Raspberry Wheat Questions

So I got a Raspberry Wheat kit from Austin Homebrew but decided to go with frozen raspberries instead of the extract. I had the beer in the primary for 3 weeks, then racked it on to some pasteurized raspberries. The beer has now been in the secondary for going on a week and a half. The raspberries are floating on the top and the beer has a nice reddish color.

My question is, should I transfer the beer back into the primary to let it sit for another couple weeks, or is it ok to let it simply sit where it is now? Does it need a few more weeks or do you think it's ready to bottle pretty soon.

Thanks guys!

Have you checked the gravity?
and have you tasted the gravity sample?

Those are going to be the best way to figure out what you might need to do with your beer!

-Jason

You're likely fine where it's at. 3 weeks in primary + 1.5 on fruit should be fine. Like Cheeto said, check the gravity and taste a sample. If it's in the finished range and tastes great - no reason NOT to bottle it now.

The only thing that I've done when using fruit instead of extract is to transfer back to another fermenter just to try and get it off the fruit and let anything I accidentally grabbed with the siphon settle out into the next fermenter so that I don't get seeds or skins of anything into the bottle. I usually let it sit on that for a week, just because I don't tend to do things mid-week, but really -- a 24-48 hour rest to let things drop to the bottom wouldn't hurt anything and would help make sure you got a "clear" beer (and by clear, I'm not talking clear - but free of debris and fruit sludge).

Cheeto said:

Have you checked the gravity?
and have you tasted the gravity sample?

Those are going to be the best way to figure out what you might need to do with your beer!

-Jason

Click to expand...

I checked the grav. before I racked onto the raspberries and I had hit my mark perfectly (1.019 I believe). What should the grav. be at this point?

With the addition of fruit after the majority of the fermentation over I wouldn't be suprised to see it the same or a few points higher

With the time you have already alotted for you beer I ould tend to agree with jester6 and get the beer off of the fruit to let the "stuff" settle out, with it being a wheat beer it will not be clear.


-Jason