Did i just screw up our first raspberry ale? advice please.

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Jnco_hippie

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We just made a raspberry canadian draft ale. however, we put the raspberries in the wort when we boiled it, prior to putting it all in the primary fermenter and pitching the yeast.
I then got online and found that all the recipes call for adding the raspberry mash into the secondary fermenter.

Is there any saving the batch?

this was my second attempt at fruit brew in 10 years. my first attempt was also a total failure. first attempt shot up and out of the airlock, popped the cork and oozed all over my closet during fermentation. I then bottled this brew, only to have 12 bottles out of 20 burst! obviously, i did not take the sugar in the fruit into account on that batch.

Fruit may not be our thing....

Please help us save this batch if possible.
 
I wouldn't say you ruined it.
You aren't going to end up with what you were trying for but it will be fine and maybe pretty good.
Was the OG higher than expected?

Put a blow off on that thing!
You have a bunch of extra fermentabl sugars in there.
 
You can still rack into a secondary with fruit after fermentation. This beer might be a little dry too, you could add some dme. Don't give up, just let it sit and see what you get.
 
OK. We are only novice brewers, and have brewed in isolation from other brewers. I don't understand the abbreviations being used.

What will the overall effect be if we follow through as is, toss it in the secondary sans any extra fruit, then bottle it when ready?

You said it would be dry. I prefer dry white wines, and drink high IBU beers, and stouts. Will this fit that bill?

How does fruit affect the brew in primary ferment? How does it affect it in secondary ferment?

I would like to use this little 3 gallon "oops" as a learning point. We are about to begin using my old 5 gallon batch equipment, and would rather not ruin a full batch.
 
Additionally....

What if I just bottled it after primary? I don't want to throw it out entirely, but I dont want a potential bad beer taking up fermenter space.
 
When you put the fruit in your boil, you will likely get a lot of the fruit's sugar in the beer, but the boil probably drove off most of the flavor & aroma that the berries would normally have given you. (By the way, how much berries did you use?)

So your beer won't be as berry tasting/smelling as you expected.

The sugar from the fruit will be available for fermenting into alcohol. So we would expect that your Original Gravity reading (OG), if you took one, would be a bit higher than you expected. There would be more sugar dissolved in the wort than expected.

Just like when you add pure sugar to a beer, it is 100% fermentable, and will leave the beer 'drier' than if you had used a similar amount of malt syrup (Liquid Malt Extract=LME) or powder (Dry Malt Extract=DME) or grains.

In small amounts, it would not be that much of an impact. In larger amounts, the beer will feel 'thin' on the tongue, rather than 'thick', 'chewy' or some might say 'sweet'.

As long as the rest of your brewday went according to plan, you will make drinkable beer. It may not have all that berry flavor you wanted. However, you can still add berries to the 2ndary fermenter, and let the yeast eat through the new fruit sugar (more alcohol) but at room temp, the flavor & smell will be there! Yummy!

Adding to the primary stage of fermentation, would essentially be the same.. however, many feel that berry-ness is better and fermentation cleaner to do it after primary is over, or in the 2ndary.

Good luck!
--LexusChris
 
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