Add fruit to primary or rack beer on top of fruit in secondary

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I tasted the frambozen yesterday. It has carbonated up, but only has a hint of raspberry flavor. I like it, but I wouldn't call it a frambozen. The carbonation is low, I'm pretty sure I could have added the syrup from another can of Oregon fruit in syrup to the 2.5 gallons of brown ale to get more raspberry flavor and more carbonation with no bottle bomb issues. I'm going to try again in a few weeks with a much higher mash temp(160F for 75min) and Nottingham yeast.
 
I brewed an American Wheat Beer, it has been fermenting in the primary for 2 weeks. After reading through this thread, I was thinking of steeping 2 lbs frozen blue berries in a mesh bag, then putting the mesh bag into my primary for a week. Im not looking for blue berry beer, just a nice undertone. Does anyone forsee any issues with this method?
 
If it is a blueberry undertone you want, you might want to consider bottling with the following. This is concentrated blueberry juice and is about 2.5lbs of blueberries. It has 18 gram of sugar per serving -- but it is 3 servings -- check this on the label. You get almost 54 grams of sugar which would be 1.9 oz of priming sugar -- this maybe low for a wheat beer priming, but some corn sugar in addition will fix that --- check some of the carbonation calculators on the web.

http://www.rwknudsenfamily.com/products/concentrates/blueberry/
 
This is my 3rd try at frambozen -- as chronicled in this thread. The 2nd attempt was good, but light in comparison to NB frambozen. My current plan is to brew the following recipe for 4 gallons of brown ale with a OG around 1.060.

6lb. Golden Promise
1lb. Belgian Aromatic
8oz Flaked oats
8oz Special B
4oz Crystal 15
2oz Crystal 45
2oz Crystal 70-80
2oz Crystal 155-165
3oz Pale Chocolate

0.5oz Williamette 4.8AA FWH
0.5oz Williamette 4.8AA @ 60min

Mash at 153F for 60 minutes

Ferment with Nottingham or Windsor for 2-3 weeks at 63F.

Bottle 3 gallons of the brown ale(no fruit). Rack the remaining 1 gallon of brown ale onto 2 lbs. of frozen raspberries for 2 weeks @63F. Bottle the 1 gallon of frambozen with 1 can of oregon raspberries in heavy syrup like I did with the 2nd attempt. I'm going for a big raspberry flavor to match the big crystal/chocolate/aromatic flavor.
 
I found R.W. Knudsen juice concentrate in an 8oz bottle at Whole foods -- they have 4 flavors -- black cherry, blueberry, cranberry, and pomegrante. I bought a bottle of black cherry. The 8oz bottle says it is the equivalent to 2lbs of black cherries. Anyone use this before? I wish they had raspberry.

I am currently using their regular strength black cherry juice in (partial) place of spring water for a mead that I'm working on. I added it to primary, and will be racking onto frozen cherries when fermentation's done. I wanted a blend of fermented cherry flavor, as well as plain cherry flavor. I'll update this response when I rack (I'll take SG and taste-test), and after the batch is totally done.
 
I hit my mash temperatures. The boil was a little more vigorous, so I have somewhere between 3.5 and 4 gallons at 1.064. I had vigorous airlock activity the next day around noon, though there is no real krausen. Now it is wait and see were the FG ends at.
 
I just racked onto 5 cans of Oregon Blueberries. Not the puree for homebrewing, but the 15oz cans in light syrup in the grocery store. I drained most of the syrup out of the cans first. I also have the Blueberry Extract from my LHBS on hand. I have a feeling that I'll be adding a small amount of the extract since this brew is for the SWMBO and she wants a decent amount of blueberry flavoring.

We'll see how it turns out:

 
I just bottled a mango wheat Which I racked onto 5 lbs of frozen mangoes (walmart bought) and left in there for 23 days and I'm questionable it smelled like beer looked like beer.. Not a strong mango smell but then again.. Idk what mangoes really smell like .. And for the record it didnt look like a mango
 
Since there is no more airlock activity, I checked the gravity last night. It is down to 1.030 from 1.064. It tastes pretty good, but it is still cloudy. I upped the fermentation temp to 65. 2.5 weeks to go until the fruit!!!
 
If this batch doesn't turn out the way you'd like it, I'd suggest using the Oregon Raspberry Puree rather than the fruit in syrup. I think that the syrup would just add excess sugars that you wouldn't necessarily want in the beer, and the Puree has more of a full, bold fruit flavor than what you're using.
 
I will probably try the puree eventually. I have to get a rich brown ale recipe nailed down before I spend $18 on a 49oz. can of puree. That is way too much fruit for my 1 gallon spilt.
 
Just tapped my second go this morning. I usually only sample when racking so sorry it took so long to update. Raspberry is a little stronger than the first and not as malty but not super sweet by any means. This is the second time that I've had success using frozen berries (not in syrup) in water with a half of a camptden(sp) tablet for 24 hours, the second time i blended the mixture and I think that contributed to the increased berry flavor.

The volumes were also fixed this time by making a strong 4 gal batch and double pitching the English ale yeast then adding the gal of berries 4 or 5 days in after the initial fermentation has died down.

After catching up in the thread it sounds like picking a yeast that does not achieve a real low fg is the way to go. I for both batches I have ended up around ~1.016.

Good luck on your future attempts, I've enjoyed following along since our end goal seems similar
 
I added 1lb of cane sugar(with a little yeast nutrient) to my brown ale yesterday. The gravity reading I last took was 1.030(OG 1.064) which puts the batch at 4.5% ABV -- I was hoping for 6.1% ABV(FG 1.018). I didn't take another gravity reading to confirm that it was still 1.030. I don't think fermentation was stuck. I think the high percentage of specialty grains put a lot of less fermentable sugars in the wort. The airlock started bubbling a few hours later and was vigorously bubbling this morning. The cane sugar should add a little over 1% ABV more. Nottingham is supposed to be pretty aggressive, but I guess less fermentable sugar is still less fermentable sugar.
 
If this batch doesn't turn out the way you'd like it, I'd suggest using the Oregon Raspberry Puree rather than the fruit in syrup. I think that the syrup would just add excess sugars that you wouldn't necessarily want in the beer, and the Puree has more of a full, bold fruit flavor than what you're using.

Yeah, I'd rather have the puree...but it seems it's much harder to get. My LHBS didn't have it and it's expensive ordering online. I drained most of the syrup anyway.
 
Just tapped my second go this morning. I usually only sample when racking so sorry it took so long to update. Raspberry is a little stronger than the first and not as malty but not super sweet by any means. This is the second time that I've had success using frozen berries (not in syrup) in water with a half of a camptden(sp) tablet for 24 hours, the second time i blended the mixture and I think that contributed to the increased berry flavor.

The volumes were also fixed this time by making a strong 4 gal batch and double pitching the English ale yeast then adding the gal of berries 4 or 5 days in after the initial fermentation has died down.

After catching up in the thread it sounds like picking a yeast that does not achieve a real low fg is the way to go. I for both batches I have ended up around ~1.016.

Good luck on your future attempts, I've enjoyed following along since our end goal seems similar

Yeah, I think it is going to be a combination of higher mash temps, big dose of crystal malt-specialty malts, and a less aggressive yeast to get what I want. I'm drinking my 2nd frambozen attempt now and the raspberry flavor is blending better with a little age -- I like it, but it is very mild. My latest attempt is heavily influenced by the Surly Bender kit on NB minus the aggressive hopping. I picked up 10 oz of frozen organic raspberries from whole foods last night. I'm going to use all 10 oz with ~1 gallon of the brown ale. I will check the gravity this Saturday and taste it to determine if I want to let the brown ale age another week on the yeast cake.
 
I recently tertiaried a blonde that I racked onto 12 lbs of frozen strawberries that I crushed. The aroma of the beer after being in the secondary for a week was like strawberry preserves, and the flavor was similar to unripe strawberries, not tart, but left a dry sort of feel to the mouth.

I drew a sample when racking to the tertiary vessel, and it has a funk now, a strange off flavor that all I can describe is odd at the end of the drink near the back of the throat, the flavor isn't on the tongue, but near the end at the swallow.

Anyhow, I have had a fellow brewer offer me a beer with this same strange flavor, and I have brewed a pumpkin ale as well that had this taste.

I was wondering if anyone else has had anything similiar, and could explain it? FWIW, this flavor is accentuated wiht a burp. It is most prominent when belching. This beer has been aging in the tertiary for about a week, and I added 2 tsp of pectin enzyme to help with the cloudiness of the beer.

I'm concerned about the flavor, and I am wondering if it is a bacterial infection of some sort?

Anyhow, any info/feedback would be appreciated.
 
I racked 1 gallon of the brown ale(fg of 1.023) yesterday onto 10oz of organic frozen raspberries and bottled the rest. The brown ale is fairly sweet. I crash cooled the 1 gallon with the raspberries to 38F and I'm going to leave it at that temp for the next two weeks. I'm going for a rich brown ale flavor with a big raspberry flavor.
 
I tasted the brown ale yesterday. It is getting better and is starting to exhibit the flavor I want. The crystal and aromatic malt flavors are starting to blend and mellow. It tastes much, much better then the previous bottle I sampled about 2 weeks ago which had a harsh aromatic malt profile. It is undercarbonated which also effects the perceived sweetness. The 1 gallon split is still on the raspberries. I will probably bottle this next week.
 
I just bottled the 1 gallon split. The raspberry pulp was tricky to handle so as to keep from clogging my unsophisticated bottling equipment. I have a whole new appreciation for New Belgium and their bottling operation for Frambozen. I have heard the brewers have to argue with the operation people over Frambozen because bottling it gums up their operation so badly.

I think the puree would be simpler on the bottling since you can mostly avoid it as it should settle to the bottom -- some of the whole raspberries float while some of it sinks so you have to interfaces to pay attention to.
 
I tasted the "surly bender influenced brown ale" again tonight, this is the base ale of my 3rd attempt at frambozen. The raisin flavor is too much. It may mellow after an extended conditioning, but that seems like the difficult way of achieving a frambozen.

I think I would eliminate the special B and the simpsons extra dark crystal 155-165L to eliminate the raisin flavor. I would replace them with the medium (~40 lovibond) crystal malts instead, or a medium caramel malt. I will return to my frambozen experiment in the fall. My current interest has switched to summer seasonals for the time being --- I bottled a kolsch(it has some diacetyl), last week, my blonde ale is fermenting now, and I'm planning a pale mild and an IPA. The variety of styles makes beer a great experiment!!!! Thanks for everyone's input, I appreciate it!!!
 
You need to treat fruit additions like making wine from fruit. I will use frozen fruit and mash at pasteurize it at home to save money. The fruit and beer should go into primary together. Add Pectic Enzyme at a rate of 1 table spoon per gallon (helps extract more juice from the fruit), I also add a wine cider yeast alone with my beer yeast. I allow the primary to ferment down to .02 specific gravity from final gravity. Rack the beer and leave the fruit and allow secondary to run for 3 weeks and Final Gravity should be achieved. I then rack again and allow the beer to bulk age for at least 2 months just like you would with wine. I have a blueberry Chocolate Stout recipe located here http://hopville.com/recipe/429989/belgian-dark-strong-ale-recipes/chocolate-blueberry-stout . It uses a lot for fruit, 20 pounds, so it is treated even more like a wine in that it will bulk age for 6 months before kegging. The oak and Chocolate powder goes in when it is bulk aging for 6 month. If you are going to use a lot of fruit you MUST be patient and good things will come to you.
 
I've been looking at making a beer resembling NB Frambozen, and I found this:

"Jason, of the New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado, has been with NBB for three years. He previously worked at Abita Brewing Company in Abita Springs, Louisiana. He attended the diploma course at the
Siebel Institute.

Frambozen — a fruited brown ale of Belgian origin — was first brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company during the winter of 1992.

Our Frambozen is not a traditional Christmas beer in any sense, but the high gravity makes it a great winter warmer, and the full raspberry flavor gives you a refreshing memory of stopping to snack on wild raspberries during long mid-summer hikes.

If you would like to brew this beer at home, I would shoot for an OG of 1.064. The mash should be roughly 75 percent pale malt, 10 percent Munich malt, 4 percent sugar, 10 percent caramel malt, and 1 percent chocolate malt. Add corn sugar during the boil.

Bittering hops are very low. roughly 20 IBUs. Add these hops early in the boil. We hop very minimally for flavor or aroma as we find that the hops will conflict with the fruit characteristics of the finished beer. Ferment down to 1.014 FG, holding temperatures barely above 68° F. Use a neutral ale yeast (like Wyeast 1056) or a Belgian ale yeast, or even both. After fermentation rack your beer off the yeast and chill it around 30° F if possible.

After 2 weeks of aging, rack your beer (being careful not to transfer any sediment) onto raspberry pulp. This pulp should equal 20% of your total beer volume, so if you are making five gallons of beer, you should rack onto 1 gallon of pulp. If you use raspberry juice, decrease the amount to 10% of your total beer amount (1/2 gallon for a 5-gallon batch). The high alcohol content should eliminate any sanitation concerns but wash the berries as well as possible.

Rack off the raspberry pulp after about two weeks, then let your batch settle again for several days before bottling."


I think this gives enough information to understand exactly how NB's beer is made, and a great starting point to make my own. Cheers!
 
I'm going to have to try this one again. I have an imperial stout fermenting now so my next frambozen try is about 1 month away.
 
okay so after tons of reading, i have been wanting to make a strawberry blonde. i already had the midwest blonde made and it sat in the primary for just over a week... then i went and got me 5lbs of frozen strawberrys.... put them in a pot, put some water in it and turned on the heat, had a thermoeter in it, but i guess i wasent paying close attention and it got a bit warm. almost 200. i figure thats not a huge deal. the problem i ran into, that i did't think about till it was time. how do ya all get those darn strawberrys through the opening in the carboy? it was a pain in the....
 
Any need to worry about mold if I dumped cherries in whole before pitching yeast and they were just floating on top? Will they drop down or remain on top?
 
When do you add Pectic enzyme to reduce Pectic haze in your beer, and how much per 5 gallon? I'm making a blackberry kolsh and want a nice crisp finish..


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I made a Witbier few months ago and decided to split the batch into 2 batches, 50% Wit and 50% Raspberry Wit. After some readings, here is what I've done :

1. I Bottled 50% of the batch as usual (the Wit)
2. I Mashed ~20oz (600g) of frozen raspberries and put them into a sanitized cotton cheese (I also added a sanitized SS bolt to add weight). My ratio raspberry - beer was 0.5 pound per 1 gallon;
3. I let this sit in primary for a week before bottling.

The result was a very well (woman) balanced beer!

Hope this help a bit !

cheers!
 
So this is my second time making my raspberry blond and I always rack the beer on top of the raspberries in my secondary.
 
Ive heard to add potassium metasulphites. Does anyone have any experience doing this?
 
Ive heard to add potassium metasulphites. Does anyone have any experience doing this?
 
I racked my red ale over blackberries to a secondary bucket over a week ago... the red ale had been in primary for just over three weeks.

I just peaked inside the bucket... blackberries are still floating and have lots of color still... is that normal.. I wasn't sure if they sank to the bottom or became whitish?
 
Ok sorry to bring a dead thread back to life, but i cant find what I am looking for. I plan on making a blueberry ale. 1 week in primary and 1 week in secondary with the blueberry puree added. I normally batch prime with table sugar. Question is do I need to cut down on the sugar, and if so by how much? I am using a Mr Beer fermenter for now, so I use about 2.2oz of Table Sugar for the batch. About how much would I then use??
 
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