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ad the day off work yesterday, so I brewed a quick partial extract Belgian Wit. I’m thinking about putting some blueberries in when I transfer to secondary. Anyone have any experience or suggestions with blueberries?
Specifically, I’m interested in the pros/cons of using fresh, frozen or extract. Thanks!
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Oh, I was thinking this suggestion was going to be about the variety of blueberries. The giant ones you see sold fresh in the store kind of suck for cooking. They taste pretty good on their own, but the flavor is just too weak for flavoring. A lot of those are grown in my area. In fact, I just went out and picked a gallon of fresh berries from my bushes.
The "wild" variety, the tiny ones off of really short bushes have a lot more of the blueberry flavor an aroma. That’s why the berries in the little tins for blueberry muffin mix are so small. I seriously doubt those little ones are cheaper than the big ones. It’s that the flavor is bigger.
As for frozen, canned, or fresh, I can’t really help you. It’ll probably be easier to find canned wild blueberries, plus those are sanitized in the canning process. I haven’t used much fruit in brewing, so I can’ really help with the details, though.
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fresh or frozen should be fine. Make sure to freeze them either way to sanitize. That is why I just buy frozen, cheaper as well.
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+1 on the freezing.
Freezing is also recommended for all fruit because it breaks down the cell walls, which helps release more flavor into the beer.
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Plan on at least 2-3 lbs of berries for each gallon of beer.
Blueberries are notorious for having weak flavor in a beer.
Be prepared for purple beer, too. 
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I did a basic Belgian wit last fall and split it four ways: one I added raspberries to, one I added cherries to, one I added a blend of blueberries and blackberries, and one I still have sitting with a lambic blend added, getting ready for some raspberries this summer when they are back in season (which is, I guess, now!)
Out of the three fruit additions, the blueberry-blackberry blend turned out to be the most flavourful, pound for pound. I’m not sure how much of that was due to the blackberries and how much was due to the blueberries, though.
Purists will undoubtedly shake their collective heads in dismay, but when I added the fruit, I put it in a blender with enough beer to make a slurry, then poured that in the fermenter with the rest of the beer. I used cheesecloth when I racked the beer off the fruit, and had no problems.
Good luck and happy brewing!
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Freezing does not sanitize food! Freezing only puts any potentially harmful organisms into a hibernation state and once warmed to room temperature they will once again be alive to do harm. Take precautions when using frozen foods for any room temperature service.
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Thanks for the help everyone.
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i think marin uses some sort of oil or extract in their bluebeery, because its not purple at all, and has the proper level of blueberry flavor, which isn’t much.
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interesting
I have always been told this is good enough and both times I used fruit I have not had an issue (however, one of those times was a sour brew so that doesn’t count. I have also never heard anyone complain of an infection from this method.
Only advice then would be to soak it in some cheapo alcohol for a few minutes then throw it in the freezer, but again who has had problems with infection from this?
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