Blueberry "sea dog" beer

[Daisy317]

I am new to the beer making world (as in I have a kit and have not even opened it). I figure "I've made wine, this can't be too hard, eh?"... Well, my question is about "tweaking" my beer kit.

I have a "True Brew - American Wheat Beer" kit.

Here's the thing... Once upon a time I visited Portsmouth, NH where I fell in love with a blueberry wheat beer from "Sea Dog Microbrewery". I was wondering if I could replicate that beer by using some of the flavor extract stuff that my brew-store dude sells or would that just taste like

If that is a no-go, what is a good alternative and if so what would be a better kit or method to go about making a similar beer?

 

[Tom]

Since you have not made any beer yet I suggest to start with what you have.

Cloning a brew can be hard for a beginner. One thing to do is go to their web site and fine what hops they use. Good chance it may be a Lager and if so thats totally different than brewing Ales.

 

[smurfe]

You will be able to make a blueberry wheat beer with the kit but I highly doubt you will replicate the beer you mention. Now you can do that from an extract batch but you will need to get specific steeping grains, yeast etc. Consider using an alcohol based extract of pure juice and add it after fermentation is done So basically make your wheat beer, when its all good and done add some blueberry flavor and bottle. Blueberry extract is pretty decent.

 

[Tom]

BTW.
Do Not add the flavors in the HB stores. If you want a Blueberry Wheat add REAL blueberries to the secondary.
I will make a Raspberry Wheat in the near future and plan on 4# of Raspberry to the secondary. NOTE; make sure you do this in a bucket as you may get a "volcano" whae it restarts.

 

[smurfe]

The blueberry extracts are not cruddy like a lot of the other fruit flavors. Most I shy from as well and use real fruit but blueberry works pretty good. Now the cherry and raspberry extracts. Yuk. It tastes like cough syrup. Now if you were an experienced beer brewer I would say use the real berries and make up a recipe to suit the brew but using this particular extract kit, I would ferment the beer then add the extract to taste and the carbonate. If you have access to good ripe fresh blueberries though, give it a shot and see what you get out of it.

 

[Daisy317]

Thanks for the advice.

I've never used a fruit extract because I've never needed to, so I think I'm going to give that route a try when the kit is ready. Someday, when I have some batches under my belt, I think I'll try it from a recipe and add real fruit.

I can't start the kit until next week because I have a lot of our fall festival stuff to help with.

The kit was a gift. It was given to me after I talked to a friend about wanting to make beer and someday get corny kegs for the kegerator I want to put in my basement... So I guess I'm just getting a friendly push to get to it? ha!