Blackberry/blueberry cider.

[rwcalvert]

Hello all,

This is my first post. I am trying out the UK version of this as I am American...(yank? Really whatever works), and haven't been able to find the answer there. I have brewed beer for about 15 years. Ciders for a year, and started meads and cysers about 6 months ago. Here is the question. My lovely bride is requesting a blueberry/blackberry cider, prob with a excellent base cider mix from some friends. I have more then enough berries (20 pds. eh, about 9 kg of blue berries, and 15 pds 6.8 kg. of blackberries). I am trying to figure a good balance for 5 gallon recipies.....19 liters or so.. Anyone out there have any good ideas. Much appreciated.

Roger

 

[LeithR]

Not sure if I can help. I regularly flavor my ciders but I use Lowicz Syrups (Polish manufacture) I use 440mL per gallon which works well, never used the berries themselves. But as its a syrup - effectively a reduction of berry juice and sugar - I'd suggest you use a fairly large amount of berries in your brew. Ultimately the flavoring will be down to your own taste. I've tried cider with 220mL of syrup to a gallon which I found didn't work well for me, it was too insipid.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Blackberries have a mild flavour, while blueberries can come through quite strong in wines, so my instinct is to go for a 2:1 mix if you're intending to combine them.

In a few weeks I'm starting a metric gallon (5L) of blackberry & elderberry cider, which will have 750g of berries in 2:1 proportion. That scales up to about 3 kilos (6Lbs 10oz) for a 19L batch, so 2kg of blackberries and 1kg of elder/blueberries. Blackberry flavour benefits from a little extra malic acid, so adding some crabs or bramleys to the mix might be a good idea.

Assuming you're doing several batches, you could do two styles - black & blueberry ("bruiseberry"? :lol: ) and plain blueberry.

These are all just semi-informed guesstimates, based on a gallon of mixed berry turbocider I made early this summer. I'm sure there are others more experienced than me who can confirm whether my instincts are good or not!

 

[rwcalvert]

Thanks for the great posts all. I guess there might be a difference here then there. Blackberries come in 3 varieties, the ones I have are very acidic and lovely. the blueberries are sweet, with a hint of what is best described as pucker. I am thinking I might look to check the pH, and go from there. However, I may try several various combinations and see what works best.. real life vs. theory..