Raspberry Ale Question

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Munchkin

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I have a raspberry ale on the go which I started yesterday. Im following a recipe book which tells me to add the raspberries on day 2. This isnt possible without making a mess since im using a blow off tube in a glass 5gal carboy. I have two options IMO, wait for fermentation to calm down then add raspberries to primary, or wait 2 weeks in primary and rack to secondary on top of the raspberries.

Anyone with experience brewing this type of beer have any tips for the best results?
 
I"ve always added the berries during secondary. If you add the berries while fermentation is most active, the yeast is going to go wild and eat all the sugar available in those berries, leaving you with a drier wine-flavor rather than sweet beer flavor that people would expect.

I add my berries 7-10 days before fermentation would be about complete or even after fermentation is complete. In my mind I'm making a "tea" with the berries. This has been effective for me in the past and I've really enjoyed the flavor.

Make sure to pasteurize them (bring them to ~150F for an hour) and cool before adding to your beer. The stronger the beer the less you have to worry because the alcohol in solution will help impede any bacteria. But, I got lazy one time and infected a light lager by adding berries without pasteurizing!!
 
I recently brewed a raspberry lager with amazing results. I puréed 6lbs of frozen raspberries and racked my beer ontop in the secondary for 3 weeks. Came out awesome. But really fruity so be ready for that.
 
kblankenship11 said:
I"ve always added the berries during secondary. If you add the berries while fermentation is most active, the yeast is going to go wild and eat all the sugar available in those berries, leaving you with a drier wine-flavor rather than sweet beer flavor that people would expect.

I add my berries 7-10 days before fermentation would be about complete or even after fermentation is complete. In my mind I'm making a "tea" with the berries. This has been effective for me in the past and I've really enjoyed the flavor.

Make sure to pasteurize them (bring them to ~150F for an hour) and cool before adding to your beer. The stronger the beer the less you have to worry because the alcohol in solution will help impede any bacteria. But, I got lazy one time and infected a light lager by adding berries without pasteurizing!!
Click to expand...

This is a common misconception, that fruit add's much sugar. Sure there is some but it is so miniscule it wont really effect the beer in standard amounts people are adding.

Mad Fermentationist has a good article on the math here
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/10/adding-fruit-to-beer-increases-alcohol.html

In most cases your going to be pulling your ABV down by adding fruit unless its a low abv to begin with. Also it doesnt matter when you add them, the yeast are always going to eat all of the sugar, your right to do it in the secondary though...the more vigorous primary fermentation will likely blow a lot more of the good fruity smell's right out of your air lock...since the fruit will barely cause much of a secondary ferment you shouldnt lose much.
 

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