Raspberry Ale

Raspberry Ale

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Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Nottingham Dry Ale
Yeast Starter: None
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: None
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: Unknown
Final Gravity: Unknown
IBU: Unknown
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: Pale pink
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 days, cool room temp
Additional Fermentation: 14 days, cool room temp
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 days, cool room temp


I've gotten in the habit of making a Raspberry Ale every fall for the holidays. This past year I used black raspberries but red are fine also. Red are much cheaper to buy off-season but they are about the same price when you buy them in season.

I use about 5 3/4 to six gallons of water to start. A lot gets left behind during racking because the product is so cruddy during brewing. This leaves you a decent amount to bottle by the time you are done. Since you really do have two stage fermentation (the fruit sugars will ferment in the second stage) this extra water does not seem to appreciably affect the strength of the beer. I always use spring water but use whatever you prefer.

In the primary, I used 3 lbs of Munton extra light DME and 3 lbs of Carlson dry rice solids. The brands are not important - but to get a nice pale base color that will show the raspberry color you need to use real pale extracts. Rice is about colorless and flavorless, which makes it well suited for this brew.

Therefore also no steeping grains. The lack of steeping grains will keep the color very light but it will also affect head retention. It will take longer for you to get a nice head that holds up a while, but that's OK because for this brew you really need to let it age. Opening one that is a week in the bottle will probably produce disappointment.

I use a light hop load for my raspberry ales (in contrast to most of my brews) because a lot of hoppiness can mask the raspberry flavor. For my last batch I used just 2 oz of Mount Hood 3.8%, half at 15 minutes and half at 45 minutes.

The specific hops chosen is much a matter of personal taste. I just made a red ale using Amarillo hops (along with Williamette) and I have a feeling that Amarillo's strong and fairly distinctive flavor might really complement the raspberries. Next fall, I will probably try this.

I normally use about 3 lbs of fresh raspberries for a five gallon batch. You can buy them fresh in late summer just about anywhere but I like produce stores. They usually have the best prices and the freshest inventory. Grocery stores are usually higher priced. I like fresh but frozen will also work, if you miss the season. I've used more but as I keep piling up those six ounce containers, little dollar signs start spinning in my head. If you are in a place where they grow raspberries they might be cheaper. Black ones will give a more distinctive color but the flavor is about the same either way.

I give the basic brew a week or two in the fermenter, then rack to a secondary and add my fruit. I pasteurize the fruit by putting it into a pot with enough water to cover the fruit and bringing it to about 160F for ten or fifteen minutes. Stir it to keep it from scorching. Then it all goes into the secondary. I use a sanitized wide mouthed funnel to pour this "fruit slurry" (even without boiling it will become semi-mush) into the secondary.

I tried to buy a suitable wide mouth funnel but was not satisfied with anything I found. The handiest one I have can be easily duplicated - I use the top of a two liter soda bottle.

Even with four pounds the raspberry flavor has never been overwhelming. Using real fruit results in a lot more evolution of the flavor over time. Extracts seem to be much more stable in taste but also seem to have an artificial feel in their taste - hard to describe but that's how it felt to me.

Anyway, after a week or two in the secondary, I siphon the carboy out into a third stage to allow it to clear (it will be very cruddy at the end of the second stage). I give it yet another week or two to settle and clear, then bottle.

I have this in fermenters for a total of about five or six weeks. I started my current batch in late September and bottled it in early November. It was acceptable by Thanksgiving but really was in it's prime by Christmas, and is still improving. It takes a good month or six weeks to really hit its stride but the results are great. The raspberry flavor is a presence but not the dominant taste, and the brew is nicely astringent.

One more point - using extracts (normally just dumped into the bottling bucket along with your priming sugar) does not give you any kind of unusual coloring in your beer. This is a drawback in my opinion but the process is much easier - I just do two weeks of primary, then bottle. If you use extracts, you would not use extra water (described above). You could use a second stage even with fruit extract if you like to do that - in my experience rice solids result in a "loose" trub and take longer to clear compared to what we are used to with barley malt.

I've used both extract and real fruit and in my opinion the extra work (and cost) in using real fruit is definitely worth it.

Good luck with this - let me know how it turns out.

Just wondering if anyone has had a chance to try this one out?

I just had a couple of these and it turned out very well. It has the pale pink color and good raspberry flavor that I have not been able to acheive before. The raspberry is definitely the strongest and most noticeable flavor, however it is not like you are drinking fruit juice. Its a blonde ale with raspberry flavor. I will definitely make it again and highly recommend the procedures (even the homemade funnel). Here are some notes:

My fermentation was only 24 days because I really needed the fermenters to start brewing something else.

Observations above are based on only 24 days in the bottle, however it needs to age longer.

OG = 1.036 @80*, FG = 1.009 @70*, 75% attenuation, 3.5% abv.

I used 3lb light DME and 1lb dry rice solid.

I used Wyeast, 1332 Northwest Ale yeast as the store was out of Nottingham.

Hops were Centennial, .5 oz at 50 min and .5 oz at 10 min.

When pasteurizing the fruit, use minimal water. I had too much and the fermenter overflowed.

Next time I will probably add Belgian Candi Sugar to make it sweeter. For comparison, I like Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss or Spanish Peaks Honey Raspberry.

Congratulations on taking a shot at this and having such success, and thanks for adding your thoughts. I'm flattered and honored that someone has decided to have a go at this, and pleased that it turned out well.

Steve... I am about to make a raspbery beer myself coming up soon. The last two times I have used artificial flavoring and it turned out well. My question is where do you get your raspberries? Do you use frozen? I have seen brewer grade raspberries before but now I am having a hard time finding them. If I use fresh how do I handle sanitizing them? I typically keg but this batch I will probably just bottle to let the raspberry flavor mellow out.

I have a Razzberry Ale recipe in my sig... I created it a couple years back, it was a big hit. I used fresh raspberries from my garden... froze them to break the cell walls, then pasteurized at 150F for about 15 minutes. I then dumped them in the secondary and racked the beer on top. Check out the recipe, it explains how I did it there too.

Sounds good... I am going to brew this on Monday.

BTW... I love that you have 8 kegs. My wife bought me one and said that is all I needed. over the last year 3 additional kegs have "randomly walked into my house".

I have a christmas spice ale on tap right now myself. Smelled great when I brewed it but the flavors are very subtle unless I am eating at the same time. Food really brings out the flavors for me.

Yeah, the Holiday Ales are awesome this time of year. Still trying like heck to kick my Oktoberfest! When I get my electric HERMS conversion complete in the next 4 weeks, I will be able to ge my last two kegs filled!

I usually go to produce markets - they are all over the Philly area but I'm not sure if every city has them. A well known chain here is Produce Junction but there are plenty of independents.

Seventh and eighth paragraphs above (i.e., about half way down) discuss acquiring and pasteurizing. That's a lot of paragraphs to describe making a beer!

I got mine at Costco. I called ahead of time and they were able to tell me the date they were delivered so I knew they were fresh.

I brewed this on 9/1. Of course I started tasting it early. I would say it really tasted best starting around 12/1, so 3 months time from cooking until its ready.

Fat Guy Brewing said:

I got mine at Costco. I called ahead of time and they were able to tell me the date they were delivered so I knew they were fresh.

I brewed this on 9/1. Of course I started tasting it early. I would say it really tasted best starting around 12/1, so 3 months time from cooking until its ready.

Click to expand...

That was about the same time line as it took mine to be ready as well. Glad to hear it has come into its own.

3 months seems pretty good. I have heard of people waiting 12 months for the raspberry flavor to mellow out. Glad to hear this. I know it is always a matter of personal preference but I probably would have hidden this from myself and not even touched it for 9 months.

When you went to Costco did you go with fresh or frozen? Assuming fresh seeing that you called to see when the fresh shipment would be coming in. I went to the store and they were $10/pound.

I used 4 of the 12 oz packages of fresh raspberries. If I remember right, it was about $4.00 per package where I am so $16 total.

Being a head groundskeeper at University of Iowa, I have access to reand black rasberries, wild cherry, and peach. So I can't wait to try this with some really fresh fruit! But for now I'm going to try the extract first and compare. Thanks Shrades

Good luck. Let me know how it turns out.

I believe I'll be making this real soon. Talk to you in about 3 months! Being January, I plan to make it with frozen raspberries from Sam's Club, so I'll let you know how that is.

I really like the look of this recipe I was just wondering if you could size it down to a half batch since I have a 3 gallon fermentor open and ready to go. Any thoughts on this one? anything that I need to be aware of if I am using a smaller batch size. Just wondering:rockin:

I can't thiink of a reason why it wouldn't work if you cut everything in half. Its a good idea if you have a fermenter you can leave undisturbed for a while.

Now that I think about it more, I had to transfer it 3 times so it is alot of extra work for just 2.5 gallons.

Fat Guy Brewing said:

I can't thiink of a reason why it wouldn't work if you cut everything in half. Its a good idea if you have a fermenter you can leave undisturbed for a while.

Now that I think about it more, I had to transfer it 3 times so it is alot of extra work for just 2.5 gallons.

Click to expand...

That's exactly how I would see it also.

I just opened a bottle the other night being one week. It needs more time. Next time I will use the fresh stuff. the extract reminds me more of cough syrup then fruit.

Fruit extracts are generally very "chemical" tasting. They are not very popular. You can get some good purees that are commercial, or just use fresh.

Time may take that edge off. That's why after trying extract once (loving the simplicity), I decided that if I was taking the time to do this beer, I wanted to use fresh fruit.

SteveM said:

I've gotten in the habit of making a Raspberry Ale every fall for the holidays. This past year I used black raspberries but red are fine also. Red are much cheaper to buy off-season but they are about the same price when you buy them in season.

I use about 5 3/4 to six gallons of water to start. A lot gets left behind during racking because the product is so cruddy during brewing. This leaves you a decent amount to bottle by the time you are done. Since you really do have two stage fermentation (the fruit sugars will ferment in the second stage) this extra water does not seem to appreciably affect the strength of the beer. I always use spring water but use whatever you prefer.

In the primary, I used 3 lbs of Munton extra light DME and 3 lbs of Carlson dry rice solids. The brands are not important - but to get a nice pale base color that will show the raspberry color you need to use real pale extracts. Rice is about colorless and flavorless, which makes it well suited for this brew.

Therefore also no steeping grains. The lack of steeping grains will keep the color very light but it will also affect head retention. It will take longer for you to get a nice head that holds up a while, but that's OK because for this brew you really need to let it age. Opening one that is a week in the bottle will probably produce disappointment.

I use a light hop load for my raspberry ales (in contrast to most of my brews) because a lot of hoppiness can mask the raspberry flavor. For my last batch I used just 2 oz of Mount Hood 3.8%, half at 15 minutes and half at 45 minutes.

The specific hops chosen is much a matter of personal taste. I just made a red ale using Amarillo hops (along with Williamette) and I have a feeling that Amarillo's strong and fairly distinctive flavor might really complement the raspberries. Next fall, I will probably try this.

I normally use about 3 lbs of fresh raspberries for a five gallon batch. You can buy them fresh in late summer just about anywhere but I like produce stores. They usually have the best prices and the freshest inventory. Grocery stores are usually higher priced. I like fresh but frozen will also work, if you miss the season. I've used more but as I keep piling up those six ounce containers, little dollar signs start spinning in my head. If you are in a place where they grow raspberries they might be cheaper. Black ones will give a more distinctive color but the flavor is about the same either way.

I give the basic brew a week or two in the fermenter, then rack to a secondary and add my fruit. I pasteurize the fruit by putting it into a pot with enough water to cover the fruit and bringing it to about 160F for ten or fifteen minutes. Stir it to keep it from scorching. Then it all goes into the secondary. I use a sanitized wide mouthed funnel to pour this "fruit slurry" (even without boiling it will become semi-mush) into the secondary.

I tried to buy a suitable wide mouth funnel but was not satisfied with anything I found. The handiest one I have can be easily duplicated - I use the top of a two liter soda bottle.

Even with four pounds the raspberry flavor has never been overwhelming. Using real fruit results in a lot more evolution of the flavor over time. Extracts seem to be much more stable in taste but also seem to have an artificial feel in their taste - hard to describe but that's how it felt to me.

Anyway, after a week or two in the secondary, I siphon the carboy out into a third stage to allow it to clear (it will be very cruddy at the end of the second stage). I give it yet another week or two to settle and clear, then bottle.

I have this in fermenters for a total of about five or six weeks. I started my current batch in late September and bottled it in early November. It was acceptable by Thanksgiving but really was in it's prime by Christmas, and is still improving. It takes a good month or six weeks to really hit its stride but the results are great. The raspberry flavor is a presence but not the dominant taste, and the brew is nicely astringent.

One more point - using extracts (normally just dumped into the bottling bucket along with your priming sugar) does not give you any kind of unusual coloring in your beer. This is a drawback in my opinion but the process is much easier - I just do two weeks of primary, then bottle. If you use extracts, you would not use extra water (described above). You could use a second stage even with fruit extract if you like to do that - in my experience rice solids result in a "loose" trub and take longer to clear compared to what we are used to with barley malt.

I've used both extract and real fruit and in my opinion the extra work (and cost) in using real fruit is definitely worth it.

Good luck with this - let me know how it turns out.

Click to expand...

I'm still a newb at brewing here and would like to try this recipe out. I am not sure if my local brewing supply store carries the rice solids would substituting with the extra light DME be ok for this? I was also wondering how you carbonate the beer, if you use sugars which kind do you use?

You could easily switch to a light DME. This would give you are richer tasting basic beer (the substrate) and the only problem might be that the raspberry flavor might not come through as strongly. I went with rice solids to allow the raspberries to shine through but they will still be featured even if you use DME. The color will be slightly darker too but it will still be a very interesting color.

In any case, I would bet that your guy has the rice solids. They are not real exotic.

I should have mentioned the carbonation - sorry! Nothing out of the ordinary, 3/4 of a cup of corn sugar, same as usual.

Good luck, let me know how it goes.

I opened another bottle of my rasberry wheat, and with time it is much better. Still has a berry flavor, but very small, you taste it as soon as you drink it. i will do it again but with fresh berries.

shrades said:

I just opened a bottle the other night being one week. It needs more time. Next time I will use the fresh stuff. the extract reminds me more of cough syrup then fruit.

Click to expand...

I recently bottled a batch with rasp. extract and after 16 days I sampled one. My first impression, cough syrup, just as you described. Hopefully it will mellow because I'm serving it at a party in 2 wks.

Frozen berries are more work but really the only way to go. :rockin:

We bought a house two years ago and I noticed some unkempt raspberry canes in the back corner of the lot. The previous owners never cultivated them properly. They turned out to be the golden variety.

This year I did things right. After I pruned the canes down to about 2 feet just as they were budding this spring those things EXPLODED. I can't wait to see how many pounds of berries I get from them. The new canes for next year's crop are already over 8 feet high! I am going to train those babies across the entire back of my lot.

Has anyone ever tried this recipe with golden raspberries?

Could you substitute black berries for raspberries?

I was wondering about using fresh raspberrys,with a beer kit from NB (American Wheat), do you crush them first or do you use them whole, and how long do you let them boil. Or do you just steep them first. Thanks

You should be able to substitute black berries for raspberries.

I used fresh raspberries - take a second look at the original post for a discussion of managing them. It's easy.

I attempted to make this brew and it did not work. I used all of the ingredients that Steve listed. After boiling the wort and letting it cool I transferred all of the mush over. I knew then that something wasn't right. I tried to strain it but nothing worked. So I let it all sit in the primary for 2 weeks. Then when I boiled y raspberries and opened the primary it was still all mush. There was mabey a gallon or two of actual liquid. So i transferred about 2 gallons of liquid and about 1 gallon of the mush over. I added 2 gallons of water and let it sit. Was I supposed to somehow strain out the rice solids? Any help would be appreciated.

It's hard to say what went wrong. Rice solids should have simply become part of the wort, and fermented up with the malt extract. What kind of rice solid did you use?

Note also that the fruit only gets added at the second stage, two weeks after brewing the basic beer.

One thing - the raspberries should NOT be boiled - this will create problems. They should not have been heated above 160F or so. I think, from reading your post, that maybe you rushed things a bit. This paragraph comes from the middle of the recipe discussion:

I give the basic brew a week or two in the fermenter, then rack to a secondary and add my fruit. I pasteurize the fruit by putting it into a pot with enough water to cover the fruit and bringing it to about 160F for ten or fifteen minutes. Stir it to keep it from scorching. Then it all goes into the secondary. I use a sanitized wide mouthed funnel to pour this "fruit slurry" (even without boiling it will become semi-mush) into the secondary.

Click to expand...

Is it possible that you added the fruit into the primary?

I added the fruit to the secondary. But the problem started in the primary. My wort was the consistency of a thin oatmeal. Then it just never seemed to settle out. I just used 3lbs of generic flaked rice. Was I somehow supposed to get rid of the flaked rice before I put it into the primary?

Rice solids are sold in home brew shops - I'm not sure, but it sounds like you bought rice flakes from a grocery store? These would probably not be suitable. Rice solids are a dry powder, resembling a white DME. I'm not sure that flaked rice is the same thing or an acceptable substitute.

I Brewed this recipe in June of 09 I waited til labor day to try it - disapointed, Thanksgiving - disapointed - dry little soapy, chritsmas - still dry getting better, Easter this year - better but on the dry side. cracked one open - Much better - I figured it will be exquisete by Christmas.

Pinkish with a nice head - I'll post a pic next one I open

My son and I are doing another batch next Saturday

Wow - that's real patience - my hat's off. I never had that kind of issue with it, and I can't imagine why it turned out that way.

It originally tasted like a dry wine - I would drinkg it over ice, in the recipe you said that thre might be a problem with head retention - no problem there, from the firxt bottle it allways had a nice head..

This is actually my first brew (hence the 2.5 gallon batch size). I was going to follow the recipe but decided to try something a little different along the lines. Following are the ingredients I used:

3lb Multon Amber DME
1lb Flaked rice
1oz Citra hops (13.2%), half at 15min, half at 45min.
Nottingham dry yeast
1.5lb frozen raspberry
1oz cocoa powder
Batch size: 2.5 gallons
OG=1.078, FG=1.016

I steeped the flaked rice in 2 gallons of water at 166F for 30min, then added DME and brought to a slow boil for 1 hour (hops added @ 15' and 45'). Immediately after I turned off the heat, I added 1.5lb of frozen raspberry to the wort, then cooled the wort to 60C with ice bath. After that, I dumped the wort into sanitized primary with 0.75 gallons of cold water already in it (took into the account the evaporation during boil). I added 7g of yeast and let it sit in my basement (~66F) for 10 days.

I heat sanitized 1 oz of cocoa powder and racked primary on it and let it go for another 10 days before bottling.

I used 10% more dextrose than the normal 3/4 cup / 5gal, but it seemed to give the perfect head.

Overall, the beer turned out very well, alcohol content was pretty high but that may be a plus. The citra hops definitely gave it a really good aroma. Taste wise, raspberry flavor was very strong before bottling, but surprisingly after only 7 days, it mellowed to a point that the cocoa flavor can actually come through. I hope it'll be even better by Christmas

here're 2 pics during secondary.

Glad to hear it turned out well. I noticed that you used rice flakes instead of rice solids. Any comments or thoughts on that? I think another guy went that way (see above) with unsatisfactory results).

Ya I used rice flakes bought from a brewer's market since I was having trouble finding rice solids, it seemed to work out well after steeping for 30min (the rice flavor was quite intense, maybe that's the key, I don't know. I originally followed your recipe with 1.5lbs of dme since I'm only doing 2.5g batches, but at the time of secondary it tasted a little too watery (FG was 1.006, think it overattenuated), so i added 1.5lb more dme to the secondary and the body / flavor turned out much better (FG 1.017).