Raspberry Beret (Fruit Beer)

[wmfd]

I'll be interested in the results of this. I fear that you will not have enough fruit in it!. My efforts in the past have been poor. The one thing I learned was the need for masses of fruit. Ever wondered why these beers are so expensive.........Fruit!!

Yes, I've already started worrying about that - in some of the recipes I've seen they do seem to need a vast amount of fruit, bit of a shame if it doesn't come out as you want.

Is there any way of using the fruit for something else afterwards? Raspberry beer crumble anyone?

David

[greenxpaddy]

I'll you know how I get on with my raspberry wit.

Total 3.6 kg of frozen rasps in 15 l batch

[orlando]

It is fabulous, the hit of Raspberry that you get is delightful. The colour too is exactly what I wanted. Just a couple of tweaks perhaps and a correction. The recipe is somehow missing the wheat malt (500g) no idea why that was missed off. Because of the fruit acidity and the hop bitterness I would up the crystal to get a litle more residual sweetness (mash a bit higher too) to make it a little more all round friendly, a drink for everyone. Personally I'm not bothered, I love it served a lot cooler than an Ale so below 10c but not quite fridge temps so as not to dumb down the fruit. Now the controversial bit, do you want it cloudy or clear? I have noticed that the beer clears beautifully if left alone with a thicker than usual layer at the bottom of the bottle. I didn't fine this beer and primed to achieve 2.5 vols (85g of sugar in a 15l brew length), I was looking for a big foamy beer that kept bringing the raspberry aroma to your nose. It worked but of course this much carbonation stirs up the yeast and automatically clouds the beer. If you want it clear I would fine (KwikClear is brilliant) leave to settle for 24 hours before bottling maybe with 1/2 the sugar and you would still get fizz but be able to keep sediment under control and would retain the amazing colour. There is a paradox with it though, raspberry aroma is incredible with the early opened bottles but has now begun to fade, but the beer is better now! If you up the raspberries, in the end I used 1.050g not 1.5kg, you might get more raspberry longer I will certainly do it again and will do this. When I made it raspberries were out of season so I was paying a lot for them, I think they need to be frozen to help break open the fruit cells so no point in paying a premium for fresh.

[orlando]

I'll you know how I get on with my raspberry wit.

Total 3.6 kg of frozen rasps in 15 l batch

Wow! That's over 3 times more than mine. I promise you that my level of fruit gives a big hit of aroma and an unmistakable flavour, my worry would be that this becomes more like a cordial than a beer, what is the rest of the recipe as you will need to balance this lot? Make sure you post back once you have given it a fair time to assess it.

[orlando]

Is there any way of using the fruit for something else afterwards? Raspberry beer crumble anyone?

David

I introduced the pulped raspberries straight into the fermenter so they ended up mixed in with the yeast cake (fabulous smell) so I don't think so if you use this method. It might be interesting to try a fruit muslin bag to make it easier to keep trub out of the finished beer, that might give you something to work with.

[greenxpaddy]

I'll you know how I get on with my raspberry wit.

Total 3.6 kg of frozen rasps in 15 l batch

Wow! That's over 3 times more than mine. I promise you that my level of fruit gives a big hit of aroma and an unmistakable flavour, my worry would be that this becomes more like a cordial than a beer, what is the rest of the recipe as you will need to balance this lot? Make sure you post back once you have given it a fair time to assess it.

Here's the brew: ( It didn't mash as high as I wanted because the MT was only half full - hopefully the caramunich will add some sweetness too)

Raspy Wit


Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Bohemian Pils Malt 4 EBC 2 lbs. 3.3 oz 1000 grams 22.8%
Dingemans Pils Malt 2.8 EBC 2 lbs. 10.3 oz 1200 grams 27.4%
Flaked Wheat 0 EBC 3 lbs. 8.4 oz 1600 grams 36.5%
Flaked Oats 0 EBC 0 lbs. 14.0 oz 400 grams 9.1%
Caramunich III 90 EBC 0 lbs. 2.8 oz 130 grams 1.8%
Raspberry Syrup
made from blended sieved frozen raspberries add at 85 deg C (@ 80% sugar content) 0 lbs. 3.5 oz 100 grams 2.3%
Oat husks 300g to prevent stuck mash


The blended raspberries are not 80% sugar - I tried a hydro reading in diluted puree and the calculation came out at 1.045. But there is so much unsievable gunk I am sure the reading is flawed I will base the sugar content on the raspberry packaging. Which calculated means my puree is 8% sugar. I will therefore need 10 times the amount above i.e 1kg of syrup


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Golding Whole 5.7 % 60 mins 0 lbs. 0.5 oz 15 grams 42.9%
Golding Whole 5.7 % 15 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10 grams 28.6%
Saaz Whole 3.8 % 5 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10 grams 28.6%
(Fresh grated orange zest Whole 0 % 5 mins 0 lbs. 0.0 oz 35 grams 0%) not added
Crushed Coriander Seeds Whole 0 % 5 mins 0 lbs. 0.0 oz 10 grams 0%

Sweet pale ale (g)
Gyp 5.5
Cacl 5.5
Epsom 3.3
Nacl 1.4
Chalk 0

Mash at 69.5 degrees C to retain body and sweetness to combat the raspiness.

I did a two stage mash. Half the grist in to protein rest at 50 c then added boiling water and the rest of the grist to get to 69.5c. Reason for this is it means you don't need to decoct to get to the next stage or mash too dry at the protein rest stage. Plus the water heats up quick so the protein rest is only 15 mins. Otherwise you tend to find you don't get a persistent head, head retention suffers. Which is also why only protein rest half. The mash initially was 5.9ph so added another 10g of gypsum and 5g of epsom and got it down to 5.4 but it had risen to 5.6 again by the end of the 100 min mash. Plus lost a bit of temp with the mash tun half full so the temp had dipped to 66c. Hopefully still get some good sweetness remaining.

I have decided not to add orange peel. I think the raspberries will add enough tartness themselves.

Final Volume: 15 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.062
Final Gravity: 1.013
Alcohol Content: 6.4% ABV
Total Liquor: 23.1 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.7 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 17 EBU
Colour: 18 EBC

Prime with raspberry syrup to 2.8 vols CO2

Just waiting to get to the boil

Wy3944 Belgian Wit

will chill to 14c and then let temp rise slowly with fermentation

Just checked preboil gravity and its crap. 1.036. Very poor conversion....The malts are bit old I suppose and I did add 2L extra liquor for increased evaporation on this smaller vol. I am likely to get a lot of evaporation with the buffalo only half full. Could be 1.050 starting...With a big prime we might still get thereabouts! In the end I got to 1.048 x 18 litres. (Too much liquor). Its for the girlies so they will probably prefer it a bit weaker anyway.

[orlando]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the way you have handled the raspberries is steep after the boil. Will you add any to the fermentor at any stage?

[greenxpaddy]

Yep. The remaining puree is to be used to prime. All have been pasteurised at 85oC. And will add pectolase to the puree before hand and to the fermenter just before end of fermentation.

For info, some research just now has discovered that the sugar byproducts of the breakdown of pectin are xylose and arabinose. These are not fermentable by S. Cerevisae. Galactose is but I am led to believe that the main content of the sugar balance are the two former sugars. This is why S.Cerevisae is not the best fermenter for producing ethanol from plant vegetation commercially. The reason I make this point i sso that you can determine when to add your pectolase without worry of your hydrometer readings being off or unidentified fermentation taking place. Best practice I would say is to treat your fruit purees after they have been pasteurised. This way wild yeast will not ferment the puree while you are at the optimum pectolase temperature (being the same ideal temp for fermentation)

[orlando]

I didn't pasteurise the fruit relying on alcohol as the medium for supressing any nasties nor did I know of let alone use anything like pectolase. Maybe I was lucky, it would be something to drink them side by side as they appear to be completely different. Mine is a beer which has had fruit added to it but yours sounds much more like a beer made from fruit.

[greenxpaddy]

Sounds like you have been lucky.

I would be amazed if you haven't introduced wild yeast. But I guess their ability to reproduce is restricted by the small amount of sugar in the rasps themselves and the lack of oxygen in the beer if the rasps were added after FG was reached. However, they may keep munching some of the more difficult sugars from the wort so be careful if you have bottled it.