Blueberry 2

This past weekend I got the place to myself. It would have been totally awesome to be with my wife and baby at the Pitchfork Festival. But, I did have lots of brewing things to do. At least I got to see Sonic Youth have a rockin good time playing their Daydream Nation set on Friday night.

Saturday after work I had to bottle the Hop Blend IPA in order to make room for the Matrimony Ale on Sunday. I took advantage of a still and quiet house and bottled the Belgian Strong Dark Ale as well. Since that one was in 3 separate secondary jugs, I decided to use a piece of equipment little used for bottling. The bottling bucket...a bucket I only use for mixing grains, sterilizing hoses and bottles and stuff, and sometimes as a hot liquor sparge water tank. Bottling went well, and these beers taste pretty darn good.

Sunday was the day to rack the Matrimony Ale to secondary. So I decided to brew a beer to pour right over the yeast cake in the primary carboy. I knew I wanted to do a fruit beer. Blueberries like last year? Raspberries? Passion fruit? I did some research and shopping round. Since Trader Joe's was selling 2 lb boxes of big plump and ripe blueberries for a very reasonable price, I had to go with them.

Last year's experimental Blueberry Ale had a very light malt base with very little crystal and no wheat. This time, for some reason, my confidence is up and I brewed a large batch. I wanted to go with a solid wheat percentage with enough sweetening support from a few crystal malts. I also thought some citrusy hops would pair well, and since Amarillo also has a fruity character, I used it for the aroma addition.

Brewing went very well, and I got good stats. Check out the recipe and stats below. I got only two photos of the rinsed and dried blueberries laid out right before freezing on Wednesday.

Blueberry 2
4.25 gallons (w/ blueberries...could be more in the end!)

Grains
4.00 lbs. 2-Row Pale Malt
1.75 lb. Wheat Malt
1.00 lb. Flaked Wheat
1.00 lb. 6-Row Pale Malt
6.00 oz. Crystal 40L
2.30 oz. Crystal 60L
1.75 oz. Special B

Hops
.50 oz. Amarillo, 8.7%, whole, bittering
.25 oz. Cascade, 7.6%, whole, bittering
.30 oz. Amarillo, 8.7%, whole, 5min-aroma

Fruit
4.00 lbs. Fresh Blueberries, hand squeezed, in wort at 140*F
4.00 lbs. Fresh Blueberries, hand squeezed, in 2nd half of primary

Yeast
Wyeast American Ale, large yeast cake from previous batch

Brewday Stats

Salts added to boil: 1/2 tsp Gypsum, 1/8 tsp Calcium Chloride

Mash Temp: 155*F
Mash Time: 1 hour
Mash-out Temp: 162 (always comes out low?)

1st Batch Gravity: 1.060
2nd Batch Gravity: 1.025
Preboil Gravity: 1.043

Original Gravity w/o blueberries: 1.054 (1 point over target)
Approx. IBU: 29
Color/SRM: 15-20 (with fruit)

Brewhouse efficiency: Approx. 75%
Cost: $35.76, $4.74/6-pack, $0.79/12oz bottle

Progress

1. I went out to catch a movie right after brewing, and when I got home there were bubbles coming out of the blow-off hose. I then retired for the night at around 10PM. In the morning there was a steady, but fairly slow bubbling. And now as I post this entry, the bubbling seems to be slowing way down. Not sure what's happening here. Either there was enough yeast to chew through everything throughout the night, or it got stuck for some reason. I suppose a gravity check will answer this.
2. A gravity check on Tuesday evening did informed me that the wort finished fermenting, and was settling down. This marks the shortest fermentation of all my brewings. Done overnight! WOW that's fast. And it tastes ok.
3. I added the second round of blueberries on Tuesday night. 4 more pounds of plump blueberries squeezed into a thick pulp. This second addition started to ferment within an hour, and continued for about a day.
4. Periodically, as I walk past the boiler room, I give the carboy a light swirl because the blueberries have a strong propensity to float above the surface. Because the boiler room is halfway down the hallway, its easy to remember.
5. Racked to secondary on July 27th. The color is simply amazing. Looks more like wine than beer. The color of the base beer was probably around 9, but now with all the crushed blueberries its more like 15-20. So far so good. Looking forward to tasting it when its done.

6. I think the photos below totally rock. I love the colors and the way the blueberries look all funky. The whole blueberries that managed to slip through my fingers while hand crushing rested on top of the layer of pulp. Thank you my dear for taking these.
7. Bottled on July 31st. It's color is amazing. It tastes very good. Clean, light, with great blueberry taste and aroma. There was a sort of awkward lager/6-row malt flavor that has since vanished. There is a very nice soft acidity too. I wanted enough carbonation to hold a head for a little while (which should turn out reddish-purple) so the 4oz. of priming sugar should bring the CO2 volume to about 2.65.

Blueberry Ale & Sour Corn Ale

The idea of making a sweet corn flavored ale stewed around in my mind for about a year, until the opportunity to try it, presented itself. After acquiring two 4000L conical flasks from a friend, I easily got into an experimental ale phase.

After visiting Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Maine in 2004, I came away tasting some very good blueberry ales. Since that trip I wanted to make a blueberry ale of my own.

I decided to brew both of these at the same time. The grains for both recipes were steeped/mashed together to form that part of the recipe. After that, each recipe becomes quite different with the choices for malt extract, hops and bitterness, and fruit.

Sour Corn Ale (Corn Cob Ale)
1.125 gallon

Grain & Extract (OG 1.048)
1 lb. Pale DME
.25 lbs. Vienna
2 oz. Crystal 10
2 oz. Carapils
1 oz. Crystal 120
1.5 lbs. Organic Corn, frozen (2nd Fermentor)

Hops & Spice (29 IBU)
.25 oz. Perle, 6.1%, whole, FWH
.125 oz. Hallertau, 5.8%, whole, 45min
.5 tsp. Ground Pepper, 10min
.125 oz. Hallertau, 5.8%, 5min

Yeast: Collected Thames Valley Ale

Outcome
It was quite a surprise how this ale turned out. The corn did not contribute any sweetness at all. In fact, it developed a very pleasant sour taste. My only presumption is that the corn could have had some sort of wild yeast/bacteria that reactivated and consumed residual sugars. The combination of medium spicy notes from the hops and ground pepper, and the overall rich golden malt sweetness, it was quite refreshing. Though there was plenty of carbonation, a head didn’t develop as intended, nor did it stick around. It pairs very well with a burger and fries.

1 year later...
This beer tasted AMAZING. It smoothed out so much and became "simply" complex. Almost too simple to describe. The sourness and any sweetness vanished. The carbonation was full and smooth. There was an oxidation in the aroma, but not really in the taste. Overall, it took on a quality much like an aged Belgian Tripel but in a unique sort of way. I'll definitely play around with whole corn again, both in fermentation and in secondary.

Blueberry Ale
1.125 gallon

Grain & Extract (OG 1.048)
1 lbs. Muntons Super Light DME
.25 lb. 2-Row
2 oz. Crystal 10L
2 oz. Carapils
1 oz. Crystal 120
1 lb. Organic Blueberries, frozen (2nd Fermenter)

Hops
.125 oz. Willamette, 4.2%, pellets, 60min
.125 oz. Willamette, 4.2%, pellets, 30min
.125 oz.Tettnanger, 4.1%, whole, 10min
.125 oz. Tettnanger, 4.1%, whole, KO

Yeast: Collected Thames Valley Ale

Outcome
It has a nice purple hue to its otherwise pale gold color. There is a faint blueberry scent. All of its flavors are bright and sort of sharp. The hop bitterness may have been a little high. The blueberry flavor is light but definitely present. There is a slight alcohol/metallic taste to it. Overall, its a drinkable beer. I think some wheat or flaked barley could give it a more smooth flavor and mouth-feel. Perhaps the hop flavor and aroma was a little aggressive, and shifting the hop schedule to bittering hops with less aroma would help the blueberry taste and aroma come through more.

1 year later...
An amazing beer. It's carbonation was full and very soft. Similar to the Corn Ale, the overall aroma and flavor was smoothed out but was also much more flavorful. Its sort-of hard to describe. It had a faint aroma of blueberries, and the flavor was super smooth. Absolutely great. I will be aging my current Blueberry 2 for at least 1 year!