Need help - blueberry beer

Just moved my cherry cream ale to the secondary (assuming cherries and blueberries would use a simlar process). Soaked dried cherries in vodka for two weeks. Added that whole mixture plus a pint of tart cherry concentrate. Will leave for in the secondary for two weeks. Made this beer after I tried a friends whose was amazing.

Thanks everyone. Your advice has been great.
I still have a couple of questions.

1. Is it really necessary to deep freeze the berries since I intend to blend them into pulp anyway (thus breaking the skins)?

2. I have only 2.6 kg of blueberries. I don’t want to buy more cuz they don’t come cheap where I live. I’m also concerned that more berries will result in more alcohol once they have fermented (and Im sure they will). The beer is already in my primary and the OG was 1.032.

About the yeast, I used safale s-33. The strains you mention are hard to comed by here.

Freeze the berries. It will break the cell wall and get better juice. Just do it. And throw them in the blender when they are frozen. Easier to clean and get the most out of them and keep sanitary.

Originally posted by ogivlado
My friend is getting ready to make a beer and since he isn’t on RB I’m going to be middleman. So here are the things that he would like to know.

Hi guys

I’m getting ready for brewing a blueberry beer for the first time and, as you might expect, I have some questions.
Has any of you had any experience with this style of beer? If yes, can you give me some tips?
I mean I don’t know when to add the blueberries. I’m thinking somewhere toward the end of the boil should be ok.
Also do you think that 2kg of bluberries is sufficient for a batch of 20 lit.?
I want my beer to be about 4.5-5.0 in alcohol content.
I’ll be using only Belgian pils malt and blueberries. (I don’t want to experiment much with this beer)
If there’s somewhere some link it’s also welcome.

Thanks in advance

An update on my Blueberry Berliner, it’s a very pretty purpley burgundy color. The berries come through and are subtle. I added them when I pitched the yeast, 17 hours after I pitched the lacto. I highly recommend the Vintner’s Harvest purees. They are aseptic, 100% fruit. No worries of infection. I’ve used them in both beer and mead and they are terrific.

Freeze the berries. Rinse in hot water toss into a secondary filled with Star San FOAM. Mass the sh!+ out of it with a potato masher then add the beer just at the point it’s almost fermented. Oh and you can’t add too many blueberries....up to 20 lbs for 5 gallons. White Labs 002 leaves a bit of residual sweetness and clears up nicely. We’ve done a least 4 batches and never had any infection. Ditto on the New Jersey berries! Yum!

The best advice here is to use REAL NEW JERSEY BLUEBERRIES! you cant go wrong


New Jersey is a bit out of my way since I live across the pond.Thanks anyway

Originally posted by bb_brewer

The best advice here is to use REAL NEW JERSEY BLUEBERRIES! you cant go wrong

New Jersey is a bit out of my way since I live across the pond.Thanks anyway

Not sure if I’m too late for this but you may want to add a drop or two of pectin enzyme. Grocery stores and home brew shops should carry this in a tiny bottle. That tiny bottle goes a long way. The pectic enzyme will help clear the beer, plus keep the fruit from clogging the siphoning process. And I can’t stress enough when using fruit during fermentation (or secondary), DO NOT rush to bottle it. I recently did a mad elf clone using 2lbs of clove honey and 4 lbs of cherries. Also just bottled a blueberry stout about 2 months ago. I used pectic enzymes in both and both cleared up nicely.

Originally posted by ktaylor570
Not sure if I’m too late for this but you may want to add a drop or two of pectin enzyme. Grocery stores and home brew shops should carry this in a tiny bottle. That tiny bottle goes a long way. The pectic enzyme will help clear the beer, plus keep the fruit from clogging the siphoning process. And I can’t stress enough when using fruit during fermentation (or secondary), DO NOT rush to bottle it. I recently did a mad elf clone using 2lbs of clove honey and 4 lbs of cherries. Also just bottled a blueberry stout about 2 months ago. I used pectic enzymes in both and both cleared up nicely.