Raspberry Imperial Stout Help

zacjohnson252 · 08-17-2009, 07:46 PM

Hey everyone,
I'm working on a raspberry imperial stout, which has been in the primary for about two days, and I'm looking for some comments...

the recipe i used for the imperial stout base was created by me using a book (Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels) and computer program (ProMash) at my LHBS as well as advice from the people at my LHBS on things like hop varieties, etc.

the recipe is:

10lbs.(80%) Briess LME-Gold
.5lbs(4%) Crystal 10L
1.5lbs(12%) Roasted Barley
.5lbs(4%) Chocolate Malt

30 min steep at 160deg, 60 min boil

1.5 oz. Galena hops, pellet (12.2 alpha) - 60 min
1.0 oz. Fuggle hops, pellet (4.8 alpha) - 5 min end of boil

american ale yeast

expected OG was 1.081, although I got distracted and forgot to take a gravity reading when I transferred to the primary (rookie mistake, I know), so the gravity reading I took after 24 hours of hard-as-can-be, blow-the-airlock-off fermentation, the gravity was down to 1.067.

I am planning on adding 3lbs. of thawed, pureed, seeded, and pasteurized frozen raspberries to the primary once the original fermentation slows down to the point i would usually rack it over to a secondary.

Comments/questions? I'd especially like any comments or advice on the raspberry addition!

jevchance · 08-17-2009, 09:31 PM

Comment: sounds tasty.

**velotech** · 08-17-2009, 10:00 PM

Yes, it does sound tasty. I used about the same about of raspberries last year for my holiday stout. They were whole, fresh raspberries, so I added them at flameout. Since then, I've done 2 fruit beers with frozen. I added to the secondary, then racked on top and let sit for a week or two. You might get additional fermentation from the fruit sugars, so make sure it's done before bottling.

zacjohnson252 · 08-20-2009, 01:26 AM

what kind of beers did you use frozen fruit in? if they were stouts/dark beers, did you use the same amount of fruit as I am thinking, and how prominent was the fruit taste?