Batch 15 - Blackberry American Hefeweizen

This will either be a simple American Hefeweizen or a Blackberry American Hefeweizen - I have about 3/4 pound of frozen blackberries, and I've been told a simple wheat beer works well as a base for a berry beer. My original reason for brewing this was to compare American Hefe vs. German Hefe - I've been told us Americans aren't used to real hefeweizen with it's strong bananna and clove flavors.

Since this yeast has a max temperature of 72F and my basement's right at 72F, I may wrap frozen water bottles next to my primary bucket with a towel to drop it a degree or two.

Update 8/21/05: I've wrapped a towel with frozen water bottles around it this morning when it was at 72F and bubbling every few seconds. Looks like I caught it right before it's rapid stage of fermentation - as of 4pm it's bubbling several times per second and is at 69F.

Update 9/2/05: I've transferred to the secondary carboy, and decided to go for the berries. I had about 3/4 pound of blackberries in the freezer, and heated them in a sauce pan then pureed them in a blender to break open the berries. I added this to my secondary container along with the beer.

Update 10/22/05: Finished bottling. I transferred to the bottling bucket using a sterilized new nylon sock as a filter, clamped to the end of my siphon tube. This managed to seperate out a few berries and some fruit pectin that would have ended up in my bottles.

Ingredients:

• 6 lbs wheat malt extract


• 1 oz hallertauer hops


• Wyeast 1272 American Ale II


• ~3/4 lbs blackberries

Brewed: 8/20/05
Bottled: 10/22/05
OG: 1.041
FG1: 1.014 (FG before I added berries - looks like it wasn't really a final gravity)
FG2: 1.012 (final gravity at bottling)
ABV: 3.5%
Status: Bottled