Blackberry Beer/Mead?

DrPaulsen · Post by **DrPaulsen** » Sat Jul 14, 2012 9:50 am

Have any of you guys ever made a beer or mead with blackberries? I was thinking of making a spontaneously fermented blackberry lambic, but it sounds like that might take 2 years to finish out and I'm looking for something else that would be ready a bit sooner.

tompb · Post by **tompb** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 10:19 am

I made some blackberry mead about 2 years ago. I haven't even tried it yet. Now that you bring it up I'll have to.

kurtford · Post by **kurtford** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 5:20 pm

I made a mixed berry beer when I first started brewing, I should have racked it a few extra times for better clarity, the sludge at the bottom was almost a full gallon because of all the berries. Other than that it was pretty tasty for one of my first brews. My best suggestion is to strain off as much of the juice as possible.

prieff · Post by **prieff** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 5:33 pm

I have a raspberry wheat in the keg now. I used a 3# can of puree for vitners harvest. It is a bit cloudy and was an extract beer. I back sweetened it with lactose in the keg cuz it was pretty dry. Havent tapped it yet. May do it tonight or tomorrow if anyone wants to try it. Also have a watermelon wheat as well. If I did these all grain again I would mash pretty high. The fruit really dried them out. On Jul 15, 2012 6:20 PM, "kurtford" <brew-recipes@crbeernuts.org (brew-recipes@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:

I made a mixed berry beer when I first started brewing, I should have racked it a few extra times for better clarity, the sludge at the bottom was almost a full gallon because of all the berries. Other than that it was pretty tasty for one of my first brews. My best suggestion is to strain off as much of the juice as possible.

Beer! It's not just for breakfast anymore!

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DrPaulsen · Post by **DrPaulsen** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 8:20 pm

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I've decided to split my currently-fermenting batch of mead in half and out 2-3 gallons on blackberries in a few weeks. I am also going to make a double-batch of the Consecration Clone in August and put 5 gallons of it on blackberries.

CMLarrison · Post by **CMLarrison** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:05 am

I just recently bottled my mead that I made with noble bee honey and I split in half and racked one onto vintner's harvest raspberry's and the other onto vintner's harvest blueberry's. From what little I have read mead is best the 2 or 3 year in the bottle. I gues we will see how much patience I really have!

quinton · Post by **quinton** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:40 pm

High ABV meads can take a while to mellow out.

I just did a 13% mead and after primary fermentation I split a portion into 4 growlers with different proportions of foraged berries. From what I read, if the ABV is above 10%, the risk of infection from fresh fruit is very low. Freezing fruit first is good because it breaks down the cell wall and makes more juice available.

Either way, this mead is way hot and needs some time to mellow.

You could try a Hyrdromel (low ABV mead) with a sterile fruit puree. Or just through in the fresh fruit and hope for the best.

johnnyik · Post by **johnnyik** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:07 pm

If you are using fresh or frozen berries the I would recommend a gentle heating on stovetop before adding to secondary. Freezing helps break the skins and heating will make the sugar more readily available. Also makes a nicer color. I did a triple berry wheat last year and turned out well.

Steven P · Post by **Steven P** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 11:10 am

I have a blackberry mead as well. From last year's blackberry crop. It added color but little flavor.

DrPaulsen · Post by **DrPaulsen** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 11:12 pm

A month or so ago, I added 5 lbs of blackberries to 5 gallons of a blackberry Dubbell at the end of fermentation. I just pulled a sample from the keg tonight. The blackberries come through in the nose and color. What surprised me, though, is the sour character in the finish. It isn't as complex as a lambic, but it sure seems like the bugs on the berries must have chewed up some of the leftovers from the beer yeast.

Does anyone know if a beer can sour in only 3 weeks? I didn't do much to sanitize the berries - just washed off the dirt & sprayed them down with Star San. If that didn't hurt the souring bugs, I suppose I dumped in a pretty big charge of wild bugs, but I thought bugs moved really slowly and needed several months to sour a beer.

I also added 5 lbs of blackberries to 2 gallons of mead. It added color and aroma, but not much else. Certainly not any sour character.