Adding raspberries to wheat beer, when should I add?

[TkmLinus]

I picked up the ingredients for a cranberry wheat recipe I had been wanting to try without thinking about the fact that it is late spring in the south and non of the stores around here carry frozen cranberries at this time(I can only find craisins). I did notice that fresh raspberries are available at the store. I was going to substitute 1 cup of raspberries for one cup of cranberries. Should I add the raspberries at flameout as in the recipe or later, such as after cooling or post primary fermentation? Thanks in advance, recipe below

1 gallon
1 lb Pale Ale Malt
0.7 lb Pale Wheat Malt
0.2 Munich

0.08 oz Chinook at 60 mins
.01 oz Amarillo at 30 mins
.01 oz Amarillo at 0 mins
1 cup cranberries at 0 mins (I will sub with Raspberries)

 

[Kickass]

Lots of options here, here’s what I have done and would suggest doing. Brew and ferment your beer as normal. Toss your berries in the freezer on brew day. Once fermentation is done, thaw, smash gently and toss berries into primary fermentation vessel. Wait for activity to stop, cold crash and package.

I think raspberries are preferable to cranberries in beer so it might be a blessing that cranberry season has passed.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I do a raspberry hibiscus wheat beer and use almost one pound of berries per gallon along with enough hibiscus tea to make its presence known (typically 4 ounces of dried flower per 10 gallons of beer). One cup of raspberries in a gallon may not make much of an impression. I add the tea and raspberries after primary fermentation has nearly completed (a few points remaining) and I do add a cup of corn sugar just to generate enough CO2 to help flush out any O2 ingress from racking to a second carboy...

Cheers!

 

[Oleson M.D.]

The best time to add raspberries:

After the beer is fully conditioned / aged, pour your self a nice pint. Then grab some fresh berries. As you consume the beer, snack on the fresh berries.
This gives you the best of both worlds...good beer, and fresh berries.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Or how about something like this?

 

[Kickass]

Or how about something like this?

+1 for this. I’ve used it with favorable results

 

[JohnDBrewer]

Or how about something like this?

How much do you use in a 5g batch/keg? One can seems like a lot.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I picked up the ingredients for a cranberry wheat recipe I had been wanting to try without thinking about the fact that it is late spring in the south and non of the stores around here carry frozen cranberries at this time(I can only find craisins). I did notice that fresh raspberries are available at the store. I was going to substitute 1 cup of raspberries for one cup of cranberries. Should I add the raspberries at flameout as in the recipe or later, such as after cooling or post primary fermentation? Thanks in advance, recipe below

1 gallon
1 lb Pale Ale Malt
0.7 lb Pale Wheat Malt
0.2 Munich

0.08 oz Chinook at 60 mins
.01 oz Amarillo at 30 mins
.01 oz Amarillo at 0 mins
1 cup cranberries at 0 mins (I will sub with Raspberries)

I tried a cranberry wheat but I ended up adding cherries to it since it came out too sour from the cranberries alone. Raspberry does make for a good wheat fruit addition as does cherries. As suggested, using actual fruit requires a different approach, freezing, then thawing breaks down the fruit cell walls to expose more of the fruit goodness. Using the canned purees is a good route too as you just dump it in. Using one or the other, I put the fruit into a sanitized mesh cylinder, those dry hop stainless steel mesh filter with a screw on top. With that I can just put into a keg and use it as a secondary or just serve it from there. A mesh bag works too but I always use the cylinder as it's easier to retrieve from the keg.

 

[Kickass]

How much do you use in a 5g batch/keg? One can seems like a lot

I’ve used one can. Morebeer directions say one can for subtle flavor, two for more pronounced.

 

[BongoYodeler]

How much do you use in a 5g batch/keg? One can seems like a lot.

I’ve used one can. Morebeer directions say one can for subtle flavor, two for more pronounced.

I've actually never used it before. I brew an American wheat beer that I add apricot extract to, but the next time I brew it I plan on using the canned puree instead. I think I'll use one can as @Kickass did since I'm looking more for subtlety rather than in your face flavoring. @Kickass how/when did you add your puree? I don't secondary so I'm thinking of adding it to my fermenter after a bulk of the fermentation is complete.

 

[Kickass]

how/when did you add your puree?

If I can remember, I racked to another fermenter then added the purée. You could easily add it to primary at the end of fermentation. If able to cold crash, that’ll help all the solids settle out.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I’ve used one can. Morebeer directions say one can for subtle flavor, two for more pronounced.

I used one can also. I've never used two but I would expect it might be overpowering, or more pronounced as mentioned. I prefer fruit beers to be more "beer" forward rather than fruit forward. If the canned stuff doesn't give you the flavor you want maybe try adding a little of the same fruit extract.

 

[TkmLinus]

fwiw, I do a raspberry hibiscus wheat beer and use almost one pound of berries per gallon along with enough hibiscus tea to make its presence known (typically 4 ounces of dried flower per 10 gallons of beer). One cup of raspberries in a gallon may not make much of an impression. I add the tea and raspberries after primary fermentation has nearly completed (a few points remaining) and I do add a cup of corn sugar just to generate enough CO2 to help flush out any O2 ingress from racking to a second carboy...

Cheers!

How long do you leave the beer on the raspberries? I just picked up a couple of bags of frozen raspberries, do I need to worry about sanitizing them or should I just add them as is? Thanks again!

 

[day_trippr]

I use frozen berries as well, take them out of the freezer, put them in a big pot to thaw, add a quart of hot hibiscus tea (4 oz of flowers) and the cup of corn sugar, mix it all with a teaspoon of pectinase enzyme powder, then bring it up to 135°F, hold it there for an hour or so to sanitize the works, then wrap the pot in towels and let it slowly cool overnight while the enzyme breaks down the berries. Add the works to fresh carboys then rack the base beer atop. Let that sit for a week then keg.

This is for a 10 gallon batch, btw, with 9 pounds of frozen berries...

Cheers!