Anyone used blackberries?

[Rob2010SS]

Long story short, I was going to add cranberries to my latest kettle sour along with some white peaches. However, go to buy the cranberries and they're not in season right now, FML.

So I think I'm going to do blackberries and the white peaches. Thinking about blackberries, they're going to change the color of the beer, understandably. I'm trying to get an idea of what they do to the color.

My thoughts are 5 pounds of peaches and 2.5 of blackberries. Anyone have any experience with blackberries and know what this will do to the color?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Keith81]

Not in a beer but they stain clothes red so I'd predict amber to dark red.

 

[TwistedGray]

You'll get something on the order of red-purple.

 

[Rob2010SS]

You'll get something on the order of red-purple.
View attachment 574639

Beautiful color! How many pounds you use in that one @TwistedGray ?

 

[TwistedGray]

I make five gallon batches and split into single gallons to do stuff with, so this was a one gallon batch. I added three cups of blackberries to this, but my notes to myself say "Tasting notes: Has low bitterness, good berry flavor although subdued, and is a decent beer overall. In the future, consider more blackberries…twice as much would be okay."

 

[Rob2010SS]

Ok, thanks! If the weight of blackberries found here...

https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/food-volume-to-weight

..is accurate, you did .33 lb/gallon. 2.5 lbs of blackberries puts me at .5 lb/gallon. Excellent info, thanks.

 

[TwistedGray]

Ok, thanks! If the weight of blackberries found here...

https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/food-volume-to-weight

..is accurate, you did .33 lb/gallon. 2.5 lbs of blackberries puts me at .5 lb/gallon. Excellent info, thanks.

Here to help

I think 0.5lb/gallon is a good starting point, and it shouldn't dominate the flavor.

 

[TBC]

This is 6lb Blackberry into 5.5 gal wheat beer

 

[bluedaisy0627]

If you have a Whole Foods near you, they have frozen whole cranberries. My husband found them about 2 weeks ago for my cranberry wheat beer.

 

[Rob2010SS]

If you have a Whole Foods near you, they have frozen whole cranberries. My husband found them about 2 weeks ago for my cranberry wheat beer.

Thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind for future. I went with a mix of Peaches/Nectarines/Blackberries. Ended up with about 5.5lbs of peaches/nectarines and 2.5lbs of blackberries. I'll post pics when it's done.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I just dropped 24oz of frozen then thawed blackberries into a saison. The fruit will be on the berries only for about 4-5 days before being racked off and bottled. I am looking for more of a hint of that blackberry pucker instead of a big fruit flavor that could overwhelm the saison.

Also it's my first time fruiting a beer so it's more of a test than anything else. But a friend has a ton of fresh blackberries so if I like it I will start experimenting with upping the blackberry/beer ratio.

 

[Fly_Guy]

Thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind for future. I went with a mix of Peaches/Nectarines/Blackberries. Ended up with about 5.5lbs of peaches/nectarines and 2.5lbs of blackberries. I'll post pics when it's done.

How did this turn out? Thinking about putting 2 gallons of a saison I have on a combination of blackberries, peaches and apricots and pitching delbrukeii and letting sit for a few months. I'm having a hard time figuring out the ratio I want to use. I have 2 lbs of frozen blackberries I picked up, and thinking I might go with a 3 lb tub of apricot puree and 3 lbs frozen peaches...but is that obnoxiously overkill for a 2 gallon batch? I (and the girl) am trying to create a geuze-like sour super fruit bomb.

 

[Rob2010SS]

This was ok. Wasn't my favorite but that was due to other things I did, not due to the fruit.

This was 8lbs of fruit in 5.5 gallons, which was about 1.45lbs of fruit per gallon. I thought it was kind of subdued actually. I wouldn't call it a fruit bomb at all, not even close. You're at 4lbs per gallon, which might get you to that fruit bomb level!

The thing with the puree is it'll settle on the bottom of the fermenter and you'll lose some volume to that, so you won't get the full 2 gallons. If you're ok with that, I'd say go for it.

I see all these pictures of these fruited beers on social media that when people are drinking them, there's like fruit puree sticking to the side of the glass. I've been wondering how much fruit they're using for that so I'll be curious to see how this comes out for you.

 

[Fly_Guy]

That's good to know about the puree, I've never used it before. I'm going for blackberry and peach flavor so the apricot puree is really just to augment the peach flavor. I've used a paint-straining bag around the end of the siphon with pretty good results before so I'll try that to minimize beer loss, even if I am a bit shy of 2 gallons it won't worry me.

I'll post my results in a few months once it's had some time to sour. Hopefully I'll get that going on the 21st.

 

[Fly_Guy]

That's good to know about the puree, I've never used it before. I'm going for blackberry and peach flavor so the apricot puree is really just to augment the peach flavor. I've used a paint-straining bag around the end of the siphon with pretty good results before so I'll try that to minimize beer loss, even if I am a bit shy of 2 gallons it won't worry me.

I'll post my results in a few months once it's had some time to sour. Hopefully I'll get that going on the 21st.

 

[tellyho]

I wanted to add an alternative: berries in the mash. I started doing this with cranberry saison recipe from AHS. Low mess, easy, well-integrated flavor.

 

[Fly_Guy]

Oops, sorry about the double post, not quite sure how that happened.

How many pounds of berries did you have to add in order to retain berry flavor? I've never added fruit to the mash, but I know it can be hit or miss with regards to whether the flavors are retained.

 

[user 263363]

I wanted to add an alternative: berries in the mash. I started doing this with cranberry saison recipe from AHS. Low mess, easy, well-integrated flavor.

I have been researching adding cranberries to a non-sour beer and this is the second time I have seen it mentioned to add them to the mash. I too am curious what sort of volume you are using.

 

[Rob2010SS]

We do a cranberry kettle sour sour where we add 6lbs of frozen, mashed up cranberries to 5.5 gallons and the cranberry flavor is fantastic. I know you guys are discussing adding to the mash but figured I'd throw in my 2 cents. Here's a pic of our cranberry sour:

 

[Fly_Guy]

Oh man does that look tasty! Any chance you would be willing to share the recipe for that?

 

[Rob2010SS]

Oh man does that look tasty! Any chance you would be willing to share the recipe for that?

Sure I can get it for you tomorrow. It's on my work computer along with my notes from the brew. I'll DM you tomorrow with it.

 

[Fly_Guy]

Thank you kindly!

 

[Phenders]

Sure I can get it for you tomorrow. It's on my work computer along with my notes from the brew. I'll DM you tomorrow with it.

Any chance I could get that recipe too!!??

 

[Rob2010SS]

Attached my homemade recipe sheet to this response for the cranberry kettle sour. In the recipe sheet, I have it listed as cooking down the cranberries to a puree. That is not what we did. We really just pasteurized them at 180*F in a pot. In doing so, they got very soft, obviously, and we just gently smashed them down. Let it cool a bit, add the cranberries to a secondary fermenter and transferred the beer on top of them. Let it sit for 2 weeks.

Sorry to hijack the thread.

 

[tellyho]

This is the recipe:

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/fall-cranberry-saison/

Basically 2lb of cranberries in a 5gal mash. Just enough to get some flavor. It's really a very tasty recipe; my go to for a fall/winter saison (I always have one on tap).