.

My Wheat recipe is close to yours... but with my own twist I went light on the grain bill, so that it was an easy drinking summer type brew. It'll be right at 4.5% ABV. Hooray for girly beer! LOL!
5lbs White Wheat
4.5lbs US 2Row
.5lbs Rye
(US-05 yeast)
I will have to look at what hops I used...

Tasted it before racking onto 3# can of Blackberry puree, and almost didn't use the blackberry...it was good! I will brew it again for sure, as a straight wheat beer.

The rye is an interesting addition - did it have a bit of a pepper-y kick?

We're hoping this will be an easy-drinking summer beer, and the spicy addition of the rye has me intrigued.

If you could post the hops additions, I might go with your recipe.

Blackberry season is coming up here in a few weeks and I want to make a blackberry wheat with berries I picked right down the street.

I'm also interested in the hop schedule for the rye variant. Also, when mashing that much wheat did you use any rice hulls?

Have not tried blackberries on a wheat yet, but it sounds delicious! (Along with the rye malt!)

I would definitely use 1/2 lbs of rice hulls to mash that much wheat. Cheap insurance to prevent a stuck mash!
--LexusChris

I'm still wondering about that hop schedule. Anyone have any ideas?

Yes, the Rye added a little kick. Peppery, I suppose, but tasting it out of the primary bucket is hard to really nail down a good description. I thought it added a dryness that made me want more.

I have read that Blackberries are tart, and you want a fairly sweet beer to balance that out. So with less than 1oz of a low alpha hop, like Wilamette, you be very much on the sweet side!

I sorta ignored that, and went with brewing a good beer first, and adding fruit for fun....
I shot for a low 20's IBU. I think it's going to be a tad on the tart/bitter side for this one. Heck, I had 1oz of Wilamette at 5min in mine. The only other addition was bittering, .25oz Yakima Magnum + 1mL of Hop Shot. I did this because I had this stuff on hand, and wanted to use it. If I were to do it over, I would use .33oz Centennial @ 60, .66oz Centennial @ 5. (this would yield about 19IBU).

Oh, and rice hulls....yes! I used 1lb of Rice hulls in the mash.

So, I just kegged mine.

Not sure what flavor you are shooting for, but mine is a bit tart, with mild blackberry flavor and fairly dry on the palate.

I would change the following things with MY recipe upon first taste (flat and not cold):

Rye: omit the Rye Malt if you are going with Balckberry. A different fruit (like peach) and I think it would work ok.

Hops: Lower the bitterness to under 20IBU. The tartness of the blackberries will give a nice balance to a sweeter beer.

Other than that, it's ok. We'll see how people like it this weekend, since we are having a few folks over for my son's 2nd birthday. Not a lot of craft beer drinkers though....


In Other Words.... I think the OP's recipe sounds like a winner, if you shoot for 12-15 IBU's.

One of my favorite breweries does an annual series of rye beers with in-season fruit and the blackberry was my favorite. They were not specifically wheat beers, but it's been 3 years since I've had them, so I can't vouch for my memory.

After a couple days in the keg, and several folks having some, it has had pretty good reviews. I just drank another mug, and I like my recipe. It's not sweet, at all. Tastes like a wheat beer, with a bit of a tart berry aroma and taste. It's a really hazy light purple. I have decided to call it "Unicorn Piss".

I will post a pic next time I pour one.

Pic




This crap is crazy good. Everyone likes it....and I would brew it again.

Nice pic. Love the name.

This one was unique enough, and good enough, that I submitted a recipe thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/unicorn-piss-blackberry-wheat-ale-rye-411956/#post5209168