Hello all, I'm just starting out at brewing, and yesterday I put down a kit and kilo wheat beer that I'm going to make into a raspberry wheat. I've looked at a number of recipes/posts on here and other brewing sites, but I can't decide when it's best to add the raspberries, how many racking stages to use, and whether or not to use finings. I could really use some advice if anyone could please help me out!
The consensus seems to be to add the raspberries in the secondary, so my current model is this:
Day 0: 23 litres wheat beer started (this was yesterday - 18th March 2012)
Day 7: move wort to secondary, on top of 2kg raspberries in grain bag
Day 14: transfer wort to tertiary, away from raspberries; add finings
Day 21: bottle (possibly after a couple of days' cold-crashing - I'm using a fermentation fridge)
The tertiary racking is to get the wort off the raspberries, to limit the amount of debris that they may introduce; the finings are there to take out the possible additional debris. The cold-crash is partly because I've never done one before, and am curious, plus I also have a pale ale in the fermentation fridge, which is staying in its primary for the duration, and might benefit from a cold crash.
I'm wondering if one week is long enough for the wort to be on the raspberries, or whether they should be on for longer to get a fuller taste. The beer will be for my wife's birthday, and she'd like something perceptibly sweet. I'm trying to strike a balance between having the wort on long enough to pick up the raspberry taste, but not so long that the yeast decimates the fruit sugar. (I guess this will happen sooner or later though, as there's always some yeast around.)
Also wondering whether the tertiary/finings/cold crash combo is overkill.
(The raspberries are frozen ones from Woolies; I'm planning to thaw them, then heat them at 75C for 15 minutes, and crush them a bit with a potato masher to get the juices flowing.)
Any thoughts on my approach, and alternative strategies, would be highly appreciated!
Cheers
The consensus seems to be to add the raspberries in the secondary, so my current model is this:
Day 0: 23 litres wheat beer started (this was yesterday - 18th March 2012)
Day 7: move wort to secondary, on top of 2kg raspberries in grain bag
Day 14: transfer wort to tertiary, away from raspberries; add finings
Day 21: bottle (possibly after a couple of days' cold-crashing - I'm using a fermentation fridge)
The tertiary racking is to get the wort off the raspberries, to limit the amount of debris that they may introduce; the finings are there to take out the possible additional debris. The cold-crash is partly because I've never done one before, and am curious, plus I also have a pale ale in the fermentation fridge, which is staying in its primary for the duration, and might benefit from a cold crash.
I'm wondering if one week is long enough for the wort to be on the raspberries, or whether they should be on for longer to get a fuller taste. The beer will be for my wife's birthday, and she'd like something perceptibly sweet. I'm trying to strike a balance between having the wort on long enough to pick up the raspberry taste, but not so long that the yeast decimates the fruit sugar. (I guess this will happen sooner or later though, as there's always some yeast around.)
Also wondering whether the tertiary/finings/cold crash combo is overkill.
(The raspberries are frozen ones from Woolies; I'm planning to thaw them, then heat them at 75C for 15 minutes, and crush them a bit with a potato masher to get the juices flowing.)
Any thoughts on my approach, and alternative strategies, would be highly appreciated!
Cheers