This is an extract kit I bought specifically to add blueberries to in secondary.
Characteristics
| Expected | Actual | |
|---|---|---|
| OG | 1.056-1.064 | ~1.050~ 1.053 |
| FG | 1.016-1.020 | 1.032 |
| ABV | 5.5-6% | 2.75% |
Notes
- Brewed on 2024-09-07
After helping out a friend with setting up kegs for his meadery, I was gifted a bunch of frozen blueberries. Freezing berries breaks down the cell walls, which makes it easier for use in brewing, so I was halfway to this recipe already…
I am usually disappointed with the OG on extract kits, so I tried something new: I didn’t use the muslin bag for the steeping grains. I just dumped them in the pot and strained them out before the boil.
Everything went well…but I was still a few points shy of the target OG. Better…but not great.
…it wasn’t until I was cooling the wort outside and cleaning up that I saw the priming sugar (which I won’t use as I’m not bottling)…and the 1/2lb maltodextrin that I forgot to add. I guess I saw something that looked like priming sugar and thought to skip it.
I boiled a little water, added the maltodextrin, returned it to the boil for a few minutes and put it outside to cool. Once safe, I’ll add it to the fermenter, sanitize a whisk and give it a good stir. Maybe it’ll get me those last few points.
Fermentation update
- 9/8: 1.053 @ 73°F
Adding the maltodextrin definitely helped the OG. No fermentation activity, though, so I’m worried that pitching happened while things weren’t cooled sufficiently. I grabbed another pack of English Ale yeast and pitched it.
9/9 Fermentation update
- 1.032 @ 73°F
I guess fermentation kicked in ;)
9/12 Fermentation update
- 1.032 @ 75°F
Well, I’ll call it done; I doubt it’ll pick up again, but that FG from the Tilt hydrometer isn’t great. I’ll try my optical and digital refractometers and see which ones agree…
Either way, I’ll prep the blueberries this weekend and move everything to secondary.