It's Time to Brew Summer Beers!

This weekend New York City saw it's first 70 degree days. No doubt there will be a lot more to come. Nothing is better on a hot day than a refreshing summer brew. Rich malty beers are great in the winter but the summer calls for light and crisp beers brewed with herbs and fruits. I decided to make a blueberry beer and a spiced summer white to celebrate the change of seasons.

I began with a grain starter of Maris Otter malted barley which is a great choice for rich malt flavor that has a light color. I had a lady friend of mine buy some knee high pantyhose. I crushed the grains, stuffed them in the pantyhose and steeped them in a pot full of New York City water. When the temperature reached 180 degrees, I removed the grain sack and put the grains in the compost bin. Don't forget to stir frequently to get full extraction of all that malty goodness.
For hops, I used German Tradition for the finishing and Hallertauer hops for aroma hops. These hops are pretty similar but the Tradition hops has higher acidity. They both have a bold floral aroma with a spicy profile. Sounds perfect for a summer beer!
Look at that creamy goodness!
For blueberries, I'm using New Jersey fruit that I bought last summer and froze to store through the winter. By the time I drink this beer, the first blueberries of the season should be at the farmer's market. My frozen berries still have that amazing peak-of-season flavor. Buying "fresh" berries in April basically means that they flew in from South America. Aside from being environmentally unsustainable, out of season berries taste awful. I wouldn't even use them for beer; if something has no flavor of itself, it certainly won't as a part of beer.
For the second batch of beer, I'm using coriander (left) and grains of paradise (right). Coriander, which is actually the seeds of the cilantro herb, adds a distinct lemon flavor. Grains of paradise is a rare African herb which has an intense pine flavor. Put together, these seeds give the beer a true summer taste. (Think of Hoegaarden).
To release the flavor you must be first crush the seeds. Then just dump in the wort after the boil.
The herbs don't present much risk of causing a bacterial infection but the blueberries can contaminate the beer. Wash the blueberries well and then steep them in hot wort to sterilize them. Note that if the blueberries are frozen, they can be dumped right into the wort. If the berries are fresh however, they must be crushed to break the skin of the fruits.

You can add fruit either before fermentation or after fermentation, but if you do it before, the flavor will be well incorporated and smooth. If you do it after, the fruit flavor will stand out and be very distinct from the beer. My theory is that if you add it before fermentation, the yeast will consume the sugar in the berries and so the flavors all mix together. If you add it after fermentation, most of the yeast will have already gone dormant so the fruit sugars and aromatics are locked into the beer. This time I'm going for a beer with hints of blueberry well incorporated into the beer flavor, so I'm adding the berries before fermentation.
Next I need to chill the wort. My wort chiller is a coil of copper tubing through which cold tap water can flow. The heat is transfered from the beer to the water. Cooling the beer quickly promotes clear beer because of a phenomenon known as a "cold break" which impacts how proteins bond to each other in the beer. Also, the less time there is between brewing and adding the yeast, the less chance their is for bacteria to spoil the beer. No matter how careful you are with cleanliness, contamination is always a concern and is almost always the difference between a good homebrew and a bad homebrew.
Then pour the beer into the sanitized fermenters!
The starting gravity for this brew was 1.045. This is a light gravity which means the alcohol in these beers will be low. But with the hops, malt grains, fruit and spices I'm using, they should be some favorable brews! I can't wait for a warm July evening to fire up the grill and enjoy one!