Berry Beer - Planning for Spring

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BrewCanuck

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So now that we're through the holidays and almost through January, I figure its time to plan a few different beer for spring.

I started with Chilort's Raspberry & Blackberry Beer and modified based on the ingredients that I have available here. I just cannot find Sorghum Syrup here in Germany to save my life, so the base for most of my beers is Rice Syrup.

Berry Beer

Batch Size: 10.25L
Type: Extract / Partial Boil
Boil Size: 6.7L
Boil Time: 60min

Calculated OG: 1.064 Measured OG: 1.061
Calculated FG: 1.013
Bitterness (Tinseth): 18.1IBUs

Grain Bill
1,75 kg Rice Syrup - Boil for 60min
0,70 kg Raspberries, Frozen - Boil for 10min
0,30 kg Blackberries, Frozen - Boil for 10min
0,30 kg Caramelized Wildflower Honey - Flameout

Hop Schedule
10,00 g Tettnang [4,50 %] - Boil 60,0min
10,00 g Tettnang [4,50 %] - Boil 30,0min
10,00 g Tettnang [4,50 %] - Boil 15,0min

0,5 pkg SafBrew Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-33)

So I started with the honey, adding it to a small pot with 1 tablespoon of water and about half a teaspoon of lemon juice. I put this over low heat, constantly stirring until it started simmering. I let it simmer for 10 minutes before removing it from the heat and setting it to the side.

Following the timing identified in the Grain Bill/Hop Schedule, the boil was rather easy. My stove top doesn't seem to be hot enough to maintain a full, hard boil of that much water without a top on the kettle so I generally keep the top about 75% on the kettle and just be cautious of boil over.

When I added the berries, I paused the boil timer and let the kettle come back to a hard boil before I continued.

Chilled the whole batch in the snow outside for about 40 minutes, poured it through a strainer into the carboy, topped off with boiled/cooled water and withdrew a hydro sample. I set this aside to come to room temp and pitched the yeast. The yeast was rehydrated in about 250ml of warm water, starting when the wort was put out to chill.

When I checked the next morning the airlock was burbling nicely at about 2 bubbles per second and some of the hops has floated up to the top. Its a really deep pink colour, I'll have to post a picture when I get home tonight and looks awesome.

I'm planning to rack onto 600g of frozen black berries and 300g of frozen raspberries in about 2 weeks and let it sit for a week before I bottle.

I was thinking about carbing on the high side (2.8-3.0), but would appreciate any opinions.

I'd appreciate any input/insight for what to do next time. Since this one ran so smoothly, I may tag this one as a "brew when I'm bored during the week" beer.

Thanks all
BC
 
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Why did you boil the berries, when the original recipe calls for adding them at the end during cooling, when the wort reaches 160°F? I'd expect that boiling them will set the pectin and cause problems with clarifying....
 
To get more of the colour into the brew, add more sugar to the promary fermentation and, though there isn't a lot in them, they provide additional nutrients into the wort for the yeast. I didn't want to do a nutrient addition to this batch and figured the berries would help.
 
All good reasons, and it's fine if you don't mind about the haze. If you brew this again and decide you want to get it as clear as possible, you could accomplish the same ends without setting pectin by pureeing the berries in a blender or food processor and adding them at flameout or to primary.
 
You could always add pectolase at least 48 hours before bottling. This would help knock some of it out. Then bottle as normal.
 
I'm note overly worries about the appearance. Also I looked if up this afternoon and the berries are considered low pectin fruit anyway.

What do think about the carbonation? Should I go with a higher carb level?
 
I'd check your final gravity and base your carbonation levels on that. If it attenuates highly, then carb high, for a crisp, dry, refreshing fruit beer. With S-33, I'd expect this will be the case.
 
Bottled this up yesterday with 83g dextrose for a carb level around 2.9. It sat for a week on some mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, cranberries, blackberries) then friday I set it to cold crash for 48 hiurs and threw in 20g of pectolytic enzyme. Came out really clear, with a realy deep colour. There isnt much berry aroma to the hydro sample but it tasted great, SWMBO even liked it. Very happy with it.
 
Finally carbed up and ready for a taste (and photo). A little dry and lacking in body but very refreshing. Hops are there but subtle. Next time I'll prob add some malto and maybe a little flavour hops at 20 min.

ForumRunner_20130222_191942.jpg
 
Wow. Nice color! With a drier beer like this I would definitely carb on the high side.

Nicely done and nice write up!
 
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