Fruit Beer Requiem Raspberry

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eschatz, you have said more than once that you don't recommend using fruit juice but you have never said why.

I've never even thought about using juice actually. I've never heard of any beer coming out well from juice. Secondly, I've never had any luck with raspberry extract. It never tasted right to me.

Due to the actual fruit this beer is pretty expensive. However, it's worth the money in my opinion.
 
I have been trying to find some info about juice as I was thinking about adding Blackberry juice to the wheat I have in the primary. I can however just go pick some fresh ones if you think it would come out better.
 
Thanks for the help arkador! This is only my 3rd batch I've made so I wanted to make sure it came out right.

FYI for anyone who hasnt made this one yet, the initial fermentation with this one was pretty aggressive. Luckily I happened to check in on it at 24 hours in b/c my airlock had filled with beer and was about to blow off. My primary was in our coat closet and it would not have been fun explaining to my wife why her winter coats were covered in krausen. I attached a blow off to it and it blew off pretty heavily for a day or so.

Either way, I avoided catastrophe and racked to secondary on top of the raspberries today. I've got some good picks of the yeasties already going to town on the raspberries and I'll post them soon as soon as I figure out how.

BTW, when I opened up the primary the beer smelled awesome! Has anyone tried making this as a normal brown ale without the raspberries?
 
Just brewed this, but without the roasted barley (and a couple other changes).

eschatz - can you upload your brewsmith file? :)
 
Just brewed this, but without the roasted barley (and a couple other changes).

eschatz - can you upload your brewsmith file? :)

I wish I could. I've changed comps a couple of times since then and have left it behind. I just got a new comp in fact and haven't brewed it since the new computer. You'll have to plug it in yourself! :D
 
What is the potential SG of the frozen raspberries? I want to get an accurate final ABV percentage and don't know if I should put 1.029, like with Oregon Purees or something else.

Thanks!
 
Just racked my version of this on top of some raspberries - it tasted great and at 1020 already after 1 week! It's gonna be a hard week of waiting.
 
I brewed this up again today! Man it's going to be tasty!

theacolyte, what temperature are you fermenting this at?
 
I just racked this beer ontop of a 3 lbs can on Oregon Raspberry Puree. I've always done this with whole frozen fruit but I figured it was time I tried the puree. I'll post when results are in.
 
How much red does the raspberry add to this one? I've never made anything like this so I have no idea. I converted this to AG in Beersmith and also added a pound of flaked rye, and it ended up quite a bit darker than I was expecting... Here is the recipe I used for the batch that I brewed up on Friday:

9 # Pale US 2-row
1 # Crystal 40 L
1 # Flake Rye
0.25 # Roasted Barley

Hop schedule was the same as OP, and I ended up with a SG of 1.055

I think I might actually rack 1 gallon over to a 2 gallon bucket and see what the beer is like without raspberries, and add the remaining 4 gallons to a secondary with 3 lbs of fresh raspberries.
 
Hey eschatz,
any word on how that puree worked out? I'm interested to try that myself.
 
I was talking to the owner of the LHBS last night about putting raspberries in a brew. He suggested that I do cherries and raspberries because raspberries alone will ferment out too much. He said something about the cherries being acidic and affecting the pH, altering the rate of fermentation on the fruit. Any truth to this or has anyone tried this?
 
Hey eschatz,
any word on how that puree worked out? I'm interested to try that myself.

Honestly, everyone raves about the raspberry puree from Oregon but I wasn't that pleased. I found it didn't have the acidic edge that the beer needs. I get this from the whole fruit but not from the puree. It's almost like the puree is a little too rounded in flavor. I need it to be sharper.
 
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! :)
 
I want to try this... it looks interesting and I think my wife would love it!

Few questions:

I want to only do a half batch - would I be fine just splitting the recipe in have and doing a 3 gal boil? Or should I change the recipe and boil size more? This will only be my second batch so any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Just had to tell u i made this last night and can't wait for it to finish up so I can try it. Thanx for the recipe!
 
Also, is there a need to keep the raspberries UNDER the beer? I have read that if there are floating and a part of them are peaking above the beer then they can develop mold.

Again, I am brewing this this weekend want all to go smooth.
 
Are the hop amounts for a full volume boil? Just want to make sure.

Sounds awesome, going to try it soon.
 
looks like a great recipe? My first brew, a northern brewer raspberry wheat, is in primary right now. It came with raspberry extract. I plan on putting raspberry extract in to 2.5 gallons, and using fresh berries with the other 2.5 gallons. Is it ok to rack 2.5 gallons to a 5 gallon fermenter? Or is this too much air space and could cause oxidation? If thats a risk, ill just put all 5 gallons on real berries.
 
When the berries are put in the secondary fermenter, do you suggest racking to a 5 gallon carboy or the 6.5 gallon? I'm a little concerned about blow off.
 
When the berries are put in the secondary fermenter, do you suggest racking to a 5 gallon carboy or the 6.5 gallon? I'm a little concerned about blow off.

I went with a 5 gallon. If your recipe was for 5 gallons, then when you rack off the trub you will have a little under 5 gallons. Even with the raspberries in there I had no trouble. And you wont (at least I didnt) get a blow off. When the yeast was working on the raspberries, it wasnt very violent... then just kinda changed color

PS: I also wanted to have as little head space (oxygen) as possible so I used a 5 gal
 
I went with a 5 gallon. If your recipe was for 5 gallons, then when you rack off the trub you will have a little under 5 gallons. Even with the raspberries in there I had no trouble. And you wont (at least I didnt) get a blow off. When the yeast was working on the raspberries, it wasnt very violent... then just kinda changed color

PS: I also wanted to have as little head space (oxygen) as possible so I used a 5 gal

Thanks for the reply! Seems to be doing exactly what you said, a little activity, but not too aggressive. This was taken today, racked to secondary last Saturday.

rassbeer.jpg
 
Looks good. After a few days, once the headspace was full with CO2 (or at least when I thought it was!) I gave it a swirl softly to get the upper raspberries into the fun below!
 
I know this thread is fairly old, but I am hoping that someone will see and respond to my questions, nevertheless.

I have had this beer in my primary for ~1 week, and I just racked the beer into secondary with the raspberries. I have two questions regarding how to proceed from here. This is my 4th brew, so I am a little anxious about screwing something up.

1. I would prefer to bottle in a couple weeks (once I make it through exams). Is that going to result in an overpowering raspberry flavor?

2. I am thinking about splitting my bottling process into two parts. Half I will bottle as is; the other half, I would like to back sweeten with lactose (since I know that some people may not enjoy a tart raspberry beer as much as I do). Does anyone have recommendations on how much lactose to use and whether this is a good idea?

Thanks for the help. I'm really excited about the beer, and I've found everyone's comments on this thread really helpful.
 
Just cracked my first bottle of a version of this beer after only 5 days in the bottle (I couldn't wait!) and it is awesome! It is obviously and little under carbed but the taste is exctly what I was hoping for :rockin: I only used 3lbs of frozen raspberries which I heated to 160 w/ 2 cups of water and added to the beer in the secondary for a week prior to bottling. Great raspberry taste that is not overpowering at all. Thanks for the idea/recipe!!:mug:
 
Hey, I figured I'd give this a go as my vacation beer.

The HBS was running dry so I took some creative liberties and got the following:

3.3 lbs light liquid malt extract
4lbs light dry malt extract
2 vials of wlp002 english ale yeast (ive heard they under attenuate, so i figured double pitch?)
1oz cascade
1oz styrian goldings (5.5%AA, this was as close as I could find)
12.8oz of 40L crystal
3oz of roasted barley

I guess what I'm asking is, am I ok? I've never substituted before on a recipe and I want to make sure this will turn out alright. I assume yes, but looking for a little confirmation on my reasoning.

Sanitizing everything now, have to pick up some water and another muslim bag (thought I had extras, of course not haha).

Oh, and has anyone done this with any other fruit? I ask because I currently have about 38 oz of frozen blueberries in my freezer.

:mug:
Cheers!
dave
 
og was a bit high at 1.064, but it was a bit hot here yesterday.
did a full boil, and went with a combo of s-05 and a vial of wlp002.

tastes pretty damn good so far, bubbling away vigorously as we speak.
Cheers!
dave
 
I'm a bit confused b/c the original recipe says add an additional 40 oz to secondary.

Does this mean that I add 40 oz at flameout and 40 oz in secondary?

Also, when I convert 6.5 lbs light dry extract to pale malt in Beersmith, I get an estimated og @ 75% efficiency of around 1.060 or something. I adjusted to get an Og of 1.054 like the orig recipe says. Has this happened to others?
 
I'm a bit confused b/c the original recipe says add an additional 40 oz to secondary.

Does this mean that I add 40 oz at flameout and 40 oz in secondary?

Also, when I convert 6.5 lbs light dry extract to pale malt in Beersmith, I get an estimated og @ 75% efficiency of around 1.060 or something. I adjusted to get an Og of 1.054 like the orig recipe says. Has this happened to others?

I actually used 48oz (the ones I bought came in packages of 12oz) and since I purchased DME by the pound I used 7 lbs. It turned out great!
 
I actually used 48oz (the ones I bought came in packages of 12oz) and since I purchased DME by the pound I used 7 lbs. It turned out great!

Yeah, but did you add 48 oz at flame out and 48 oz in the secondary for a total of 96 oz?
 
Also, the Ibu's he has for the hops are all jacked up. I'm a bit confused about this recipe here.
 
Also, the Ibu's he has for the hops are all jacked up. I'm a bit confused about this recipe here.

Yes, I've actually brewed it for the second time this past weekend. I don't know about the IBUs but I just follow the recipe (more or less... I don't get too technical). The first batch turned out great!!!
 
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