Raspberry Beer

[petesbrew]

Told you!

Yes you did!

Definitely a lot thinner than my 1st attempt.
Bottled last night, and yeah, threw in some lambic sediment in a few thick belgian stubbies.

 

[petesbrew]

Well, I cracked open the first stubby last night. I should've taken a pic, but dinner was on the table.
Shaz had the first sip, and in her words "beery, but nice". :icon_chickcheers:
For a beer-hater, I reckon that's as good a compliment as i can hope for.
And it's early days yet (2 weeks in the bottle), so hopefully it'll improve with age.

Colour is a nice deep pink. Crystal clear, carbonation good. A bit thin on the mouthfeel, but the rasberry definitely shines through. Would be good in the middle of summer. Overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
I'll post a pic in a few days time.

 

[Slightly]

Hey,

just stumbled onto this thread. I'm in the planning stage of a Raspberry Wheat beer (kit), trying to get the plans 100% right so there wont be any mucking around when getting down to business. I have a couple quesitons, which may seem silly, but it would be great if I could get some input on a few questions.

Doing a Thomas Cooper Wheat Beer, with Dextrose and LDM, 1) how long and what temp should I keep this at in primary before moving it to secondary. That is, should I ferment it completely until the reading is close to 1010, then move to secondary?

Putting 2kgs of berries at the bottom of secondary, then move primary accross, 2) what's the best method and equipment to do this?

and 3) how long and what temp should I keep the beer and raspberries going? 4) Is the hydrometer reading no longer important during this stage?

A lot of quesitons, but any advice will surely help me. Cheers.

oh, and 5) what's the go with cold crashing? when?

 

[bconnery]

Hey,

just stumbled onto this thread. I'm in the planning stage of a Raspberry Wheat beer (kit), trying to get the plans 100% right so there wont be any mucking around when getting down to business. I have a couple quesitons, which may seem silly, but it would be great if I could get some input on a few questions.

Doing a Thomas Cooper Wheat Beer, with Dextrose and LDM, 1) how long and what temp should I keep this at in primary before moving it to secondary. That is, should I ferment it completely until the reading is close to 1010, then move to secondary?
BC: You don't say what yeast you are using so I would say go with something in the range it recommends.
I tend to just ferment mine for a week before adding the fruit but again if you want it to be close to finishing then measure it and move it when the hydrometer readings are stable for a couple of days.

Putting 2kgs of berries at the bottom of secondary, then move primary accross, 2) what's the best method and equipment to do this?
BC: I personally just add my fruit to primary, which is kind of finished. I don't mind a little additional fermentation that might occur from the yeast and the sugars on the fruit.
Nothing wrong with secondary though. I would move the beer, using sanitised hose, silicon or other brewing hose, not your garden hose, from one fermenter to another, then put the fruit in.
Have a search around on racking or secondary for equipment if you want but it is kind of is simple as that.

and 3) how long and what temp should I keep the beer and raspberries going? 4) Is the hydrometer reading no longer important during this stage?

BC 3, 4. You can be all scientific about this but I generally do between 1 and 2 weeks.
I don't worry too much about hydrometer readings at this stage. You generally only get a few extra gravity points and the week you want for fruit character will be enough for any additional fermentation.

All this of course is just my opinion, and others will use equally valid methods, this is just the one that has worked for me.

A lot of quesitons, but any advice will surely help me. Cheers.

oh, and 5) what's the go with cold crashing? when?
BC: cold crashing is bringing the beer down nice and low in your fridge, anywhere below around 10C really, to help drop out floaties and get the beer clearer. Again you can get much more scientific but especially for fruit beers it helps get the last of the floaties from fresh fruit to drop down to the bottom of your fermenter...

 

[petesbrew]

Hey,

just stumbled onto this thread. I'm in the planning stage of a Raspberry Wheat beer (kit), trying to get the plans 100% right so there wont be any mucking around when getting down to business. I have a couple quesitons, which may seem silly, but it would be great if I could get some input on a few questions.

Doing a Thomas Cooper Wheat Beer, with Dextrose and LDM, 1) how long and what temp should I keep this at in primary before moving it to secondary. That is, should I ferment it completely until the reading is close to 1010, then move to secondary?

Putting 2kgs of berries at the bottom of secondary, then move primary accross, 2) what's the best method and equipment to do this?

and 3) how long and what temp should I keep the beer and raspberries going? 4) Is the hydrometer reading no longer important during this stage?

A lot of quesitons, but any advice will surely help me. Cheers.

oh, and 5) what's the go with cold crashing? when?

1. I usually give my beers 2 weeks in the primary (depending on how the yeast goes). Usually it's done in a week, that extra week lets the yeast drop to the bottom and clear out the beer.
Only done one wheat beer here, but I'd say 18-20c should be okay....

2. Clear plastic hose, about 6ft long, that fits over the tap from your primary. Actually mine has a bit of tube, like the little-bottler, that goes inside the tap, and the hose goes over that. Got mine from a LHBS years ago.
Other end of the hose either coils inside the 2ndary or attaches to the tap.
Obviously make sure the primary is higher than the 2ndary or it wont work.
Turn on the taps, voila.
3. I'd give the 2ndary a couple of weeks. Hyrdrometer? Well, I take a sample anyway for tasting sake, but you may find it'll drop another point or two.
good luck
Pete

 

[Slightly]

Cheers!

Also, about cold crashing, does the beer start the clear out at a certain temp (e.g. 10 degrees) or will it clear out at least some at say 15 degrees? Just the colder the better? Is it possible to just put ice packs all around the fermenter and it will at least clear the beer a little? (I don't have much fridge space but I like the idea of clear beer

And, while it's on my mind, if I put the fruit in at the end of primary, will the ABV go up due to the sugars in the fruit? If so, how can this be measured?

Thanks again.

 

[petesbrew]

Haven't really had much experience with coldcrashing as I've only got a barfridge. A fermenter won't fit in but a cube will.
Freezer bricks won't really cut it. The idea is to get it really low - like around 4celcius. And that'll drop out the yeast and crap to the bottom.

I'll say this as a guess only. Hopefully someone will correct me.
Adding the fruit to the primary, yeah I'm sure it'll add a bit more gravity, but the yeast cake is still at the bottom of the fermenter. It'll probably start back up again, and ferment out the flavours. The idea of transferring to secondary is to get it off the yeast. Yes there will still be a bit of yeast there, but not too much.

 

[petesbrew]

Well, I cracked open the first stubby last night. I should've taken a pic, but dinner was on the table.
Shaz had the first sip, and in her words "beery, but nice". :icon_chickcheers:
For a beer-hater, I reckon that's as good a compliment as i can hope for.
And it's early days yet (2 weeks in the bottle), so hopefully it'll improve with age.

Colour is a nice deep pink. Crystal clear, carbonation good. A bit thin on the mouthfeel, but the rasberry definitely shines through. Would be good in the middle of summer. Overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
I'll post a pic in a few days time.

I'm sure i've got a photo of this baby somewhere... shall have a look today,
Had one last night, about 6 months old now. Really impressive. The wife had a sip, and said it was pretty good, and smelled gorgeous. Best compliment I've ever got!

I added a few dregs of a sour yeast from Rukh to a few bottles and it really gave it character! I recommend anyone give this a go to a few bottles of their batch.

 

[NDH]

Hi guys,

figured I might as well bump an old thread rather than open a new one, brew went like this:

Thomas Coopers Wheat Kit

1.5kg of Dex
500g of DME
250g of Maltodextrin

(basically a brew enhancer with an extra kilo of dex to dry it right out and boost alc)

US-05 yeast

1060 OG
1010 FG

Racked to 2kg of semi-thawed fresh frozen raspberries in hop socks.


Sitting in secondary at the moment, has been for about a week or so. I let it ferment right out in primary before racking onto raspberries and now in secondary, there is minimal sign of fermentation. I had a taste the other day and it was great, tasted today and its getting a little tart, I intend to put some finnings in and bottle it but am a little concerned about the fruit sugars.

Will the unfermented fruit sugars ferment out during long bottle conditioning and, mixed with carb drops, give me bottle bombs or is there too little yeast/fruit sugars to be concerned about?

I just don't want to waste it or make a mess as I'm pretty amped at the flavour, not bad for a kit.

Cheers

NDH

 

[kevin_smevin]

Hi guys,

figured I might as well bump an old thread rather than open a new one, brew went like this:

Thomas Coopers Wheat Kit

1.5kg of Dex
500g of DME
250g of Maltodextrin

(basically a brew enhancer with an extra kilo of dex to dry it right out and boost alc)

US-05 yeast

1060 OG
1010 FG

Racked to 2kg of semi-thawed fresh frozen raspberries in hop socks.


Sitting in secondary at the moment, has been for about a week or so. I let it ferment right out in primary before racking onto raspberries and now in secondary, there is minimal sign of fermentation. I had a taste the other day and it was great, tasted today and its getting a little tart, I intend to put some finnings in and bottle it but am a little concerned about the fruit sugars.

Will the unfermented fruit sugars ferment out during long bottle conditioning and, mixed with carb drops, give me bottle bombs or is there too little yeast/fruit sugars to be concerned about?

I just don't want to waste it or make a mess as I'm pretty amped at the flavour, not bad for a kit.

Cheers

NDH

Wait a week or so before bottling and all the fruit sugars should have fermented. You should get a decent amount of extra fermentation from the fruit - i did when i made a raspberry beer. If you can, add some pectinase, it will break down all the fruit cell wall sugars that can cause haze. You can get it a grain and grape and i'm sure other home brew stores too.

 

[jakub76]

If it's had a week at ferment temps on the fruit then I reckon it's good to go. There isn't a lot of sugar in raspberries, I think it's about 5% so 2kg of raspberries would give you around 100g sugar. It won't be a frothing mass to chew through that. If you're worried then another week on the fruit won't hurt but I reckon it's good to go. Be careful not to aerate too much when bottling as this kind of beer oxidizes pretty quickly. Also you might want to rack to a bottling bucket or other fermenter to get the beer off all the fruit pulp and seeds. I used a piece of voile cloth over the end of the hose to catch all the lumpy bits.

 

[NDH]

I've used a hop sock which I'm hoping has caught most of the raspberry chunks, its been at ferment temps and the raspberries themselves have lost most of their colour and are an off white colour now.

Might leave for a few more days then chuck the finnings in to clear it up a bit and might even clear some space in the keg fridge to crash chill it for a couple of days. Would love it to be a nice crisp pink colour.

My LHBS has the pectinase in a 50g pack, don't know much about it though. How is it added and how long does it need to do its thing? I reckon I'll take the raspberries out soon and let it sit for a week with this and the finnings in it then bottle time.

 

[kevin_smevin]

I've used a hop sock which I'm hoping has caught most of the raspberry chunks, its been at ferment temps and the raspberries themselves have lost most of their colour and are an off white colour now.

Might leave for a few more days then chuck the finnings in to clear it up a bit and might even clear some space in the keg fridge to crash chill it for a couple of days. Would love it to be a nice crisp pink colour.

My LHBS has the pectinase in a 50g pack, don't know much about it though. How is it added and how long does it need to do its thing? I reckon I'll take the raspberries out soon and let it sit for a week with this and the finnings in it then bottle time.

I'd have to have a look back at my notes, it was a while ago. It did clear up really nicely though so i'd definitely give it a shot,. If your interested and i haven't posted it means i've forgotten. Send me a PM and i'll get onto it.

 

[zoidbergmerc]

I make raspberry wheat beer so I don't really go for clarity but my apple & Raspberry cider is brilliantly clear and I just cold crashed it in the keg fridge for a couple of days.

 

[petesbrew]

Once you've done it, grab yourself a belgian lambic of some sort, and save the dregs.
Grab a handful of the raspberry beers, crack open, add a few drops of the dregs to each bottle, recap and leave aside for a few months.

I did this with mine, and it was awesome!