# Raspberries In A Wheat Beer



## Tony (17/7/07)

I was looking in the freezer tonight and found a 300g frozen box of raspberies

I have been thinking of brewing a wheat beer for summer and was thinking of doing something fun with it.

I was after any advice from people who have put fruit in a wheat....... are rasberries suitable?

when should i add them and should i put them in whole or mash em up?

cheers


----------



## goatherder (17/7/07)

Keith might have some advice - he put a raspberry wheat in the last NSW case swap. I thought it was pretty tasty - so yes, raspberries are definitely suitable.


----------



## craig maher (17/7/07)

Tony said:


> I was looking in the freezer tonight and found a 300g frozen box of raspberies
> 
> I have been thinking of brewing a wheat beer for summer and was thinking of doing something fun with it.
> 
> ...



I have recently made 2 raspberry wheat beers - and both times have racked directly onto the frozen rasbperries.
Left it on the fruit for 7 - 10 days and then kegged it.
Have also made a raspberry pils the same way.
Got good fresh fruit colour, flavour and aroma this way.

Cheers,

Craig


----------



## Kai (17/7/07)

Tony said:


> I was looking in the freezer tonight and found a 300g frozen box of raspberies
> 
> I have been thinking of brewing a wheat beer for summer and was thinking of doing something fun with it.
> 
> ...




They work really well. If you're using the same frozen raspberries I did, then they don't really need much smooshing. I used one pack in 12 litres of a split batch of hefe and it turned out marvellous. I chucked them frozen into secondary.


----------



## Tony (17/7/07)

thanks craig.

I was thinking of adding them at secondary. How much fruit did you use in how much beer?

how much colour did you get? was it a nice red colour?

kai..... i pack in 12 liters. MMMMMM i will be making 55 liters.

i will 4 or 5 packs then.

cheers


----------



## craig maher (17/7/07)

Tony said:


> thanks craig.
> 
> I was thinking of adding them at secondary. How much fruit did you use in how much beer?
> 
> ...



I used 2 300g packs for 23 litres.
The colour was more a pink blush rather than red.
Give it a go - you wont be dissapointed.
I found all those that tried it liked it - which suprised me for a wheat.
I have one mate that asks for it every time we talk beer.

Cheers


----------



## sqyre (17/7/07)

Great minds think a like Tony... B) 

I was just looking at my bag of wheat thinkin.." might try makin a fruit beer"

although i hadn't decided between using raspberries or blueberries...

I was just getting on here to look up the info..

Sqyre..


----------



## Tony (17/7/07)

sqyre said:


> Great minds think a like Tony...
> 
> Sqyre..



:blink: 

i dont know if im honoured or scared :unsure: 

both i think  

I an going to do this. I will have to buy another 4 or 5 boxes of raspberies but where else am i going to get a respberry weizen?

recipe:

Raspberry weizen

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L): 55.00 Wort Size (L): 55.00
Total Grain (kg): 11.50
Anticipated OG: 1.049 Plato: 12.03
Anticipated EBC: 8.2
Anticipated IBU: 14.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential EBC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
56.5 6.50 kg. JWM Wheat Malt Australia 1.040 4
34.8 4.00 kg. IMC Pilsner Australia 1.038 3
5.2 0.60 kg. Rice Gulls Australia 1.000 0
3.5 0.40 kg. JWM Caramalt Australia 1.036 50

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
80.00 g. Spalter Spalt Pellet 3.50 13.3 45 min.
20.00 g. Spalter Spalt Pellet 3.50 0.7 5 min.


Yeast
-----

WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen


----------



## Kai (17/7/07)

Duck's nuts, Tony. Thump it out, but add those boxes to secondary one at a time till you like the flavour I reckon.


----------



## Back Yard Brewer (17/7/07)

craigm said:


> I used 2 300g packs for 23 litres.
> The colour was more a pink blush rather than red.
> Give it a go - you wont be dissapointed.
> I found all those that tried it liked it - which suprised me for a wheat.
> ...



It must be that time of the year where everyone has the same idea. Was wondering :unsure: when the fruit is added to the secondary do you leave it at the same temp as when fermenting? Because of the sweetness of the berries is there a big jump in the alcohol % I mean wouldnt the yeast kick back in to convert sugars into alcohol. I loved the fruit beer Kreik.

BYB


----------



## tangent (18/7/07)

ok tony, swap you an unexploding bottle for caramel chilli onion jam!


----------



## ozpowell (18/7/07)

craigm said:


> I used 2 300g packs for 23 litres.
> The colour was more a pink blush rather than red.
> Give it a go - you wont be dissapointed.
> I found all those that tried it liked it - which suprised me for a wheat.
> ...



Craig, 

Did you boil the berries before adding them to the secondary, or just add them straight from the package? If so, how long did you boil them for?

Cheers,
Michael


----------



## bconnery (18/7/07)

Tony said:


> :blink:
> 
> i dont know if im honoured or scared :unsure:
> 
> ...



Tony, I've just bottled my rasberry, or in fact mixed berry weizen using those frozen packs. I used 1.3 kg in a 23L batch and it is bright pink. I had no caramalt, just a 60/40 wheat pils splitso the base beer was very light. I think the caramalt will work fine though, just might darken the pink every so slightly, which wouldnt' be a bad thing at all...

Nothing wrong with spalt I think but if you have, or can get, some Hallertau or Tettnang I always think they are great noble hops for fruit beers. Opinion of course...
I didn't boil the fruit, just microwaved them from frozen to thawed following a method I read somewhere...


----------



## Tony (18/7/07)

Origional plan was to go with Tetnanger but i have some Spalt that needs to be used up and have not got around to brewing the Alt i was going to brew. And to be honest im off the idea ATM, so what to use them in....... i will probably end up using the Tetnanger..... it works so well in a weizen.

cheers


----------



## Lukes (18/7/07)

Tony,
The raspberries really dry the beer out so add a little sweetness or adjust the mash to suit.

The last one I did was a American wheat (US-56) and about 2 kg of fresh berries frozen overnight to burst them and dumped into secondary with some home grown tet cones. ( go the Tetnanger)
It was 25 ltr batch.

I found it a little too dry so this year I will add some crystal or choc and mash a bit warmer.
Did not last long and very popular with the ladies and non big beer drinkers.





Luke


----------



## Tony (18/7/07)

sounds fair. How dou think the berries dry the beer out. Was it flavour dry or attenuation dry.

I may well decoction mash it for more malt chartacter too so that will help.

I am thinking now that i may split the 50 liter batch into 2 x 25 liter batches and do half with raspberries and half with blueberries.

What other fruit would be suitable?

cheers


----------



## Lukes (18/7/07)

I think the dryness was a bit of both.
I had not seen that you are adding some caramel malt.

Mine was just Pills and Wheat and a shitload of berries.

I have not made allot of fruit beer just this one as I grow the fruit and hops in the backyard so i'm no expert.
I usually do it as a split batch one with and one with out.

In the fridge I have a old smack pack of Rouge Pacman yeast and when the weather gets a little warmer I intend to make a Black Forest Cake Beer, based on the recipe's I have seen from the U.S.

- Luke


----------



## Tony (18/7/07)

mmmmm with chocolate and fresh cream 

?

I loooove black forest cake.

cheers


----------



## Mercs Own (18/7/07)

In the States apricot and rasberry Heffs are all the go - I reckon blurberries may be a little subtle and get lost. Ever thought about a Rhubarb wheat beer? You would probably want to cook it a bit to break it down with a bit of sugar perhaps or roast it in the oven to soften it before adding to your fermenter.


----------



## Lukes (18/7/07)

Paul,
You have made a fair amount of fruit beer commercially (sorry can't say I tried your peach beer).
The apricot and raspberry sounds good.
Any tricks from the trade you picked up?

- Luke


----------



## craig maher (18/7/07)

ozpowell said:


> Craig,
> 
> Did you boil the berries before adding them to the secondary, or just add them straight from the package? If so, how long did you boil them for?
> 
> ...



Michael,

The berries were not boiled - just straight from the pack (frozen) into the fermenter and racked the beer onto the berries

Cheers,

Craig


----------



## Mercs Own (18/7/07)

craigm said:


> Michael,
> 
> The berries were not boiled - just straight from the pack (frozen) into the fermenter and racked the beer onto the berries
> 
> ...



If you put your fruit in the boil you will get pectin haze in your beer. Dont actually know what that looks like as I never put my peach juice into the boil only into the fermenter. I also use depectinized fruit juice.

Peach in a Heffe would be nice also.


----------



## Blackfish (18/7/07)

Mercs Own said:


> If you put your fruit in the boil you will get pectin haze in your beer. Dont actually know what that looks like as I never put my peach juice into the boil only into the fermenter. I also use depectinized fruit juice.
> 
> Peach in a Heffe would be nice also.



Hey, how about canned fruit in beer? Peaches or maybe apricots (mmm tangy  ) They are cooked though, and have lots of sugar added. Perhaps the fruit in "natural juice" variety. Has anyone tried that? I might be keen if there isn't a reason not to....

FHG


----------



## Mercs Own (18/7/07)

fhgwgads said:


> Hey, how about canned fruit in beer? Peaches or maybe apricots (mmm tangy  ) They are cooked though, and have lots of sugar added. Perhaps the fruit in "natural juice" variety. Has anyone tried that? I might be keen if there isn't a reason not to....
> 
> FHG



I dont see a reason why you couldnt give it a go except that gauging the fermentables and therefore the correct co2 volume in the bottle could be tricky. My last Peach Ale brew over gassed itself in the bottle to the point where I had to take the remaining cases off the market - I assume it was the peach juice. It could also have been a miscalculation on my part but I would rather blame the peach juice.


----------



## petesbrew (18/7/07)

Mercs Own said:


> I dont see a reason why you couldnt give it a go except that gauging the fermentables and therefore the correct co2 volume in the bottle could be tricky. My last Peach Ale brew over gassed itself in the bottle to the point where I had to take the remaining cases off the market - I assume it was the peach juice. It could also have been a miscalculation on my part but I would rather blame the peach juice.


Merc, if you ever have problems getting rid of that overgassed peach ale, I'll be more than happy to assist.

Actually my raspberry blonde last year had lots of blended pulp in the bottles, and over a 9 month period they must've kept fermenting, with the final bottles opened spraying pink beer everywhere.
edit:seeing as we're adding pics, here's mine


----------



## Ross (18/7/07)

Here's a pic of my Blackberry weizen. i used Bramling X for the hops, which worked great. The frozen fruit was simply defrosted & added at end of ferment.




Colour was a beautiful purple, that doesn't quite come out in the pic, though there's a hint of it in the head.

Blackberry hefe 

Amount Item Type % or IBU 
2.50 kg Wheat Malt, Malt Craft (Joe White) (3.5 EBC) Grain 53.2 % 
1.70 kg Pale Malt, Galaxy (Barrett Burston) (3.0 EBC) Grain 36.2 % 
0.50 kg Munich Malt 1 (17.7 EBC) Grain 10.6 % 
10.00 gm Bramling Cross [8.60%] (60 min) Hops 8.5 IBU 
20.00 gm Bramling Cross [8.60%] (10 min) Hops 6.2 IBU 
1.00 tsp Table Salt (Boil 90.0 min) Misc 
2.00 kg Blackberries (Secondary 7.0 days) Misc 
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) Yeast-Wheat 

Est Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.048 SG 
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG 
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 % 
Bitterness: 14.7 IBU Calories: 449 cal/l 
Est Color: 7.2 EBC Color: Color


----------



## craig maher (18/7/07)

Ross said:


> Here's a pic of my Blackberry weizen. i used Bramling X for the hops, which worked great. The frozen fruit was simply defrosted & added at end of ferment.
> 
> View attachment 13788
> 
> ...



Looks and sounds beautiful Ross :beerbang: 
Love the glass too!!

Cheers,

Craig


----------



## TidalPete (18/7/07)

Ross.

Looks great. :beerbang: I will have to give this a go.
That bit of wood(?) in the dam half way up the RHS of that really nice glass could well be the head of our old mate George's cousin Georgina who moved down to SE Qld a short while ago seeking a lifestyle change? They tell me she is partial to Poms?  Will you be checking out my dam info?  

Strawberries are plentiful up here. Has anyone tried them in a wheat??

:beer:


----------



## JasonY (18/7/07)

I'm in berry country for the next three years so plan on doing a bit of experimenting with the fresh (& cheap!) berries around here. Just need to get the brewery a bit more organised before I get into non- standard beers. 

Picked a whole bucket of raspberries on the w/end for $9, just need a bigger freezer and I can go nuts stocking up


----------



## bconnery (18/7/07)

Pete,

Ive done a couple of strawberry wheats. I would impart the following advice, take it as gospel or with a pinch of salt  

2.5kg for a 22L batch, minimum. More is better. Strawberries aren't as intense a flavour so you need more. 

Riper is good. I used a jamming box from a grower one year then didn't and the first one was way better. 

The amounts really depend on what you want fruit character wise. A strong strawberry flavour, bump them up to 5 or more kilos. A strawberry element 2.5-4kgs. 

The much maligned K97 dried makes a good fruit wheat yeast, but one of the liquids would work fine. 

Nice noble hops, with hallertau or tettnang my preferences...Bittered just high enough to balance the fruitiness, but still pretty low - 20IBUs at the outside. 

I just mashed them up and mixed them with a little boiling water but next time I'll probably wash freeze and then defrost in the microwave as per the rasberries...


----------



## TidalPete (18/7/07)

bconnery said:


> Pete,
> 
> Ive done a couple of strawberry wheats. I would impart the following advice, take it as gospel or with a pinch of salt
> 
> ...



Thanks for that mate. :beerbang: 
I am thinking along the lines of a strawberry Belgian here & was thinking a Belgian Wit yeast with hops similar to your recommendation but will look up the K97.
Thinking of a trip to my favourite strawberry farm soon for a few kilos of their rejects (bruised, marked, etc) and look forward to following up your advice & the advice of others interested in this.
Can you explain a jamming box to me? Sounds like a kind of compressing thingy?
See you at the Swap.

:beer:


----------



## bconnery (18/7/07)

TidalPete said:


> Thanks for that mate. :beerbang:
> I am thinking along the lines of a strawberry Belgian here & was thinking a Belgian Wit yeast with hops similar to your recommendation but will look up the K97.
> Thinking of a trip to my favourite strawberry farm soon for a few kilos of their rejects (bruised, marked, etc) and look forward to following up your advice & the advice of others interested in this.
> Can you explain a jamming box to me? Sounds like a kind of compressing thingy?
> ...



Nothing so complex Pete. A jamming box is just a box of strawberries for jamming, or a few kilos of rejects...I just call it that cause the guys where I buy them do...

A belgian wit with strawberries sounds like a good idea to me. The k97, fermented warm, gives a nice suit of mellow fruitiness, kind of wheat without the banana/clove but belgian wit with that tartness would be very nice I think...


----------



## TidalPete (18/7/07)

bconnery said:


> Nothing so complex Pete. A jamming box is just a box of strawberries for jamming, or a few kilos of rejects...I just call it that cause the guys where I buy them do...
> 
> A belgian wit with strawberries sounds like a good idea to me. The k97, fermented warm, gives a nice suit of mellow fruitiness, kind of wheat without the banana/clove but belgian wit with that tartness would be very nice I think...



Sounds good doesn't it Ben. Still got a little research to do as it is still only winter ATM. Plenty of time to get those Belgian yeast maximum temps yet.

:beer:


----------



## Muggus (18/7/07)

Ooo good topic!

I made a batch of Blueberry Hefeweizen a few months back. Bottled it and just waiting for a suitable occasion to crack open a bottle because I ended up with 15 x 330ml bottles of the stuff because of the thick sediment. :huh: 

I basically racked off 7 litres of a strong hefeweizen (7.7%) I brewed onto 900g of frozen blueberries. I'd thawed them out in the fridge over night and gave them a good rinse with hot water and crushed them before adding them into an empty fermenter. 

Haven't tried an official sample, but going by the final gravity sample the colour is a slightly hazy pale purple colour and the blueberry flavour is quite subtle compared to the banana/clove flavours from the hefeweizen base. But we'll have to see once I crack open a bottle with some carbonation and maturation behind it.


----------



## bconnery (24/7/07)

Tasted my mixed berry hefe last night while brewing. 

Fantastic pink colour, even the head has a tinge of pink. 

Taste is almost all tart berry with just a hint of the fruity wheat coming through. 

Was fermented a little cooler so the banana etc flavours aren't really underneath but I think it has worked very well. 

I'll try and remember to add a photo. 

Very simple beer, will do it again some time, either with berries or different fruit. I think this could be my fruit beer base for good now...I might experiment with a little crystal or other specialty grain for depth or something to counteract the dryness a little, but not much. 

60/40 wheat/pils, hallertau or other noble hops, WLP300 yeast... 1.3kgs frozen berries in secondary...


----------



## craig maher (24/7/07)

bconnery said:


> 60/40 wheat/pils, hallertau or other noble hops, WLP300 yeast... 1.3kgs frozen berries in secondary...



Sounds lovely BC - out of curiosity how many IBU?

Cheers,

Craig


----------



## glennheinzel (24/7/07)

K+K Raspberry wheat.

* TCB Wals Wheat 1.7kg
* Liquid wheat malt 1.5kg
* 2 tins of raspberry in syrup (400g each). Frozen and then blended before adding to primary.
* K97 yeast added to primary
* White Labs Hefeweisen IV added the day after K97 was pitched (I didn't want the clove taste to overpower, but my knowledge of yeast has come a long way since I made this beer).
* Racked to secondary after 6 days.
* 1 kg of frozen whole raspberries added to secondary.
* secondary was lagered at 2.5 degrees celcius (where is that thread on creating the celcius symbol when you need it).
* OG 1.065. FG 1.016.

Pictured is the beer (yeast stirred in) after 8 months in the bottle. I don't think I'll bother reposting the same pix in the "what are you drinking thread". It tastes great!

Using a Belgian wit yeast on a similar brew sounds great. I might have to add it to my list of brews to do...


----------



## sqyre (25/7/07)

I've got a wheat in the fermenter at the moment and was seriously thinking about adding some fruit to the secondary...but i'm struggling to find some cheap berries of some sort..



Has anyone ever tried using jam? :blink: 



the thought occured to me the other day while making the youngins sandwiches.

Sqyre...


----------



## troydo (25/7/07)

fozen berries from woolies sounds like what others have used ... they are only a few bucks...


----------



## bconnery (25/7/07)

craigm said:


> Sounds lovely BC - out of curiosity how many IBU?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Craig



Have to confirm but it wasn't many, 15-20 I think


----------



## barls (25/7/07)

try this mob called frozberries. www.frozberries.com.au. 9987 0888.
also when at the last isb brew day myself and another brewer both had raspberry wheat, he used the supermarket berries and i used some farm berries mine had a hell of lot more aroma and little more flavour


----------



## choppadoo (26/7/07)

i made a raspberry wheat last summer using a mixture of fresh/frozen berries and raspberry essence. I heated the berries up to around 70C to sterilise without producing pectins, and chucked them into primary with a kit, wheat malt extract, a couple of vanilla beans and a sprinkle of hallertau for good measure. i found that the raspberry essence dominated early, i put 2 10mL (i think) bottles into a 23lt batch, which turned out to be too much. it was like a beer cordial gone wrong. after about a month in the keg fridge however it mellowed and some of the real fruit characters came out, very nice on the balance. id definitely do it again, but with a more measured hand, cut the essence, and maybe into secondary instead of primary.


----------



## DarkFaerytale (26/7/07)

sqyre said:


> I've got a wheat in the fermenter at the moment and was seriously thinking about adding some fruit to the secondary...but i'm struggling to find some cheap berries of some sort..
> 
> 
> 
> ...



i tryed a 600ml jar of a mixed berry jam in a coopers canadian blonde, could hardly taste it in the end and only added a small amount of color, perhaps adding it into secondary would have been a better idea, make sure you get preservative free stuff if you can

-Phill


----------

