# Raspberry beer



## Alimacoz (9/6/13)

Hi guys,

Has anyone had any luck brewing a raspberry beer, I was thinking of keeping it simple and brewing a coopers Canadian blonde and then about 2-3 days into fermentation adding a load of crushed, frozen raspberries in a hop sock.

Any thoughts or comments on this method?


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## chopdog (9/6/13)

I brewed an excellent raspberry porter!!! Was one of the best beers I have ever brewed, but haven't brewed a light beer. Let me know if you want the recipe. I brewed it when I used to do extract but should be too hard for someone to convert to a/g


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## chopdog (9/6/13)

Shouldnt


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## Florian (9/6/13)

'not sure what's his name on here' brewed an excellent Raspberry Schwarzbier that won the BABBs Mash Paddle fruit beer comp run by the Archive Bar in Brisbane last year. 

Not sure if the recipe had been made public but that's definitely a beer worth brewing, although probably a bit harder on a kit base.


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## Alimacoz (9/6/13)

chopdog said:


> I brewed an excellent raspberry porter!!! Was one of the best beers I have ever brewed, but haven't brewed a light beer. Let me know if you want the recipe. I brewed it when I used to do extract but should be too hard for someone to convert to a/g


Thanks I would love the recipe for the raspberry porter!

I do AG BIAB too so I should be fine with the kit version of the beer.

I reckon raspberries in a porter sounds awesome!


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## chopdog (9/6/13)

23Lbatch----Us05 yeast
3kg light liquid malt
1kg dark liquid malt

Steeped
450g crystal
300g choc
90g black

Hops
60g goldings 60 mins

Didn't note down sg or fg, sorry
After 5days fermenting at 18 deg I brought 1.3kg frozen raspberries up to 80 deg just to be safe and to kill off any baddies, then cooled back to 20 deg in the freezer. Poured the raspberries into a 2nd fermenter and racked the beer over ther top, the brew was at 1.030 at this stage. The 2nd time I brewed this a added 50ml choc essence to the keg...... Unreal!!!!!! The beer has a nice roasty/ toasty taste like a porter should followed buy a bit of tartness from the berries with a very light choc taste at the end.

Happy brewing


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## barls (9/6/13)

i did the canadian blonde with 750 gm of farm berries in the primary towards the ends of fermentation.
no sock used.
only added some hallertau to it.


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## Alimacoz (9/6/13)

Thanks chopdog that recipe sounds amazing! 

I've just put this one down as the mrs doesn't like hoppy beers or anything too dark.

1 x coopers Canadian blonde tin
500g light dry malt
500g dextrose

OG 1.040 

I'm going to put 1kg of mixed berries into a hop sock on day 2 or 3 of fermentation

No idea what this will taste like at all, does 1kg of frozen fruit sound enough to have any impact?


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## barls (9/6/13)

from a farm frozen or supermarket?

looks about right heres the one i did yonks ago


> Fermentables
> 
> *Ingredient*
> 
> ...


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## Florian (9/6/13)

crush them up to let all the juices out if you want that extra punch.


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## Alimacoz (9/6/13)

Thanks guys, 

They are frozen from the supermarket barls, in sterile, vacuum packed bags so I was going to defrost them, mash them up in the pack before opening it and then pour the fruit straight into the hop sock and any juices straight into the fermenter.


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## Edak (9/6/13)

I was quite impressed by the white chocolate raspberry pilsner at GABS, does anyone know how they could get that white chocolate flavour going?


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## Alimacoz (9/6/13)

Edak said:


> I was quite impressed by the white chocolate raspberry pilsner at GABS, does anyone know how they could get that white chocolate flavour going?


This sounds awesome, the mrs would be dead impressed if I could make a white chocolate tasting beer! Millions of brownie points from that one


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## Edak (9/6/13)

It smelled sweet like white chocolate, was really impressive


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## Green-Lobster (9/6/13)

Brewferm a belgium canned kit brand put out a raspberry product also a cherry (Kriek ) one . I picked up some out of date cans of an ebay seller in Melb a few years back .
I had 2 goes at it . both turned out well . one tin was meant for 15l but i added another tin of draught bulked it up to 27l .After a weeek i racked it onto 1 kg frozen raspberries from a farm with half a kilo of yellowbox honey and 30grm of tettanger another 2 weeks and bottled it .
was an excellent summer beer and lasted well tasted even better after a year . I have one stubbie left in the vintage section and regret not making more .
Followed the same for the cherry brew . A white mold developed on the hop sock but i bottled it anyway ,made no difference . I have a case of this left and its near 2 years old tasting better than ever. The honey is a great preservative .
a cinnamon stick in at flame out helps to .


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## Smokomark (10/6/13)

Edak said:


> I was quite impressed by the white chocolate raspberry pilsner at GABS, does anyone know how they could get that white chocolate flavour going?



Maybe white chocolate essence?

http://www.amazon.com/White-Chocolate-Extract-Natural-Flavor/dp/B004XWHIWE


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## alimac23 (10/6/13)

Green-lobster said:


> Brewferm a belgium canned kit brand put out a raspberry product also a cherry (Kriek ) one . I picked up some out of date cans of an ebay seller in Melb a few years back .
> I had 2 goes at it . both turned out well . one tin was meant for 15l but i added another tin of draught bulked it up to 27l .After a weeek i racked it onto 1 kg frozen raspberries from a farm with half a kilo of yellowbox honey and 30grm of tettanger another 2 weeks and bottled it .
> was an excellent summer beer and lasted well tasted even better after a year . I have one stubbie left in the vintage section and regret not making more .
> Followed the same for the cherry brew . A white mold developed on the hop sock but i bottled it anyway ,made no difference . I have a case of this left and its near 2 years old tasting better than ever. The honey is a great preservative .
> a cinnamon stick in at flame out helps to .


Thanks i'll have to give this one a shot too!


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## alimac23 (10/6/13)

smokomark said:


> Maybe white chocolate essence?
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/White-Chocolate-Extract-Natural-Flavor/dp/B004XWHIWE


Hmmm that looks interesting, i wonder if it has a very chemical or artificial taste?


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## alimac23 (10/6/13)

OK guys so this one is off to a rapid start, made the kit yesterday and pitched the yeast around 1pm yesterday arvo.

Got up this morning and the Krausen is already half way up the side of the fermenter, looking nice and healthy.

How long should i wait before adding the fruit in a hop sock, i was thinking at maybe a couple of days in?


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## esssee (10/6/13)

Edak said:


> I was quite impressed by the white chocolate raspberry pilsner at GABS, does anyone know how they could get that white chocolate flavour going?


I loved that one as well.

I had heard that it was Cacao Nibs and Vanilla Beans for the White Chocolate taste.

Anybody got any idea wether this would be in Primary, or Secondary?

I am reliably informed that Cacao Nibs can be purchased from some of the Shops near the Queen Vic Market. Might have to get me some.


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## Alimacoz (11/6/13)

Ok so I've put the frozen berries in the fermenter in a hop sock, the blonde has taken on a lot of the berries colour, I'm hoping that 1kg of fruit will be enough to impart a bit of flavour into the beer too.

I was wondering how long I should leave the fruit in the fermenter for? I'm a bit worried about it developing mould if I leave it in there for too long.


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## barls (11/6/13)

i normally left it about 2-3 weeks.


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## alimac23 (12/6/13)

barls said:


> i normally left it about 2-3 weeks.


Thanks Barls, It's taken on a nice red hue from all of the berries but it doesnt smell very fruity (berry fruit) i take it it will come through in the taste and not the smell at the moment as it's still fermenting and kicking out a load of CO2


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## Ross (12/6/13)

Guys, the exact blend we use to get the chocolate flavour in our White choc Pilsner & the GABS winning White Choc & Raspberry pilsner is an in house secret at present. But what I can assure you is though, that we do not use any essences.
In the brewery we use a mix of real chocolate, cacao nibs, vanilla & pure chocolate extract. For the raspberry version we rack the white chocolate pilsner on to raspberry puree at a rate of 60gms/L

Hope this gives you some guidance.

cheers Ross


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## alimac23 (12/6/13)

Ross said:


> Guys, the exact blend we use to get the chocolate flavour in our White choc Pilsner & the GABS winning White Choc & Raspberry pilsner is an in house secret at present. But what I can assure you is though, that we do not use any essences.
> In the brewery we use a mix of real chocolate, cacao nibs, vanilla & pure chocolate extract. For the raspberry version we rack the white chocolate pilsner on to raspberry puree at a rate of 60gms/L
> 
> Hope this gives you some guidance.
> ...


Thanks Ross that's a great help and refreshing to know that no essences are used! 

Thanks for the tips, the experimentation continues!


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## Edak (13/6/13)

60gm/L thanks for that Ross. I guess that means 1.38Kg for a 23L batch


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## Phoney (13/6/13)

alimac23 said:


> Thanks Barls, It's taken on a nice red hue from all of the berries but it doesnt smell very fruity (berry fruit) i take it it will come through in the taste and not the smell at the moment as it's still fermenting and kicking out a load of CO2


You won't get much fruit flavour out of 1kg. I've used 2kg in 23L batches and it comes out as tart & fruity as a drag queen.


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## Vanoontour (13/6/13)

So if this is racked onto a puree, which normally has sugar added, wont the yeast just eat this and then your left with the fruit tartiness again? If you want to leave a sweeter rasberry taste could you make your own puree using lactose as a sweetener? That way the yeast won't eat it.


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## Phoney (13/6/13)

vanoontour said:


> So if this is racked onto a puree, which normally has sugar added, wont the yeast just eat this and then your left with the fruit tartiness again? If you want to leave a sweeter rasberry taste could you make your own puree using lactose as a sweetener? That way the yeast won't eat it.


normally has sugar added? Not if you buy 100% frozen raspberries.

Yes the yeast will eat the sugar and leave a delicious tartness behind. If you really want sweet lollywater beer for girly girls then I suppose you could add lactose in. Or you could just make shandy's with creaming soda. :icon_vomit:


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## Vanoontour (13/6/13)

phoneyhuh said:


> normally has sugar added? Not if you buy 100% frozen raspberries.
> 
> Yes the yeast will eat the sugar and leave a delicious tartness behind. If you really want sweet lollywater beer for girly girls then I suppose you could add lactose in. Or you could just make shandy's with creaming soda. :icon_vomit:


Straight to pigeon holeing someone huh..... When researching rasberry beers a common trait that I found was a lot of complaints about the tartiness as a result. My post was a mere possible solution to this. And 100% frozen rasberries are just that, not a puree

But hey, you feel free to make shandy's however you see fit...


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## donttouchstevesbeer (13/6/13)

I did a raspberry wheat. i bought 2 small punnets fresh from a farm and froze them. then put them in a sock, poured a litre of boiling water over them then added the wheat beer can and some wheat malt and bingo. easiest beer i have made but its come up pretty good. i wouldnt use anymore raspberries as its almost too easy to drink. i think it was like 4-500grams, but its a very easy beer to drink so im saving them for summer


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## Ross (15/6/13)

vanoontour said:


> So if this is racked onto a puree, which normally has sugar added, wont the yeast just eat this and then your left with the fruit tartiness again? If you want to leave a sweeter rasberry taste could you make your own puree using lactose as a sweetener? That way the yeast won't eat it.


Maybe some purees have sugar added. but we buy lots of different purees & they are all 100% pure fruit. Puree is more expensive than whole fruit, but it gives us consistency when brewing commercially & also removes the hassle of breaking down the fruit. 
Slight edit on my earlier post, just realised we buy our puree by the litre not kg, so we are using 3L of puree, not 3 kg.

Cheers Ross


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## Green-Lobster (16/6/13)

Hello again . i have used a health food cordial called, Dr Red Nutracuticals , The Rosella punch , and the blueberry one . i add 100ml when i rack of with 300gm of honey it gives a subtle but distinctive addition to my IPA . http://www.drred.com.au/rosellapunch
its not cheap around 35$ a 750 ml bottle ,but the taste is not chemically wierd , as its meant to be real stuff. With added health benifets .
thats for a 27 litre brew by the way .


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## petesbrew (16/6/13)

As SWMBO loves a certain Belgian framboise, but hates all other beer, it's a personal goal for me to make one for her. So far I"ve been unsuccessful. 

The Canadian Blonde is a great base for it.
I've used about 1.5kg - 2kg for my raspberry beers in the past.
As for hopsocks, I've even used those sock filters that go in the pool skimmers (newly bought of course!). I just boiled it for 5min or so beforehand to sterilise it.

One of the better raspberry beers I did, I reopened a handful and poured in the dregs of a farmhouse ale a mate brewed. A few months later, those bottles took on a whole different character, and were deliciously sour-tart.

Hope this helps.


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## petesbrew (16/6/13)

chopdog said:


> Shouldnt


Ignored. :kooi:


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## Alimacoz (17/6/13)

Hey guys,

Well I bottled the raspberry beer today and it smelt a bit winey, I think as everyone suggested it was the fruit fermenting and the sugar being eaten up, it had a great pink hue to the beer but it'll be interesting to see the flavour after carbonation, ill report back in a few weeks time and give you all an update.


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## thedragon (23/6/13)

I make a raspberry beer once a year. Usually a pils / wheat with 1kg of frozen berries for 20 L. Amarillo at 30 or 40 mins to about 20 IBU. 

Before being added to the FV after primary fermentation has finished, the berries are placed in two litres of water at about 80 deg for two minutes so that any nasties are killed. Berries + the 2L water are tipped in to the FV. 

Bottle conditioned they are drinkable after three weeks, however they really do benefit from six months in the bottle. See if you can hold off really hooking in to yours until summer.


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## BeardedWonder (30/6/13)

It seems that there are more than one opinion about whether to rack onto the fruit, use a hop sock or dump it right into the FV.

Is there a particular reason to get everything off the trub before adding the fruit? Or is it just personal preference??


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## Edak (1/7/13)

Anything that sinks into the trub is essentially lost, that's how I understand it.


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## Ross (1/7/13)

BeardedWonder said:


> It seems that there are more than one opinion about whether to rack onto the fruit, use a hop sock or dump it right into the FV.
> 
> Is there a particular reason to get everything off the trub before adding the fruit? Or is it just personal preference??


Racking the beer off the yeast cake onto the fruit will give you maximum colour. The yeast will absorb colour from the fruit.


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## thedragon (1/7/13)

I've done both: racking and not racking. Last two berry beers, raspberry and mixed berries, I've not racked purely due to additional time that it would have taken to rack (I'm lazy). Colour of the non-racked beer wasn't as vivid as Ross has said, however the flavour was as I had expected and hoped.


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## BeardedWonder (1/7/13)

Ah, good to know it won't react and collapse reality into a vortex of raspberry flavoured dark matter. I was beginning to worry.

Thanks for the info: Edak, Ross and thedragon.

Cheers for that.


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## tiprya (1/7/13)

How do you sanitise your fruit?

I wanted to get some frozen sour cherries, but was worried there would still be yeast on the skins.


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## alimac23 (2/7/13)

Hey Guys, 

I tried one of the raspberry beers at the weekend and it was definitely quite a tart taste, not what i was expecting but then not unpleasant either, they have only been in the bottle for two weeks so it tasted a bit green too, i'll give it another couple of weeks and then try another one.


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## menoetes (5/7/13)

Hi Alimac, I'm glad the beer turned out well, it looks like a really cool idea for a brew. I saw a really similar recipe in an old Beer and Brewers mag I was flipping through yesterday. They call it the 'blushing blonde' and they just use;

1 can of Coopers Canadian Blonde
1 kg of Brew Enhancer (don't remember what number right now and don't have the article with me)
500g of frozen rasberries from the supermarket
kit yeast.

I'm not even sure they instruct brewers to defrost the berries, it did look like a good beer for summer or spring, why not let your beers age until they come into season?


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## thedragon (6/7/13)

tiprya said:


> How do you sanitise your fruit?
> 
> I wanted to get some frozen sour cherries, but was worried there would still be yeast on the skins.


I heat about 2L water to 80 deg and put the berries in there for about 2 to 5 mins. It's enough to kill the nasties. There's a thread on it somewhere in ahb that explains why 80 is the temp you need (I don't recall why). If you're using frozen fruit, you'll need to apply heat to get the water back up to 80.

I then tip the whole lot, water and all, in to the FV.


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## BeardedWonder (14/7/13)

I just took a hydro sample after a week in secondary with 1.5kg raspberries and there is a fair amount of pulp in the sample.
I'm planning to leave it all for another week (in the hopes it will clear up a touch, it's pretty cloudy), but I'm worried that I'll get a fair amount of pulp when I bottle.

Has anyone had any success with filtering pulp out??
I imagine that the yeast filters available from the LHBS would get pretty clogged, pretty quickly with fruit pulp.
Is a siphon my best bet??
Should I rack of to a TERTIARY?? (which would give me a chance to bulk prime...)
Should I suck it and see??

I'm also happy to leave the whole lot sit for longer in the FV if that's needed. 
I'm just not sure which way to jump. Don't want to bother with a filter if it's going to make life difficult, but SWMBO will most likely turn her nose up at floaties in her beer.

ARGH!! 
I feel so conflicted!!


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## carniebrew (15/7/13)

If you plan to bulk prime, you might as well rack it off the pulp into your bottling bucket.


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## BeardedWonder (15/7/13)

I wasn't planning to bulk prime, as I was gearing up to get another brew going, but the pulp has me worried enough to re-think that plan of attack.

I had one of those crazy ideas that border on idiocy at 2am last night.....rack off into a tertiary vessel but strap a hop sock to the end of the hose (sanitised and such). The concept being that the pulp is caught in the hop sock and gets removed with the hose.

Am I crazy??
Is it a ridiculous idea??
Should I stop eating cheesy pizzas after 11pm??


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## thedragon (17/7/13)

Maybe gelatin? There are a few threads on how to best use it. Let us know how you go.


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## petesbrew (17/7/13)

BeardedWonder said:


> I wasn't planning to bulk prime, as I was gearing up to get another brew going, but the pulp has me worried enough to re-think that plan of attack.
> 
> I had one of those crazy ideas that border on idiocy at 2am last night.....rack off into a tertiary vessel but strap a hop sock to the end of the hose (sanitised and such). The concept being that the pulp is caught in the hop sock and gets removed with the hose.
> 
> ...


I say Go for it. Just don't strap it tightly over the hose, strap it at the end of the sock, so any berry pulp has somewhere to gather.
If you've got one of those sediment reducers on your tap already you're going to have a LOT of fun.
The floaties don't exactly help when you're serving it to the ladies.


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## BeardedWonder (17/7/13)

petesbrew said:


> If you've got one of those sediment reducers on your tap already you're going to have a LOT of fun.
> The floaties don't exactly help when you're serving it to the ladies.


Yeah, I figured that sediment reducer was gonna make life interesting.

Gonna brave it this weekend.


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## petesbrew (17/7/13)

BeardedWonder said:


> Yeah, I figured that sediment reducer was gonna make life interesting.
> 
> Gonna brave it this weekend.


Get a nice clean metal skewer ready,to help unclog it.

A previous berry beer I had the berrys all in hop socks - actually they were pool filter socks bought from the shops - a nice sterilse and they did the job beautifully.


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## BeardedWonder (14/9/13)

I know that this thread has died off but I thought I should report back on my Raspberry Beer.....which I only just bottled.

It's been a total time of 45 days in the FV, 36 of those off the yeast trub and racked into secondary and all the fruit pulp.

It actually lost a bit of it's raspberry smell and taste, to the point that I was looking at 24L of pink fizzy water and I decided then that I was in no hurry to bottle it.
Finally got around to it, whacked the FV on a lean a couple of days prior and now the flavour and smell has RETURNED!!!

I'm presuming that it's because I got the fruit sediment moving, which is where all the raspberry goodness was hiding. Sediment didn't prove too difficult in the end, although the FV was on a WICKED lean (sitting on wood and PET bottle lids....high tech stuff).

Thought I'd share my experience. I also had one of the most harmonious, perfect bottling experiences. Everything was in sync. 
I think the Beer Gods were smiling on me today.

Cheers,

BW


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## menoetes (15/9/13)

Well done sir, though I gasped when I saw how long you left it in the FV, Let us know how it tastes in a few weeks


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## BeardedWonder (15/9/13)

Yeah, I'm still a bit nervous that they may not make it through due to some unseen infection, but I'll give it a shot.


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## rheffera (15/9/13)

Raspberry beer pffft What's the matter? Can't handle the complex taste of beer? Go back to vodka cruisers & stop ruining beer. Sincerely, every man who isn't gay. 

Seriously, good luck in adding raspberry or any fruit for that matter, to beer.


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## barls (16/9/13)

menoetes said:


> Well done sir, though I gasped when I saw how long you left it in the FV, Let us know how it tastes in a few weeks


then i wont tell you ive got one over 6 months atm then.


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