want to add fruit

I was out at a bar in malvern pa and had a raspberry stout that was great i can't get it out of my head. I bought a irish stout kit from my LHBS and was wondering if i could add raspberrys to it? has anyone done something like this? how did it tastes? Or does anyone have an extract recipe for this kind of beer?
thanks

I'm also going to make a raspberry stout. From what I've researched so far, racking the fermented stout on roughly two pounds of raspberries in the secondary seems to be sufficient. Three pounds was "too much" for one person and one pound was only a "hint of tartness" for another person.

I'm planning to put 3/4 cup of cocoa powder in the secondary with the raspberries to make it a sweet raspberry chocolate stout.

Are you going to use an extract kit or do you have a specific recipe?

You can add fruit to just about any beer, regardless of the recipe. If you have the vessels, why not rack half of the stout on a pound of berries and have two versions.

One thing to remember is if you leave the yeast active, the fruit flavor will diminish after time.

If you kill your yeast off after primary fermentation and then rack onto fruit, the fruit will remain in tact.




Camden tablets are used in most cases...

Spyk'd said:

If you kill your yeast off after primary fermentation and then rack onto fruit, the fruit will remain in tact.

Click to expand...

Interesting... with this work with bottling or do you need to force carbonate?

Good question and it did not become apparent to me as I keg, until you asked.


After a little research, it looks like you'll want to introduce a nice or neutral yeast variety into your final product to initiate carbonation.


I say, just buy kegs, it's really not that expensive...

:cross:

Ok let me get this straight: before i rack the stout into the secondary i should kill the yeast that might be left with camden tablets. then pasturize my raspberrys place them in the secondary and rack the beer on top. once this is done how long do i have to wait before i bottle? and then i will have to force carbonate?

I usually let my fruit sit for a minimum of two weeks. After than I rack to Cornies and force carbonate.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

Hey friend, I just tasted a raspberry stout that I've had bottled for nearly two months and it tastes fantastic. I used 5 pounds frozen raspberries (I let them thaw and then mushed them up) and put them in the wort after the boil for 15 minutes, being sure not to boil the fruit as that will set the pectin and you'll end up with a harmless haze in your beer. Be sure to cover the wort while the berries sit in it to avoid contamination. After the berries have steeped, add your finishing hops and transfer the whole mess to the primary and seal it up as usual. After 5 days sterilize a strainer and scoop out all the raspberry and hop mess as best you can. Then rack to the secondary, trying to avoid any sediment or leftover berry bits. Let it ferment until the yeast drops and bottle.

My batch was very unbalanced right out of the fermenter. The raspberry was very strong an sharp. But after a month and a half conditioning its a beautiful beer, very complex and satisfying.

Cheers!

That's basically the only reason I didn't want to add them to the primary. The break that's left in my brewpot would get mixed up with all the fruit. I had such a hard time trying to rack from the carboy with the fruit last time (kept clogging up the auto-siphon when it got near the bottom... I lost about a gallon of perfectly good beer).

I didn't have too much of a problem with clogging the siphon. I scooped everything that was floating on the top out twice, waiting about 10 minutes in-between each time to let everything I pushed to the bottom to float back to the top. Mind you I was using a bucket fermenter so this was easy. Tilting near the end will help get all the sediment away from where you're siphoning.

when you add the fruit do you have to keep mixing it every few days?

I've made a blackberry porter and a raspberry porter. Both were extract recipes.

- For the blackberry porter, I racked 5 gallons of beer (post-fermentation) over 3 lbs of (thawed) frozen blackberries. Let it sit two weeks, and bottled. The result was a really fine porter, with almost no detectable blackberry flavor, and no aroma.

- Second attempt was a raspberry porter. I added a 32-oz. can of pureed raspberry directly to the fermenter when fermentation was about 80% complete. Let it sit a week, then racked to secondary, let it clear, and then bottled. Result is a very distinct raspberry flavor *and* aroma.

Honestly, it's a touch too strong for me, but all my friends like it. And I got what I was after: a raspberry porter. I think the puree really lets the flavor come out.

Next time, I'd love to try a blackberry puree.

YMMV

The problem with adding stuff directly to the fermenter is that you're risking contamination. If you do add a puree, heat it up to near boiling (but do NOT boil) for 15 minutes or so to sterilize it. You can directly add it, but don't be surprised if you see nasty intruders growing in your beer.

weasle708: Nah you just let it sit in there, no need to stir. You usually don't want to disturb your fermenting beer too much. After the yeast start eating, oxygen is a killer.

I dabbled in fruit once as well. I tried to create a blueberry wheat. I put a can of Oregon Blueberry in my primary and as a result lost all of the flavor of the fruit. It was only my second time brewing, and now i know better. Secondary is the way to go for sure.

I did a raspberry porter last year. Brew the beer and primary as usual. When you rack to secondary, add 2lbs of raspberries (it helps if you boil them in some water to pasteurize) and rack your beer on top of them.

I found that it was a pain to bottle (since the raspberries kept clogging my bottling wand) and my beer needed an extra few weeks to let all the flavors blend; but it turned out to be a pretty good beer.

This is great; I lOVE MAKING BEER!
Once my October fest beer is out of my primary I am going to make my Raging Raspberry Stout.
Thanks for the great information and the help. I will let you know how it turns out.

I have used raspberries before (pale ale)...i blended them up and let them soak at 160F to be sure they were sterile...used about 1 pound...I thought it was slightly too strong...wife didn't think I added enough....somehow I got a raspberry seed in the keg and clogged the diptube...be sure to strain seeds out if kegging

p.s. I know this is an old thread but had to add my 2 cents incase others were reading