My first beer with fruit :)

[TheDeepDarkDerp]

Hello everyone,

So after making a few simple caned wort beers and absolutely falling in love with home brewing I decided to upgrade my kit a little and get a slightly higher end beer kit (Barons Canadian style Pilsner). Along with that I have always wanted to make a raspberry beer after drink enough to drown a fish in on a trip to Canmore BC. So I did some searching on the forum and found enough information to get me starter.

I just wanted to kind of post a diary of my events for any other novices who are thinking of starting there own raspberry or fruit beers.

First off I'll start with the equipment and ingredients I got and why. For this batch I had to get myself a second fermenter to rack the beer into to get the most flavour out of the fruit. You can do it in a single fermenter but from what I have read its kind of a waste because you only get a hint a fruit flavour from doing this. Unless that is your intent then by all means do it in only one fermenter. As well I got myself about 1.5m of clear PVC tubing and a small bucket to make a blowoff valve by sticking one end onto the bung and the other submerged in water with a bit of sanitizer in the bucket to prevent air from getting in and infecting the brew. Fruit has allot of simple sugars that yeast love so when the beer is added to the fruit fermentation will kick start again and create some serious foam or krausen.

As for my beer and fruit I picked up a Baron brand Canadian Pilsner kit and 3x 600gram (4lbs.) bags of frozen berries. I picked the Pilsner because I believe the sweet/tart taste of the raspberries would mix well together.

I'll upload pictures as soon as I can. If all goes to plan I will be rack the beer into the secondary this coming weekend.

 

[deBrouwer]

How do you plan to add the fruit? Will you sanitize the berries at all? Put them in mesh bags? Cut them up at all?

 

[TheDeepDarkDerp]

I plan to use frozen ones so they won't really need to be sanitized. As well after they defrost the cell walls will bust so no need to cut them up. Im thinking of putting them in mesh but I don't know if the berries will get enough exposure to the beer that way. But on the flip side mesh would keep all the skin and seeds out as well.

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[TheDeepDarkDerp]

Alright it's been some time coming but here is my beer just bubbling along. It's done now and sitting at a gravity of 1. 020. I'm just thawing out the berries now so they will be ready to add in a bit. Can't wait!

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[deBrouwer]

Looks good. How did you decide on the amount of berries?

I hope they all fit in there, looks pretty tight!

 

[TheDeepDarkDerp]

Hi deBrouwer,

I chose 4lbs of berries because after doing some research I found that most people used between 3lbs and 5lbs of fruit so I decided to try right in the middle for my first brew.

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[Hello]

Looks good and seems like a good idea but I don't believe you will fit 4 lbs of berries in there. I believe adding 4 lbs of strawberries to my beer increased my volume by at least a 1/2 gallon. Something to consider as your headspace looks minimal.

 

[TheDeepDarkDerp]

So I racked the beer on top of the thawed berries and it went very well. Without the yeast cake from the primary i was able to fit all the berries and beer in. After a full 24hrs there isn't as much activity as I thought there might be but there is bubbling happening in my little make shift blow off tube. All there is to do now is wait at about 2 weeks and see what it looks like .

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[FLOutlander]

Wow that looks good. I'm curious...does this "Pilsner" kit come with Ale yeast? What temp are you fermenting at?

Outlander

 

[TheDeepDarkDerp]

Hi FLOutlander,

The kit came with a yeast pack but I'm not sure exactly what kind. Currently its fermenting at 19~20 celcius.

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[SmCranf]

Thats too high to be lager yeast right? And looks good! I added raspberries to my American Wheat today so we are in the same boat!

 

[Bigarcherynut]

This is what my wife and daughters are wanting me to make. Have not done a fruity beer yet but sounds interesting. I have a couple of questions. First how long will you keep it in the secondary? Second is, after it's finished in the secondary what do or how do you rack the beer into the bottling bucket without getting the berries in it? It sounds like a good summer beer.

 

[TheDeepDarkDerp]

Hi SmCranf and Bigarcherynut!

SmCranf,

Ya lager yeast is to be fermented at a very low temp of about 5 to 10C I believe. How is your beer turning out? How much did it ferment when you added the berries? Mine only showed a little bit of action for about a day and now it has slowed WAY down to the point where it dos not look like its fermenting at all.

Bigarcherynut,

I plan to keep it in the secondary four about a month which I think will be enough time to let the sweet and tart taste of the berries settle it. After I'm hoping that it will only get better the longer it sits in my basement because all beers get better with age . As for getting it in to a bottling bucket I plan to rack it with great care so that I try not to get seeds and any left over yeast. As well I'm looking at maybe trying to use a sieve in some way to help with the processes.

 

[UWDawg13]

Subscribed. Can't wait to see how this one turns out. Care to share your pilsner recipe or kit name? Same with the poster who added raspberries to their American Wheat?

Might try one for summer, might use less berries depending on how you think this one turns out. Also wondering if anyone has experience using fresh berries? Just need to sanitize the freshies? Or I suppose you could freeze them after being picked and following your procedure. Only reason I ask is because my dad grows more raspberries than he can use and why not brew with free ingredients?

Looks good, keep us posted!

 

[microbusbrewery]

I plan to use frozen ones so they won't really need to be sanitized.

Just an FYI for next time (since you've already racked it onto your fruit), freezing doesn't sanitize. It will kill some organisms but not many. Most just go dormant then wake up when they're thawed; for example, yeast samples are often frozen for long term storage.

This bit me in the @ss once when I made a peach/apricot wheat ale. I only froze the fruit and ended up with a wild yeast that ruined the beer. Now I always sanitize the fruit unless I'm using a fruit where I'm only using the meat from the interior of the fruit (e.g. Watermelon, pineapple, etc).

You have a few options. Pasteurizing with heat is one option. I don't like this too much because you lose the fresh fruit character (think jelly flavor versus fresh fruit). A wash/soak in a neutral spirit like vodka is another option although it can de a pain when you're using a ton of fruit. Another option is potassium metabisulfite or Camden tablets. Put your fruit in a container large enough to hold all of it, mix the PM with a little but of water, then pour it over your fruit. Let it sit overnight and the next day your fruit will be sanitized and the PM will have off-gassed. This is the method I like to use because you keep the fresh fruit character.

 

[SmCranf]

My raspberries caused a nice second fermentation, and I should be ready to bottle tomorrow. I need to open up my primary for a jalapeno cream ale iv been fiending to brew

 

[brucejay]

TheDeepDarkDerp

Have you bottled and tasted yet? I'm adding raspberries to a belgian soon and am anxious to hear how yours turned out!

 

[TheDeepDarkDerp]

Sorry for the delayed reply!

UWDAWG13: I used a Baron brand kit that comes with a bag a liquid wort.

SO!

I bottled the beer and I can tell you it didn't last very long. The turned out very nicely. Not exactly what I wanted but I did learn a lot from it. First off 4lbs of frozen berries was definitely to much. I let the berries sit in the secondary for only 8ish days and that was way more then enough. Next time I might just add the berries in the primary or half the berries in the secondary. The beer had a beautiful red color to it but had a slight red wine taste to it. All in all I'd definitely make it again but with less berries.