Suggestions for raspberry red ale

I thought it would be nice to try a fruity beer for fall (instead of the standard pumpkin ale), and I picked up a raspberry red ale extract kit. I then read some reviews of it and found complaints about the raspberry extract being overpowering, and giving it an unnatural or fake flavor. So I'm going to throw that flavoring in the garbage and use something else. Such as fresh/frozen raspberries or another kind of fruit, or even a mixture of fruits would be good (point is, something real- not an extract or flavoring)? So just wondering if there were any suggestions..?

Lots of posts on this here. Use either fresh/frozen raspberries, or a raspberry puree, which comes often in 3 lb cans and is usually sold at your LHBS. If you use fresh or frozen, be sure to pasteurize the fruit, but don't boil it. The puree in the cans comes pre pasteurized and is without the seeds, keeping things simple. Add the fruit in the secondary. Good luck.

if you got the kit from midwest, you might have seen my dislike for it in the reviews.

the ale itself had little body, and that flavoring was just terrible.

if i were to do it again i would buy a frozen puree and put it in a secondary.

I was more looking for what other types of fruit would be good in a beer, other than raspberry? maybe another kind of berry, or cherry, or mango, watermellon, i dont know - something like that?

How do you pasteurize fruit? Or just in general. I've never pasteurized anything and I was considering an american wheat with raspberry for my next batch.

Diaperload said:

How do you pasteurize fruit? Or just in general. I've never pasteurized anything and I was considering an american wheat with raspberry for my next batch.

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add a small amount of water to fruit, and bring to 145 F and hold for 30 minutes, OR 30 seconds at 160 F. The higher you take the temp, the more you risk setting pectins that will cloud the beer. 160 F will not set the pectins, but you might overshoot the temperature.

thats all pasteurization is? good to know.

You can also get frozen fruit puree at many ethnic grocery stores. I used passion fruit puree and it was much better than the extract version of the same beer. I added it at knockout and stirred until there were no more chunks. It also helps cool the wort that way.

Is knockout after you turn the burner off?