This test was for me to see if I prefer a flavor(or even notice) with different time lengths of the fruit in primary fermentation. My normal process was to leave the fruit in the whole month of the primary, but I've started to worry about spoilage and off flavors. Also am I just wasting time and if I can just speed things up.
So this what I did. I made two different 2 gallon batches.
Recipe
9/10
5lbs of wildflower honey
6lbs thawed blueberries in a fruit bag(busted them up as good as I could)
Water too 2 gallons
Pectin enzyme over night
Next morning rehydrated kv1116 and pitched with dap/fermk(total amount staggered over first 3 days)
Aerated
3rd day smashed blueberries with my big potato masher
1 week smashed blueberries more and removed blue berries from one of the batches(call this T1)
2 weeks smashed blueberries and removed other bag(call this T2)
So exact same recipe and process one of them just had the blueberries a week longer.
At the same time I started those batches I also started a 3rd with the exact same process/amounts but with out the blueberries
10/6 all the gravities are .998, I cold crash all the batches, rack and stabilize. The plain batch I added 6lbs of thawed and mashed blueberries(call this T3)
10/9 mashed the blueberries some more. at this point I'm going to leave it alone till it's been two week then I'll rack it again.
So my brain fart, which I'm sure some have already picked up on, is T1 and T2 had more starting sugars from the blueberry juice which gave it a higher abv. While T3 is going to have lower abv and residual sweetness.
Do I back sweeten T1 and T2 to give it an equal tasting chance vs T3? Testing it dry vs sweet doesn't seem like it would be fair but I don't want to hide the blueberries flavor that I'm testing for.
So this what I did. I made two different 2 gallon batches.
Recipe
9/10
5lbs of wildflower honey
6lbs thawed blueberries in a fruit bag(busted them up as good as I could)
Water too 2 gallons
Pectin enzyme over night
Next morning rehydrated kv1116 and pitched with dap/fermk(total amount staggered over first 3 days)
Aerated
3rd day smashed blueberries with my big potato masher
1 week smashed blueberries more and removed blue berries from one of the batches(call this T1)
2 weeks smashed blueberries and removed other bag(call this T2)
So exact same recipe and process one of them just had the blueberries a week longer.
At the same time I started those batches I also started a 3rd with the exact same process/amounts but with out the blueberries
10/6 all the gravities are .998, I cold crash all the batches, rack and stabilize. The plain batch I added 6lbs of thawed and mashed blueberries(call this T3)
10/9 mashed the blueberries some more. at this point I'm going to leave it alone till it's been two week then I'll rack it again.
So my brain fart, which I'm sure some have already picked up on, is T1 and T2 had more starting sugars from the blueberry juice which gave it a higher abv. While T3 is going to have lower abv and residual sweetness.
Do I back sweeten T1 and T2 to give it an equal tasting chance vs T3? Testing it dry vs sweet doesn't seem like it would be fair but I don't want to hide the blueberries flavor that I'm testing for.
