American Wheat/Blackberry Wheat

I previously mentioned that my gravity of my what was quite a bit high. I prefer my wheat beers to be sessionable and this one was going to be too strong, so at bottling instead of boiling my sugar in 2 cups of water, I boiled it in 48 oz. (6 cups). I estimate that this will dilute the 2.33 gallons of plain American Wheat down to 1.055 – still a bit high for a wheat, but certainly better than the 1.064 with which I started.

For the blackberry portion, tentatively titled “The Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the Juuuuuce” (a line I got from Zebrahead – what you haven’t seen it? Not a surprise, I’m the only person on earth who has seen it), I froze then thawed 5 lbs. of Virginia blackberries, added ½ gallon of previously boiled water (in an attempt to drop the starter gravity) and then racked 3 gallons of the American wheat on top. I let the beer sit on the blackberries for 5 weeks before bottling.

What I ended up with was a refreshing (albeit still a bit strong), wheat beer with great sour notes from the blackberries. There is blackberry evident in the aroma, taste and definitely the purple color. Next time I do a fruit beer, I’ll need to find a way to keep the fruit particles from getting into the bottles.