How do I prepare fresh blackberries for my home brewed beer?

Question

I am making a light ale beer and I wanted to add blackberries.

How should I prepare 5 pounds of fresh blackberries for my beer?

Should I pasteurize them in some water (heat to 160 deg. F for 15 minutes) or just wash and freeze them? Should I smash them? Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

I like the coach's answer, I have done this with raspberries, worked fine for me.  I however did not bag the berries, I mashed them and added to the wort while cooking.  Removed the carcasses from the wort when straining into my primary.

Next time, I will use the coaches suggestions

Answer 2

Coach gives a great answer.  5 lbs is ALOT of berries and they provide  complex sugars all of which the yeast wont be able to convert. I suggest you save 1+ lbs of the rinsed, dried and frozen berries to add to secondary fermenter once some alcohol has been produced.  There is some risk of infection but the freezing should kill any nasties the rinsing didnt remove.  Berries in secondary will give you great aroma and some flavor and well as complex sugars for a good prime - so use less prime sugar at bottling.  

Answer 3

If in any way you have access to a UV light it will sterilize the berries. I have read and like the use of alcohol as a sanitizer. Ethanol if you can get it even Everclear is good or use isopropyl alcohol and give them a light rinse of water.

I would lightly maserate them and put them in the aging beer. The juice will leach into the beer very nicely. I feel heating them, especially in water, will leach out some color and flavors that you want in your beer. Keep in mind that the aromatic compounds are volatile and they will go off in the water and vapor-water with heat.

Answer 4

I've never used blackberries before, but here's how I would approach it.

I would put the blackberries in a small nylon sack, something that will let liquids in and out but that won't let seeds or pulp or anything like that out. I would either freeze them (so the skin bursts) in advance or lightly break them while in the sack.

Then, I would add the blackberries (still in the sack) to the wort during the last 15 minutes of the boil. This will pasteurize the blackberries. I would remove the sack and add the cooled wort to primary, and then add the blackberries (still in sack) to the primary.

It should float on top, and you can remove it before racking or transferring to another container for priming. Run some cold water through the nylon with the berries so that any juices still inside the sack go into your brew, and give it a little shake so it all drips out.

I used a similar method for making a peach-flavored wheat beer, and I was very pleased with the results.

Good luck!

Answer 5

If you want a stronger, more pronounced flavor, do everything Coach said, but instead of adding them to the boil, pasteurize them and add them to secondary.  You can pasteurize them in water, near boiling beer, or just mix up a gallon of wort using extract, then dump it and and the bag of pasteurized fruit into your secondary fermenter, preferably a bucket.  That way when you go to bottle, all the fruit is contained in the bag still, and you'll have a more pronounced fruit flavor to your beer.  This is how I always add fruit to my beers, and have always had good luck with it.