Anyone brewed with salmonberries?

[cavers]

Here's a question for the Pacific coast brewers out there - has anyone brewed with salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis) before? They're abundant up here in British Columbia, and I'd imagine they grow at least as far south as Oregon. I've made them into jam and baked them into crisps for the last few years, and have always found them to have a nice apricot/orange flavour. So tomorrow I'm going to brew this:

Salmonbeery (6 gal)

10 lbs 2-row
.75 lbs Cara 8
.75 lbs barley flakes
1 oz Perle (60 min)
4 lbs ripe salmonberries (flameout)

Should make an OG of something like 1.050. Could be good, could be underwhelming - only one way to find out.

[Trashman]

[QUOTE=Could be good, could be underwhelming - only one way to find out.[/QUOTE]

That's the spirit!

[BrewDog]

Salmonberries are a pain in the butt! They grow like weeds here.
Good idea to use them in a beer. Let us know how this turns out.

[cavers]

OK - my first impression of this brew is very positive. It's a few days into secondary and there's still lots of suspended yeast getting in the way of the more delicate flavours. Nevertheless, there's a subtle, but quite discernible salmonberry flavour that follows the creamy, malty first wave. I'd compare it to a delicate tangerine flavour, or maybe even lychee. I don't detect any salmonberry aroma, but like I say, it's still pretty yeasty.

Unfortunately (?) my efficiency has improved a lot lately, and my original gravity came out at 1.054. I thought 1.050 was the highest I could possibly hit. I suppose the berries (and Cara and barley flakes?) would've had something to do with this. It's holding steady at 1.008 now, at least, so there's some residual body. But I wouldn't have minded a slightly milder beer. Next year. Anyhow, I'll post again when it clears out.

[HogieWan]

fruits and berries tend to lose their aromatics during primary fermentation. If you brew with them again, adding them to secondary (or to the primary after the initial action dies down) might keep more the the aroma around in the final beer.

[cavers]

Interesting - how would you do this? Pasteurize in boiling water and then dump it all in whole? Or would you strain out the solids?

[HogieWan]

Interesting - how would you do this? Pasteurize in boiling water and then dump it all in whole? Or would you strain out the solids?

I'd probably soak them in vodka and our the whole mess in

[cavers]

Wow - that would be a lot of vodka. I tossed in half a gallon of berries...

[HogieWan]

Wow - that would be a lot of vodka. I tossed in half a gallon of berries...

wow indeed!!! wine makers use campden tablets to kill bacteria and wild yeast in the grapes before adding their strain. For that much fruit, that would probably be the best path.