Rick's 1994 BlueBeery Ale

Classification: blueberry ale, partial mash

Source: Rick Gontarek (gontarek@ncifcrf.gov), HBD Issue #1477, 7/16/94

This beer has a great blueberry taste!! Last year I made a raspberry ale, but I lost most of the flavor because I added the berries to the primary. Adding the bulk of the fruit to the secondary will ensure a berry aroma and taste! Notice I didn't worry about bugs on the berries (I just washed the berries, that's all).
If you're not prepared to do a partial grain, you can substitute one can of light malt extract for the pale malt. I like Alexander's Sun Country Pale Malt extract because it's one of the lightest I've seen.

Hope you enjoy this! I can't wait until a snowy night in January when I'll pop one of these and enjoy a taste of Summer!

Ingredients: (for 6 gallons)

4 lbs pale malt
1/3 pound crystal malt
1/2 pound cara-pils malt
3 lbs light dried malt extract
1 lb honey
1 ounce Cascade hops (boil)
1/2 ounce Willamette hops (finish)
300 ml Yeast starter of Wyeast 1056 Chico Ale

Procedure:

Mash grains in 1.25 gallons of 77C water to bring temp to 69C. Hold at 69C for 1 hour until conversion is complete. Sparge grains with 1.5 gallons of 77C water. Add dried malt extract, honey, and Cascades to the sweet wort and boil for 1 hour. Turn off heat, add finishing hops and 1 pound of frozen (handpicked) blueberries. Steep 15 minutes. Cool to pitching temp, and bring volume to 6 gallons with water. Pitch yeast. After 4 days, place 4 1/2 pounds of thawed blueberries into secondary fermenter and rack beer over them. After seven days, I transferred the beer to another carboy (a tertiary?), where I let it ferment out a few more days until the hydrometer reading was steady. Bottle with 1 cup of corn sugar.