Fruit Beer Requiem Raspberry

I just racked 6 gallons into secondary on top of 48 ounces of thawed fresh frozen raspberries.
OG = 1.057
Gravity into Secondary = 1.010

Color was gorgeous and clarity was great. Looking forward to this one.

I made the extract version of this recipe and it turned out great and is gone... It literally lasted a week and a half, and everybody said the same thing.. you made this????

Quick question, browsing freezer sections and found raspberries labeled "all natural" checked ingredients and raspberries is wondering if those will work since a 48oz bag is quite a bit less expensive then organic.

Thanks

Farrarj86 said:

Quick question, browsing freezer sections and found raspberries labeled "all natural" checked ingredients and raspberries is wondering if those will work since a 48oz bag is quite a bit less expensive then organic.

Thanks

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Just make sure there is no added sugar. otherwise, you will end up with a stronger/dryer beer. unless you like the dry/strong beer.... ha ha

I made the all grain version and used the 48 ounce frozen berries thawed with the juice and it ended up a little too dry for my taste. Still a very solid brew. I may mash at a higher temp next time. Implants on brewing this again in the early spring.

bellinmi88 said:

I made the all grain version and used the 48 ounce frozen berries thawed with the juice and it ended up a little too dry for my taste. Still a very solid brew. I may mash at a higher temp next time. Implants on brewing this again in the early spring.

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Oh yeah it is came in around 6.5% ABV.

JonnySax said:

Just make sure there is no added sugar. otherwise, you will end up with a stronger/dryer beer. unless you like the dry/strong beer.... ha ha

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Figured as much but being my second brew I'd double check

Farrarj86 said:

Figured as much but being my second brew I'd double check

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For what it's worth, I brewed mine with an organic berry mix (Blueberry, Raspberry, & Blackberry) that I picked up at Costco for pretty cheap. The brew turned out absolutely fantastic and I cleaned the berries with some 151 as others had suggested.....strained the juice and 151 out and was left with 2 cases of great beer and a bonus bottle of Very-Berry 151! :rockin:

I've brewed this for my 2nd time. 1st time I tweaked & made a Blond with Raspberries............. it was EXCELLENT. Now it's the OP's turn, but I have to be honest............... I've changed up the yeast again. The Wyeast 1056.

But I'm always cheating, I bought a different frozen raspberry package this time............. it says, "sucrose added" Tell me again why sugar in the raspberry's is a bad thing. I haven't added anything, help me before it's too late.

Edit: Big Picture............... lessons to be learned................................ 1) Read the WHOLE thread..................... even the 4 posts before yours. 2) Keep it simple stupid (KISS), different yeast is all I added............... you got that right? I read it again & I didn't get it. 3) HBT is the best brewing community out there.

REAL fruit tastes a heck of a lot better than extract. I had a couple different fruit beers by major labels and almost threw up. THIS recipe kicks ass!

Brewing it again.

Thanks eschatz!

I started a batch last night.

No major deviations except I think I have 8.6 AA on my Northern Brewer hops and I am at 13 oz of crystal malt and 3 oz of roasted barley. I got my OG to around 1.056 and my carboy was too full to want to add any more water. Didn't see much activity 6 hours later, but expect it to be in full swing when I get off of work. I started the yeast before pitching it also.

I am probably gonna run a little longer on primary so I can have my secondary when I head to Austin for the weekend two weeks from now.

Will post updates when I can.

I went to Austin last weekend for ACL fest and have had my beer sitting in primary for 16 days now. It had a pretty hardcore fermentation and I used the blow off tube for it. I was gonna remove the blowoff tube valve, but the neck of the carboy was clogged with stuff. The beginning part to of primary was mostly 64-68 degrees, but has since jumped around to 70 to 74 degrees when it was uncontrolled.

Anyways, I am probably gonna throw the raspberries in campdem water overnight and add that to the carboy then rack on top of it tomorrow. My plan is to minimize the amount of campdem water so the raspberries are just under water and just add it to the carboy with the berries. Are there any issues doing this?

Should I dump the berries right in or put them in a grain bag? It will be in a 6.5 gallon carboy.

Love this beer. Made it a few months ago and it is awesome! The only thing I would change is a shorter hops boil and cut the roasted barley in half...as you can see it is a little dark but is actually clear when held to the light.

I bottled my batch on Sunday. I hit 1.056 for OG and 1.012 for FG. Final yield was 14 - 22 oz bottles and 33 -12 oz bottles.

The raspberry is very apparent and it does seem pretty dry. I have no issues with this, but will see what everyone thinks as people drink it.

I ended up with 44 oz of frozen raspberries from Trader joes and I soaked them in a quart of campdem water and added it all to the carboy while dumping the raspberries into a grain bag in the carboy. It was a mild pain to remove, but I was ablt to get it all out of the carboy without removing the raspberries from the grain bag.

I dumped out the used raspberries onto a plate and let my friends guess what it was. They thought it was cat food or raw hamburger.

T-minus three weeks to go.

I just brewed this up with a buddy on Sunday (soo yesterday)! I did take into consideration what all the other people were saying about the flavoring and certain changes they would make the next time they brewed it. So here is what I changed.

6lbs light dry extract
1lbs wheat dry extract
2oz roasted barley
1 lbs caramel wheat
8oz honey malt
Kept the same hop increments as well
But my mom is awesome and country as hell so I've got fresh blueberries, black berries and raspberries instead of just straight raspberry. So we will see how this turns out. Thanks for the inspiration. I'll let y'all know how this comes out.
But it's churning like a mother!!!
I hit the magic OG of 1.060 as well

Quick question that I did not see in the thread and please forgive me since I am a bit of a newbie. What is the boil volume for this? It will be our first non kit brew and kits we used were 2.5 gallon boils while I have done kits that were 5 gallon boils. Also what should the volume be once in the primary. Looking for a straight 5 gallons or looking more for a specific OG? Thanks a lot.

I ended up with a 3 gallon boil. Basically a gallon when steeping and added to two gallons of water after steeping. I would go by the target gravity on how much to add, but keep in mind this does have a strong fermentation that will need some headspace, so probably not much more than 5.5 gallons of beer in the fermenter.

My differences from the kits are standards people seem to follow. Steep grains in a gallon of water at 150-155 for 30 minutes (if you ever overheat this step up to or above 180, chunk it and start over, tannins lead to astringency in the beer) While steeping, heat 2 gallons of water to 165 and set the grains in the pot for 10 minutes, pull out the grains, dump in the steeped water and start the boil. After that heats to boiling, cut the heat and add the DME and stir it up, heat it back up to boiling and I add hops after the hot break when it stops foaming, and that is where to start the timing of the boil.

Just racked into the secondary fermenter. Smells great without the fruit in it. Sanitized my fruit in a slight boil for 15 minutes and made my house smell like a fruit factory lol. Cannot wait to try this out. Also just got my temperature controlled fermentation refrigerator set up too ;-). As well as my grandmas 40 year old glass carboys!!! Score!!

I tried a couple bottles at two weeks over the weekend and it's pretty fantastic. It will be hard not to plow straight through these, gonna try and keep them for thanksgiving and beyond at least.

I did wind up with a lot of sediment at the bottom of these though. Kind of annoying, but not to big a deal as long as you are careful pouring them. I am guessing a filter when bottling or maybe adding the raspberries to soak in primary and then moving to secondary when that's complete. I did use a grain bag for the raspberries also. Most likely I will make this again further down the line, but am only trying to do the same type of beer once a year.

Overall, this recipe is a success.

What about adding the raspberries as a puree to a 5 gallon paint strainer bag to the primary bucket?
I have had good results with this in the past. Any reason for not doing this way ?

I brewed a batch of this beer (o.g. 1.053), so far its been in the primary for 10 days (s.g 1.012) racked it into a secondary on top of 42 oz raspberries for 7 days. s.g 1.010) Now I've removed the raspberries(were in a strainer bag). I plan on leaving it another 10-14 days to clear up and finish. The beer smells good, a bit bitter to taste but the color is still dark brown and not reddish like some shown here. Did I not leave the beer on the berries long enough or did using the strainer bag inhibit the process? Thanks

Mine was not very reddish hued. Although, it is noticeable. I think removing the raspberries and letting sit for a while will be a good strategy since it seems like raspberries can impart extra sediment in the beer if bottling right after. I am guessing pureeing could lead to more sediment, but I bet it will impart more flavor also (the raspberry overpowers most beer flavors as it is).

I was told by the guys at the brew store that it still tasted very green for a raspberry beer and to let it sit for a while to let the flavor mature. I will do that as long as possible, and am currently taking antibiotics for 10 days and can't drink any of the 200 bottles of beer and other stuff at my house at the moment. I have apfelwein and deception cream stout bottled for a week now which will be best in a few months also. Sunday I can drink again.

T-minus 6 days.

I used 36 oz of raspberries and santized them with a light star sans spray. No infection after 5 days in secondary. I kegged it and it is tart, but delicious. Thank you to everyone for their input and suggestions.

I have made this at least a half dozen times using frozen raspberries....I sanitize my secondary...toss in the frozen raspberries...and when they thaw to 68 degrees I rack onto then. Never had an infection.

Well brewed this on Sunday. It then blew the lid off our fermentation bucket the next day. Any advice to avoid a blow off like that?

markus2982 said:

Well brewed this on Sunday. It then blew the lid off our fermentation bucket the next day. Any advice to avoid a blow off like that?

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Did you add the berries to the primary? If you choose that path, you need a blow off tube and a carboy. When I did this... Brew and ferment in primary for about a week. Then add berries when you rack to secondary. I just did a blackberry wheat this way. It looks so good. Can't wait to taste it!

We left the raspberries out. We were waiting to put then in the secondary. Talked to my partner who said that the air lock got clogged

markus2982 said:

We left the raspberries out. We were waiting to put then in the secondary. Talked to my partner who said that the air lock got clogged

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ah, yep that will do it. it happens. thats good that you got a nice strong start to fermentation. ha ha I almost always do my primary in my carboys with a blow off tube now. it all depends on the yeast i guess... even if you think its a safe OG. good luck. it will turn out well I'm sure. hope it didnt cause too much of a mess.

Naw...my brew partner has a spare shower in his basement that we everything in. Just a matter of turning it on. Probably will do a coffee stout next then comeback to this in a brew or two.

I just brewed up three partial mash adaptations of this recipe, using Wyeast Lambic Blend and Wyeast Roselare. I am using black raspberries and dates in addition to red raspberries...will post back in a year with the results.

So when do you transfer the wort to the secondary? After it is all fermentes out.

What would this recipe be classified as? I heard lambic thrown around but it isnt. What would you call it?

For those who don't already have a system for fruiting the wort in the secondary carboy, a good trick is to tie a sanitized grain bag around top of carboy and dump your berries into the bag and just rack right over suspended berry filled bag (works like a charm). This works great for me, zero seeds in my keg lines. I also use a bazooka tube while racking into the keg and that helps catch any stray particles.

Rustyduck said:

For those who don't already have a system for fruiting the wort in the secondary carboy, a good trick is to tie a sanitized grain bag around top of carboy and dump your berries into the bag and just rack right over suspended berry filled bag (works like a charm). This works great for me, zero seeds in my keg lines. I also use a bazooka tube while racking into the keg and that helps catch any stray particles.

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yeah if you want to oxidize your beer...seems like a bad idea to me

Delaney said:

yeah if you want to oxidize your beer...seems like a bad idea to me

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It is a bad idea...

Works like a charm...if you keg. You bleed off the oxy anyways, never had an issue with oxidation on any keg and am a firm believer it is pretty rare in young beer unless your beer is exposed to the environment for long periods of time but hey the beauty of home brewing is...to each his own his own! 12 years of home brewing tells me it works!

My fourth batch of this...best fruit beer recipe.

I used half the Roasted Barley to lighten it up...flavor is still the same.

Sounds like i should make this. Is it reqlly great?

4 batches. It really is.

Rustyduck said:

Works like a charm...if you keg. You bleed off the oxy anyways, never had an issue with oxidation on any keg and am a firm believer it is pretty rare in young beer unless your beer is exposed to the environment for long periods of time but hey the beauty of home brewing is...to each his own his own! 12 years of home brewing tells me it works!

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I still say it's a bad idea...why take this shortcut when better methods exist? If I wanted a half-ass beer I'd go to the grocery store...

Have you done a side by side comparison by splitting a batch of wort, half of which is oxidized via your method, half of which is racked onto berries? If you haven't, how can you say that your method doesn't cause detriment to the beer?

I believe that like myself, you don't understand the chemistry at play well enough to comment on whether or not it is a good idea. Literature indicates that what you are doing is ill-advised.


Furthermore, your idea is especially bad for those who would be bottling their beer.



Like you said, each to his own. Personally I strive for excellence.

I will say that adding your raspberries to the secondary by wrapping the grain bag around the carboy neck and stuffing the berries inside with a funnel works great.

But, be sure to rack the beer normally into the secondary with little oxygen exposure, not on top of the raspberries. Mine still has a maturing raspberry flavor and I only have 2 bottles left. Don't want this batch to be gone.

This recipe highlights the raspberries. Frozen works fine also. Definitely will make again.