Raspberry Ale tasting sour in secondary despite sanitizing and boiling puree

[barristersbrew]

This is my first time doing a fruit all grain. I racked to secondary after about 12 days and added 4 lbs of raspberry purree (made from straining raspberries I boiled into a purree) to the secondary. I dry hopped today and took an gravity reading...and sampled it, and it tasted fairly sour. Those with experience brewing fruit beers, does the sourness subside after some more time in the secondary and bottles, or is my batch ruined? thanks!

 

[McKnuckle]

Did you taste the beer before you added the raspberry purée? I just bottled a raspberry wit where I incorporated raspberry syrup (made from frozen berries and sugar) and whole berries. When it fermented out, it was indeed tart - not sour as in a bad taste - but tart. I expected that. Raspberries have lots of citric acid, and once the sugar is more or less gone, the acid has nothing left to balance it. So I guess I'd be wondering if the berries are responsible for your sour taste, or the base beer itself.

 

[barristersbrew]

thanks for your reply. i did, it actually tasted fairly good--malty with a hint of raspberry (i added 1 lb during last 10 of boil), albeit a bit watery. i am fairly certain the overpowering tartness (definitely a better word for the taste) is due to the raspberry puree i added as the purree was a bit tart in and of itself before i added it. I figured the fermentation would balance it out. are you aware of anything that you can do to level-out the tartness, or is that something that dissipates with time?

 

[McKnuckle]

How much fruit did you use? Mine was an experimental 1 gallon taken from a larger batch of witbier. I used 1.25 lbs of berries in 0.81 gallons of beer, plus about a cup or so of syrup, to make about 1 gallon of new raspberry wit.

Generally, acid and sugar tend to be the elements that balance each other. I'm sure it will mellow in time, although who knows how long. Otherwise you could back sweeten it to balance the tartness, force carb it, and keep it cold (to prevent re-fermentation).

 

[BrewWNC]

I agree. Sour good or sour bad? I've done quite a few fruit beers (last one being 6 months ago a wild raspberry wheat). A good rule of thumb is to always wait it out and see what happens. However, Keep an eye out for infections and immediately keg/bottle if you suspect one. I've made fruit beers that , over time, were good then bad and others that were bad then good. It depends on a lot of factors and individual taste preferences.

 

[barristersbrew]

total so far has been about 5lbs, 1lb per gallon (perhaps this was some bad advice from my homebrew shop). however, now i feel like i probably overdid the raspberriness with that ratio lol.

i think brewwnc has some sage advice though with respect to letting it ride a little and see what happens. its only been about 3 weeks since brewday, so hopefully it mellows out. having never brewed a fruit before i was just concerned the overt tartness of its current state is an indication that the beer is trash. i guess all i can do is wait, and if it doesnt improve ill have to follow that sugar and forced carb plan mcknuckle.

 

[McKnuckle]

Well we both used about the same ratio, so let's see what happens! I doubt there's anything technically wrong with your beer; the sweet/sour balance is very much a matter of taste. How dry is it? Mine is fairly dry at 1.008 FG. It tasted good, but I'll admit it was really tasty with a tad more sweetness, a couple of days before it terminated. But I like tart things...

I think when cold and fizzy it will be good. If not, I'll know what to do next time. And yes, the flavors will smooth out with a bit of aging.