Fruit Beer Requiem Raspberry

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Thanks Sip! I racked on top of thawed frozen rasp and cherries and had airlock action within hours, day two and it's still bubbling away. One question, what temp are you all keeping your secondary? I'm at 60 degrees, is that ok or too cold.

Thanks.
 
60 is right about where mine was. I didn't really have an option, it was in my basement. But it turned out amazing!
 
I'm just enjoying another one of these off the keg. I still can't believe how good it is for such a simple recipe!
 
I just put this in the fermentor, I have 1 question. Do you strain the raspberries or how do you rack it?
 
Chefjp said:
I just put this in the fermentor, I have 1 question. Do you strain the raspberries or how do you rack it?
Click to expand...

I just toss frozen raspberries in 151, drain them, place them in a clean, sterilized secondary, then rack on top of them. you may want to strain into a tertiary or into your keg to get rid of some of the seeds that might sneak in.
 
Trying this one out - just put in primary on Saturday.....man is it bubbling like crazy! Glad I followed the advice found here and put a blow-off on. I'm going to try a mixed berry blend I found at Costco (raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry) and definitely like the liquor sterilizing idea. How long did you soak them first?
 
ScreaminReelBrew said:
Trying this one out - just put in primary on Saturday.....man is it bubbling like crazy! Glad I followed the advice found here and put a blow-off on. I'm going to try a mixed berry blend I found at Costco (raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry) and definitely like the liquor sterilizing idea. How long did you soak them first?
Click to expand...

I soaked them for only 2 min until just the outside of the berries were thawed. make sure you let them thaw all the way before you rack on top of them
 
How long do i keep the raspberries in secondary? I was able to find fresh berries, do I add them whole, or crush them?
Thanks
 
Chefjp said:
How long do i keep the raspberries in secondary? I was able to find fresh berries, do I add them whole, or crush them?
Thanks
Click to expand...

I kept them in there till i kegged it. about two weeks. keep them whole to keep seeds to a minimum, freeze them the night before to break the cell walls and release the juice. then when you are transferring to a bottling bucket or a keg, just put a small steeping bag at the end of the hose to catch any rebel seeds.
 
Dalarast said:
Well after a nice long wait I finally got to enjoy some of my Requiem of Raspberry. I followed the recipe to the letter (I printed it out and brought it to the LHBS) and here are my thoughts...

Bitter... but not a bad bitter but a raspberry bitter. Good taste; but I think next I brew it I will attempt to sweeten it some. I find that the more I drink of it the better it taste (or the less I am affected by the raspberry bitter taste).

Great beer and would recommend it to all. I am only sharing this with a few friends and family with that being said due to the fact that I enjoy it a little to much.. like all my brews! :)
Click to expand...


I finally cracked one of my first batches of this I made a month ago. Mine too, is bitter. Will the bitterness mellow with age???
 
aufevermike said:
I finally cracked one of my first batches of this I made a month ago. Mine too, is bitter. Will the bitterness mellow with age???
Click to expand...

Mine mellowed slightly, but so did the rasberry flavor... when i brewed it, I tweaked the recipe a bit to make it more sweet and malty, so now that its aged, its fairly balanced for a malty beer.
 
Chefjp said:
could you share your recipe?
Click to expand...

sure! here it is:

6lb Wheat DE
2lbs Amber DE
14.4 oz Crystal 40L
2.4 oz Roasted barley
0.5 oz Northern brewer 60 min
0.25 oz Cascade 25 min
0.25 oz Cascade 5 min
White labs British Ale yeast WLP005

40 oz frozen Raspberry fruit in secondary

If i were to change anything with the above recipe for ver. 2 , I would want to add a little Cara-pils for some better head retention.
 
Do you think regular Absolut Vodka is strong enough to sterilize my frozen berries? It's the best I have in the liquor cabinet that won't impart any potential flavor....my bourbon's too good to use and I'm not really wanting to go buy any 151 if I don't have to. I plan on racking saturday to the secondary. Any thoughts?
 
ScreaminReelBrew said:
Do you think regular Absolut Vodka is strong enough to sterilize my frozen berries? It's the best I have in the liquor cabinet that won't impart any potential flavor....my bourbon's too good to use and I'm not really wanting to go buy any 151 if I don't have to. I plan on racking saturday to the secondary. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Absolut is usually only 40% (80 proof)... I think that is a little low... As a biologist i was always taught that 70%+ is perfect for sterilizing. I would say that 9 out of 10 times Absolut would be fine, but all it takes is one bad bug and your beer is at risk. depending on where you are located, everclear would work too (I cant get it in PA). Just dilute it down to around 70-75% and it makes a perfect sterilizing solution.
 
sorry for the
noob question, but.....
Recipe calls for: 1 oz northern brewer 6.6% and 1 oz cascade 6.4%
I have 1 oz northern brewer 9.4% and 1 oz cascade 6.6%,
How much of these hops should i use and what formula are you using to arrive at the correct number.
Thank you!
 
harpsbight said:
sorry for the
noob question, but.....
Recipe calls for: 1 oz northern brewer 6.6% and 1 oz cascade 6.4%
I have 1 oz northern brewer 9.4% and 1 oz cascade 6.6%,
How much of these hops should i use and what formula are you using to arrive at the correct number.
Thank you!
Click to expand...

Hi Harpsbight, the % is the alpha acid value. Different Hops have a different amount of the bittering chemical (more info here). Just like how grapes from different years can have different flavor and cause wines to vary from year to year, hops can also vary in alpha acid content depending on the year and where they are grown, so in order to estimate IBU, you should update your brewers software with your values. You may have to adjust the amount of hops you add to get the IBU range you want. I hope that helped.
 
Life has recently gotten in the way of my pipeline. I now have 2 buckets fermenting - a centennial and a Requiem Raspberry. My Centennial will be kegged this week. I'm scheduled to put the raspberries in on Thursday of this week, which is 7 days after brewing. So, here's my dilemmas.

1. I'm probably 2 weeks away from having a free keg. Should I leave it in a primary (without raspberries) for a few extra days?
2. Can I put my raspberries directly into the fermenter rather than racking onto a secondary?
3. Being that it looks like I'm going to have some extra time now, should I let it sit longer with or without the fruit?

I had a minor (I hope) problem when I brewed - I ran out of propane and my boil was about 10 minutes shorter than it should have been. I'm hoping that true to form, this beer hides the mistakes. I also had my first blowout with this beer...which was an interesting find in the middle of the night. (On the good side, my basement now has a wonderful beer smell :) )
 
brewed this up today. used .5 oz of NB @9.4% per beersmith. Excited about this batch as it is my 1st no-kit brew. Baby steps right? I am interested to know the mathematical formula for adjusting the hops amount per %AA change if someone can put it down simple. i am a dork when it comes to math. As is, it is easy enough to plug in #'s to software, but i am still curious.
Thanks for the help!
 
I just tasted it after 2 weeks in secondary and its great, i think it's a bit dry, my wife likes sweet fruit beers, how coul I make it sweeter???
 
nittanybevo said:
Life has recently gotten in the way of my pipeline. I now have 2 buckets fermenting - a centennial and a Requiem Raspberry. My Centennial will be kegged this week. I'm scheduled to put the raspberries in on Thursday of this week, which is 7 days after brewing. So, here's my dilemmas.

1. I'm probably 2 weeks away from having a free keg. Should I leave it in a primary (without raspberries) for a few extra days?
2. Can I put my raspberries directly into the fermenter rather than racking onto a secondary?
3. Being that it looks like I'm going to have some extra time now, should I let it sit longer with or without the fruit?

I had a minor (I hope) problem when I brewed - I ran out of propane and my boil was about 10 minutes shorter than it should have been. I'm hoping that true to form, this beer hides the mistakes. I also had my first blowout with this beer...which was an interesting find in the middle of the night. (On the good side, my basement malty now has a wonderful beer smell :) )
Click to expand...

I would definitely try to do a secondary asap... it will eliminate trub and you will ensure your yeast are still active. once in secondary it can sit for however long you need to clear out a keg. those problems shouldn't bother anything.

Chefjp said:
I just tasted it after 2 weeks in secondary and its great, i think it's a bit dry, my wife likes sweet fruit beers, how coul I make it sweeter???
Click to expand...

try adding a half pound of honey malt. it will add a sweet honey flavor.
 
JonnySax said:
I would definitely try to do a secondary asap... it will eliminate trub and you will ensure your yeast are still active. once in secondary it can sit for however long you need to clear out a keg. those problems shouldn't bother anything.



try adding a half pound of honey malt. it will add a sweet honey flavor.
Click to expand...

I bottled today, i added 1.25 cup of xylitol and 1.25 cup of granulated spendla, it tastes great!!!!
 
Finally racking tonight after way too long in the primary (darn work) - 20 days today. I 'washed' the berry mix in 151 and drained the best I could....It's on it's way into the carboy now and so far it smells like 151-beer. Really hoping this batch isn't going to be compost tea... :-0
 
I thought mine was a bit bitter and it is due to still being green. However, I once bought a 6er of Shocktop raspberry wheat and the first inital drink was, "why did i buy this".... it was terrible. till I read the "instructions", a beer with instruction on how to drink it.... pour into glass till a 1/4 is left in bottle, then swirl and pur rest into glass. At that point I did have a glass so i just tipped and swirled, then AHHHH, that was a good beer. So i tried it with mine and wallah, it tasted great too. gotta mix up the yeasties, I guess.
 
Excited to drink this brew. I have it sitting in the secondary with fresh raspberries that I sterilized with a crushed campden tablet and water. Some of the raspberries "bleached" from the 24 hour soak--though this seems OK according to what I have read thus far.

Had an initial OG of 1.060, and took another reading at the secondary which was 1.012, so it should be back on track.

Also couldn't get the Northern Brewer hops, so used Nugget instead.
 
What is everyone's gravity readings on this? Here's mine:

OG = 1.056
SG before adding 48 oz of raspberries = 1.015
FG = 1.015

I was really surprised about that last one! I was expecting the raspberries to add some unfermentable sugars. I wish I knew just how much sugar was added with the raspberries.

I purposefully mashed a little high to leave some sweetness, as I read some reviews saying the beer turned out a little dryer than expected.

I'm getting ready to cold crash and then bottle this weekend. I was thinking of adding 6 oz of corn sugar instead of the regular 5 to add some extra effervescent mouthfeel. Does anyone have an opinion on that?
 
I am going to try an AG version of this using dates alongside the raspberry.
I also want to use Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend...


I'm also considering rendering this an imperial fruit beer, boosting the ABV to 8 or 9 percent. Any thoughts on this?
 
JeffersonJ said:
What is everyone's gravity readings on this? Here's mine:

OG = 1.056
SG before adding 48 oz of raspberries = 1.015
FG = 1.015

I was really surprised about that last one! I was expecting the raspberries to add some unfermentable sugars. I wish I knew just how much sugar was added with the raspberries.

I purposefully mashed a little high to leave some sweetness, as I read some reviews saying the beer turned out a little dryer than expected.

I'm getting ready to cold crash and then bottle this weekend. I was thinking of adding 6 oz of corn sugar instead of the regular 5 to add some extra effervescent mouthfeel. Does anyone have an opinion on that?
Click to expand...
raspberries have a very low brix count, so it will hardly affect the ABV%
 
I just opened an early bottle (after a week) to taste test. No real carb yet, it was slightly carb'ed, but no foam yet.

"WHOA RASPBERRY" was my first taste. It needs to age a bit longer, and I think it'll be a grand brew after a few more weeks.

I also wanted to expand on how I sanitized my raspberries. I went with the campden tablet route. I used exactly 1 tablet crushed into some boiling / hot water (not sure on the actual temp, used a hot water kettle to heat it.) I did end up submerging the raspberries and after the 24 hour period, some were bleached. I was initially worried, as I thought it would bring some new (read: bad) flavors to the mix. I decided to RDWHAHB it and tossed it in the secondary. Turned out that the raspberries weren't affected at all.

I did warn any potential drinkers that it may contain sulfites. But from what I read, most of it should have gassed off as I put a piece of sanitized foil on the container which I sanitized the raspberries in.

Patience is a very difficult virtue. :)

:mug:
 
timmah84 said:
I just opened an early bottle (after a week) to taste test. No real carb yet, it was slightly carb'ed, but no foam yet.

"WHOA RASPBERRY" was my first taste. It needs to age a bit longer, and I think it'll be a grand brew after a few more weeks.

I also wanted to expand on how I sanitized my raspberries. I went with the campden tablet route. I used exactly 1 tablet crushed into some boiling / hot water (not sure on the actual temp, used a hot water kettle to heat it.) I did end up submerging the raspberries and after the 24 hour period, some were bleached. I was initially worried, as I thought it would bring some new (read: bad) flavors to the mix. I decided to RDWHAHB it and tossed it in the secondary. Turned out that the raspberries weren't affected at all.

I did warn any potential drinkers that it may contain sulfites. But from what I read, most of it should have gassed off as I put a piece of sanitized foil on the container which I sanitized the raspberries in.

Patience is a very difficult virtue. :)

:mug:
Click to expand...

Interesting, but even if the sulfites remained in solution, one campden tablet would hardly be noticeable.

I was also surprised that the campden turns the raspberries white, I wonder why this happens?
 
eschatz said:
Well, technically this isn't a raspberry wheat. It's more like a Raspberry Brown. :D

Either way here you go:
Take all of the grains (crushed from your LHBS) and put them in a muslin sack and soak them in 170F water for about 30 minutes. Pull them out.
Bring to boil. Add Light Dry Extract and 1 oz of Northern Brewer, boil for 60 minutes.
With 25 minutes left add .5 oz of Cascade.
With 7 minutes left add .5 oz of Cascade.
In the secondary add all of the Raspberry puree (or whole raspberries).

6 lbs 8.0 oz Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 87.25 %
12.8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 10.74 %
2.4 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 2.01 %
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [6.60 %] (60 min) Hops 15.0 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [6.40 %] (25 min) Hops 5.1 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [6.40 %] (7 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
40.00 oz Raspbery Fruit (Secondary 5.0 days) Misc
Click to expand...

I followed the instructions and soaked the grains at 170•F but I don't understand what we are doing here. At 170•F aren't we above the temperature where enzymes are active? What's the purpose of this step at this temperature?
 
stefangag said:
I followed the instructions and soaked the grains at 170•F but I don't understand what we are doing here. At 170•F aren't we above the temperature where enzymes are active? What's the purpose of this step at this temperature?
Click to expand...

If you follow that recipe, you're essentially just steeping the grains instead of mashing them. You won't get much fermentable sugar from either caramel malt or roasted barley no matter what temperature your "mash" is at. So it doesn't make a huge difference whether it's 170°F or 155°F.

EDIT: To add more detail, that step just extracts the color and flavor from the grains instead of fermentables.
 
I want to try this recipe, but I'm going to use 1.5 lbs of wheat in place of some of the light dry and also less raspberries, like 30 oz instead. I was also thinking of adding a couple of vanilla beans, maybe in the secondary with the raspberries. I'm still a new brewer, so does that sound like it would turn out good?
 
As if this recipe needed any more verification than 32 pages of posts...

After 3 weeks in the bottle it is excellent. I used 48 oz of frozen raspberries and they are very present but not overpowering (after pasteurizing them at about 180°F for 10 minutes). After telling my wife for a couple months that I was finally brewing her a raspberry beer, she was pretty surprised and disappointed when I poured an almost opaque beer for her! She generally avoids anything darker than a copper color (but to her credit, can pick some great IPAs). I think she was generally looking for more of a raspberry wheat, but she really enjoys this too! Marriage is all about compromise right? Plus, appeasing her with this batch gave me the opportunity to brew a Black IPA and a Porter!
 
I just transferred into my secondary fermenter with the raspberries. The beer is great without the raspberries, can't wait to see what it's like with the Raspberries. I made a slight modification to the hop profile. I used 1 ounce of northern brewer at 10% alpha acid rather than 6.6% and I added 2 ounces of cascade. An an ounce at 25 minutes left and the second ounce at 7 min of boil left.

Drank the first 9 liters during a BBQ this week and the beer was great. It had spent a week in a keg carbonating and I added a couple of shots of co2 to get the right carbonation. The beer has a very present raspberry aroma, and a nice string bitter backbone. Mid sip you really taste the sourness usually associated with raspberries
 
Turned out fantastic! Been bottled for about a month and each one cracked seems to be better than the last - I do agree with an earlier post too about incorporating some of the yeasties back into your glass.....seems to mellow it out even further. Thanks for all the tips!
 

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