Help! I added to much raspberries.

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erocknroll

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I was about to bottle tonight and upon tasting my brew I realized I had made a very tart raspberry alcoholic juice instead of raspberry beer. It wasn't sweet just tart and raspberry. I want to save this beer but i don't want to bottle as is. what can I do to give this brew a more malty taste? I was thinking about mashing some more 2-row and re-pitching was a yeast that could handle the alcohol in the beer already. bad idea?
 
I wouldn't recommend mashing and adding. Blend it with another beer to add a more malty flavor. All the raspberry beers I've had are not sweet since the yeast eat the sugars in the berries as well.
 
Yes raspberries will turn out very tart because any sweetness in them gets fermented out.

There is an immediate step that you can take which I would recommend to anyone working with raspberries. That is to backsweeten with a few ounces of lactose. This is a milk sugar that will not ferment out. Not too much though. Otherwise the beer can get heavy. 3-4 oz should do it.

After this give it time. The raspberries will mellow and blend, the lactose will have the side benefit of bringing out more malt flavor.

Another option (not something I do regularly but it is an option) is to add some splenda. This also will sweeten without fermenting.

On either option you don't want to add too much. It is easy to overdo backsweetening. There should still be some berry tartness which will mellow into a nice delicious flavor with age.
 
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