Can someone help me with a Black Dog Honey Raspberry Ale Clone?

[wookiemofo]

I am looking to clone the Black Dog Honey Raspberry as a PM. Doesn't have to be exact, just close.

My wife loves this stuff, and cannot have a beer until august (second baby coming). So I wanted to surprise her with a batch of this.

Any help is greatly appreciated, still a bit to green to figure it out myself.

http://franklindistributors.com/pdf_beverage/BlackDog3styles_SS.pdf

 

[Oldsock]

• Original Gravity: 12.2
• Alcohol by Volume: 5.1%
• Malts: Caramel 40, Caramel 80, Munich,
Vienna
• Hops: Willamette, Tettnanger, Cascade
• 12 International Bitterness Units
--------------------
OG 1.048
FG 1.010

Mini Mash @ ~150 in 1 gallon of water:
1 lb Veinna
1 lb Munich
.5 lbs C-40
.25 lbs C-80

Extract:
5 lbs Light LME or 4.25 lbs light DME

I’d use the Willamette to bitter (the amount needed will depend on the AA% and how much wort you are boiling.) Add a small charge (.25-.5 oz) of Cascade and Tett in the last 10 minutes of the boil.

I heard through the grapevine that this beer has only a very tiny amount of honey in it, so I would just skip it. Add raspberry extract to taste in the bottling bucket. Prime with .75 oz of sugar per gallon of beer to get a moderate level of carbonation.

Hope that helps, good luck.

 

[wookiemofo]

Might be a dumb question... will adding raspberry extract to the bottling bucket increase the amount of sugar for carbonation?

When you say to taste, I assume I actually pull a sample to taste and see if I need more extract?

Could I possibly just rack onto raspberries in the secondary?

 

[Oldsock]

Might be a dumb question... will adding raspberry extract to the bottling bucket increase the amount of sugar for carbonation?

When you say to taste, I assume I actually pull a sample to taste and see if I need more extract?

Could I possibly just rack onto raspberries in the secondary?

Raspberry extract is alcohol based, no issue for sugar/carbonation. I never use the stuff, fresh/frozen fruit is your best bet if you don’t mind the extra cost/effort. I make measured samples, and scale up, add ~75% of your estimated amount, sample, adjust (same thing I do for vanilla extract, spice teas, etc…).

Oregon purees are easy to use and sanitary, but they can make racking a bit more difficult (since they are gooey). Fruit juice is another good option, but it might be hard to find 100% raspberry juice (whole foods is a good place to check).

Frozen fruit is a good option, but it has a small chance of adding lactic acid bacteria or wild yeast to your beer. You should put it into the fermenter to defrost a few hours before you rack the beer onto it. Let the beer stay on it for 2-3 weeks then bottle. .5-1 lbs of raspberries per gallon is a good place to start for a moderate fruit character.

I love fresh/local/ripe fruit in sour beers, but it might be more risk than it is worth in a “clean” beer. I usually freeze it first anyway to help rupture the cell walls.

 

[wookiemofo]

Yeah I think I'd prefer to do the fresh/frozen route... seems more organic. So if I picked up fresh raspberries at my local grocer... just throw it in the freezer, defrost in the secondary and rack on top?

Any tips for siphoning?

 

[Oldsock]

Yeah I think I'd prefer to do the fresh/frozen route... seems more organic. So if I picked up fresh raspberries at my local grocer... just throw it in the freezer, defrost in the secondary and rack on top?

Any tips for siphoning?

That's exactly what I do for sours, but itmight be worth giving the berries a quick dip is star-san solution before freezing, just to further reduce the chances of an infection from the fruit.

Yep, get an auto-siphon. Best investment I've made.