Raspberry Wheat- Need Advice

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JeffoC6

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Hey all...

I'm looking to brew a Raspberry Wheat this coming weekend in preparation for the spring/summer months. This will be the first time I'll be using an adjunct/fruit in a beer, as well as a secondary, so I need some advice.

Here is the base recipe that I'm planning on using:

http://beerrecipes.org/showrecipe.php?recipeid=1166

As you can see in this recipe, the brewer notes to; "Add raspberries to your secondary and let it go to town."

Here are some questions I have:

1- The brewer used Wyeast 1056. This is a an American Ale yeast? Looks like my LHBS doesn't have this. Wouldn't I want to use an American Wheat yeast? Any thoughts on this?

2- Do I need to let this sit in the primary until FG is reached and then rack to a secondary over the raspberries for an additional 2 weeks?

3- When racking to the secondary, how should I add the raspberries? I've read a bunch of different techniques so I'm not sure of the best way. Any help?

4- After the 2 weeks in the secondary, I'm assuming I just rack to my bottling bucket and bottle. Any suggestions as to what style I should use on Tastybrew's priming calculator to carb this up?

Thanks all for your help!
 
I'll give it a stab:
1) yes this is the chico strain - same as S-05 or white labs 001 if your LHBS has those. I might suggest wyeast 1010 (American wheat) with that recipe though
2) Yes let it reach final gravity then rack to your fruit - an additional 1-2 wks sounds good.
3) I have also read lots of techniques but have only personally used canned fruit puree or juice so I will let someone else respond.
4) I carb my american wheats to about 2.7 volumes but others may suggest higher.
 
Fruited wheat beers can take a cleaner ale yeast... Sometimes the clove spiciness of the Hefe yeasts compete with the fruitiness. I made a nice raz wheat with Pacman. The American Wheat from Wyeast is nice too.

I let it ferment out then either rack to secondary or just put the fruit on top and rack to secondary after the fruit has fermented out. I do this because the raspberries can create a lot of sediment and goo. A cleansing rack to secondary to settle out a second time before going to keg makes for less problems for me (leaving pulp and raspberry seeds out of the kegging system, you can use a paint strainer over your racking cane for this too)

I heat frozen raspberries out of the bag with no added water slowly and bring up to maybe 170 or so, cool down, use an immersion blender to purée well and then just dump into the primary.

Fruit wheats can take a pretty high carb.... I might go as high as 14-15 on the co2 regulator.
 
Anybody have any other opinions/suggestions for this? I was hoping for a bunch of replies so I can review my options.
 
http://beerrecipes.org/showrecipe.php?recipeid=1166
Looks tasty!

1- Can't comment too much on this. Yeast selection is my weak point

2- That is the way I would do it.

3- In my experience, when using fruit, especially pureed fruit you will never get everything to fall out of suspension. IF you don't have a way to filter use a bag with some sort of weight (marbles)

4- American wheat is probably your best bet. I agree with those that say carb should be pretty heavy.
 
An Ale yeast is the way to go. Wheat beer yeasts leave too much clove/banana flavors and low flocculation. "Blue Moon" is an American Wheat Beer style that uses an Ale yeast so that the flavors of coriander and orange come through by themselves. A Blue Moon clone (minus the orange and coriander) with raspberries instead would come out nice...I plan to brew one of those in the near future pending my currently fermenting Blue Moon clone comes out well in a few weeks.
 
An Ale yeast is the way to go. Wheat beer yeasts leave too much clove/banana flavors and low flocculation. "Blue Moon" is an American Wheat Beer style that uses an Ale yeast so that the flavors of coriander and orange come through by themselves. A Blue Moon clone (minus the orange and coriander) with raspberries instead would come out nice...I plan to brew one of those in the near future pending my currently fermenting Blue Moon clone comes out well in a few weeks.

This makes sense to me. Thank you!
 
This recipe calls for 1 oz of Hallertau Hersbrucker at 60 min (of a 60 min boil). I don't have these hops currently, so I'm wondering if I could substitute some Mt Hood potentially? I also have EK Goldings and Willamette. I'm assuming because this is for bittering only, as long as I match the AA, I'll be ok...right?
 
This recipe calls for 1 oz of Hallertau Hersbrucker at 60 min (of a 60 min boil). I don't have these hops currently, so I'm wondering if I could substitute some Mt Hood potentially? I also have EK Goldings and Willamette. I'm assuming because this is for bittering only, as long as I match the AA, I'll be ok...right?

I ran into the same issue when I brewed my wheat this past weekend, I didn't have Hallerta hops. I used Fuggle and matched the IBU's... I believe you are right, none of the hop flavor should come through with one addition at 60 minutes, just bittering :mug:
 
Thanks to all for your suggestions on this. I've got my recipe all set up, but have one last question. Rather than use a secondary, which I would need to buy at the LHBS when I go to get my grain bill, would it make just as much sense to ad my raspberries like I would if I were dryhopping? My plan would be to let the beer ferment down to FG, then, add a dryhopping bag filled with raspberries that have been frozen and thawed out. I'd leave the raspberries in for approx 1-2 weeks. Then I'd pull out the bag of raspberries, rack to my bottling jug and bottle. I'm thinking that this plan would eliminate the need for a secondary as well as keep the raspberry seeds from getting into the beer.

Can anyone advise if they think this is a good idea? I really appreciate everyone's help.
 
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