Raspberry beer

[thedragon]

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.

 

[BeardedWonder]

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.

 

[tiprya]

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.

 

[alimac23]

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.

 

[menoetes]

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?

 

[thedragon]

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.

 

[BeardedWonder]

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!!

 

[carniebrew]

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

 

[BeardedWonder]

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??

 

[thedragon]

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

 

[petesbrew]

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??

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.

 

[BeardedWonder]

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.

 

[petesbrew]

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.

 

[BeardedWonder]

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

 

[menoetes]

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

 

[BeardedWonder]

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.

 

[rheffera]

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.

 

[barls]

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.