Raspberry wheat

Ok im fixin to do a raspberry wheat ale and I am not sure if I should add the puree to the boil or mix it in the fermenter

I don't add fruit to my beers, but since no one else answered.....

After your beer has slowed down fermenting, maybe at a week or two, add the fruit to your secondary and siphon the beer onto it. You should use a blow off hose because the added sugar can get it going again and may clog the airlock. If it does clog the airlock and you blow rasberry beer wort on the ceiling, you are supposed to post pics.

I second mrk's answer. IMO, never add fruit to the primary because the active fermentation will also remove the majority of the fruit aroma with the escaping co2.

I am drinking my raspberry wheat right now...definitely add your puree to the secondary, not the boil.

And my suggestion is to monitor the progress - taste a sample every couple of days. I racked onto 3 lbs fresh-picked raspberries (not puree) and let it sit there for 14 days. I think it was a bit too long. In retrospect, I would have probably kegged in the 7-10 day range. This beer is just a bit too tart.

EDIT: just checked my notes and this thing actually sat on those raspberries for 17 days...YIKES! WAY too long.

Ok I'm also going to use pectic enzyme should I add that to the puree before I rack into secondary

Kbuzz, what kind of grain and hops bill did you use for your recipe?

I just attempted my first fruit beer with a 5 gallon batch of black raspberry wheat beer. Kept things really simple using 6lb 2-row, 3lb white wheat, and 1oz of williamette at 60min. Did a 1 week primary, and racked onto 4.5lb black raspberries for 2 more weeks, which changed the color from golden to purple.

The taste so far is really... odd. It's a bit tart, has almost a winey flavor from the berries except that it's carbonated. The biggest problem is that it doesn't have much body to it and tastes a bit watery. Next attempt, I think I'll add in some crystal to add balance, and possibly tinker with the hops some.

Atvar said:

Kbuzz, what kind of grain and hops bill did you use for your recipe?

I just attempted my first fruit beer with a 5 gallon batch of black raspberry wheat beer. Kept things really simple using 6lb 2-row, 3lb white wheat, and 1oz of williamette at 60min. Did a 1 week primary, and racked onto 4.5lb black raspberries for 2 more weeks, which changed the color from golden to purple.

The taste so far is really... odd. It's a bit tart, has almost a winey flavor from the berries except that it's carbonated. The biggest problem is that it doesn't have much body to it and tastes a bit watery. Next attempt, I think I'll add in some crystal to add balance, and possibly tinker with the hops some.

Click to expand...

This was actually my final extract brew (now brewing AG)...so only steeping grains...used a wheat DME (70% wheat / 30% barley)...then used a bit of honey malt 8 oz for steeping in adition to 1 lb orange blossom honey added late in the boil ( I enjoy my brews to be a bit on the dry side)...

But I would mirror your observations thus far with the "wine" taste...it has to be from the raspberries...a ton of tartness. I get about half beer, half champagne from in the taste. The body is not an issue for me at all. I think it might be thin to thin-medium bodied beer...which I was hoping for. I just get an uber fizzy, tart, carb-bitten flavor from it. Didn't get any wheat taste...ended up super clear/no haze...definitely have some tinkering to do with this recipe.

EDIT: As for hops...a .75 oz 60 min addition of Colombus and another addition Colombus addition of .25 oz at 15 min.

I brewed northernbrewers american wheat kit and ended up splitting the batch with half of it going into the keg and the other half into a 3 gallon carboy with 30 oz of raspberries. After a week in the carboy I bottled it today and it smelled amazing and had a wonderful red rue to it. I sampled the last remainder of a bottle and it tasted a bit tart but I'm really excited to see how it comes out after a couple weeks in the bottle

I'm working on a Mcmenamins Ruby clone right now. I added 6 lbs of raspberries to the secondary. I also pasteurized my frozen whole raspberries at 160° for 30 seconds. I added 2 cups of water to the mixture.

About half a day after I racked to secondary I started to notice some airlock action that lasted for a day or 2. I'll give this batch another 8 days in secondary then bottle it up.

I bottled this batch about 1.5 weeks ago and tried it tonight. It is somewhat bitter. I'm guessing its from 6lbs of raspberries. I pasteurized the raspberries before adding them to the secondary.

Will time mellow out the tartness?

The brew is good right now, just a little tart.

6 lbs is quite a bit. I used 3 lbs and was overwhelmed at first with the tartness. My batch didn't last longer than a few weeks, but in that time, I did notice that the tartness mellowed out some...not a lot, but enough to round out the flavor a little better. I would assume, as with most beers, that in another month or so you will notice the flavor to be less tart than it is now.

I racked mine onto whole raspberries, not a puree...and looking back, I think I should have taken the beer off of the raspberries a little sooner than I did...maybe only 5-7 days or so on the raspberries would have probably been plenty.

The tartness will go away over time, but it does take a while. Give it 2-4 months and they will probably mellow right out. For future reference, you can also add some lactose to counteract some of the tartness...but only if it will be consumed by people that aren't lactose intolerant, of course.