Hops In A K+b Raspberry Ale

[Jamz]

I've read through all the threads on AHB about making raspberry beers and I'm trying to decide on what hops and how much (if any) I should be adding to my recipe.

My recipe so far stands at:

1x Coopers Canadian Blonde kit
1kg LDME
200g carapils (steeped)
S-04 yeast
1L Raspberry Syrup* (boiled, cooled and added after primary fermentation)


I was thinking of either going with a noble hop like tettnang, or trying to compliment the fruitiness of the raspberries with something like amarillo. I've only ever seen noble hops recommend for raspberry beers on here before, is there a reason for this? And I still don't have a heaps good gauge on how much hops equates to how much flavour and aroma, so can anyone give me an indication of an appropriate amount of hops to use to compliment the raspberry, without drowning it out?




*If anyones interested, I'm going to try using the Maraksa brand of raspberry syrup. This is designed to be consumed like cordial, mixed up with water at a ratio of 35ml per 200ml of water. So with 1L in a 22L batch it'll be about 1/3rd of the strength you'd usually drink. Ingredients: 65% fruit juice + sugar + water + citric acid. no artificial preservatives, colours, sweetners etc. Obviously I'll let this ferment out before bottling!

 

[petesbrew]

I've read through all the threads on AHB about making raspberry beers and I'm trying to decide on what hops and how much (if any) I should be adding to my recipe.

My recipe so far stands at:

1x Coopers Canadian Blonde kit
1kg LDME
200g carapils (steeped)
S-04 yeast
1L Raspberry Syrup* (boiled, cooled and added after primary fermentation)


I was thinking of either going with a noble hop like tettnang, or trying to compliment the fruitiness of the raspberries with something like amarillo. I've only ever seen noble hops recommend for raspberry beers on here before, is there a reason for this? And I still don't have a heaps good gauge on how much hops equates to how much flavour and aroma, so can anyone give me an indication of an appropriate amount of hops to use to compliment the raspberry, without drowning it out?




*If anyones interested, I'm going to try using the Maraksa brand of raspberry syrup. This is designed to be consumed like cordial, mixed up with water at a ratio of 35ml per 200ml of water. So with 1L in a 22L batch it'll be about 1/3rd of the strength you'd usually drink. Ingredients: 65% fruit juice + sugar + water + citric acid. no artificial preservatives, colours, sweetners etc. Obviously I'll let this ferment out before bottling!

Not sure about hop types with this. The raspberry blonde I made I threw 15-20g Cascade in dry hopped. I think it spoiled it, as the two flavours were fighting each other.
The next one I'll just rely on the berry flavour.

 

[bconnery]

noble all the way in my book.
I'll admit I haven't tried anything else though.
I make fruit beers reasonably regularly and things like hallertau, tettnanger (one of my favourites), some of the newer german hops...
Hops that are really fruity on their own would just potentially clash, unless you chose something that compliments the fruit.

 

[Jamz]

noble all the way in my book.
I'll admit I haven't tried anything else though.
I make fruit beers reasonably regularly and things like hallertau, tettnanger (one of my favourites), some of the newer german hops...
Hops that are really fruity on their own would just potentially clash, unless you chose something that compliments the fruit.

Interesting. How much do you typically use for flavour/aroma in your fruit beers?
I want to keep the focus on the raspberry, not on the hops so much. So if I went with say 15g tettnanger @ 15min and another 15g at 5min, is this in the ball park for a fruit beer?

 

[bconnery]

Interesting. How much do you typically use for flavour/aroma in your fruit beers?
I want to keep the focus on the raspberry, not on the hops so much. So if I went with say 15g tettnanger @ 15min and another 15g at 5min, is this in the ball park for a fruit beer?

I tend to do mostly just a flavour addition, with occassionaly a small aroma addition. Those sort of numbers would be alright. I'd probably just go for the 15 minute one if it was me but go for it!
I haven't made a rasberry only one though, so I don't know how they'd interplay...