Raspberry Lambic

[Zippox]

I'll admit I have not tried any other sour beer (yet) besides the Lindeman's Framboise Raspberry Lambic but I am a huge fan of it and hoping to make something of that style.

My plan is to follow AmandaK's Lambic, then add raspberries around the 1 year mark. I have heard varying answers at this point about how long to wait at this point before bottling. I have heard about a month to 6 months.

1) Any opinions on the time? Will I even get a raspberry taste if the yeast eats up all the sugar from the fruit?

2) Would this yield something in the vicinity of what I am looking for?

3) Finally, when it eventually comes time to bottle, using the standard 5 oz of corn sugar will be alright? Or will the 3278 eat too much and produce bombs?

 

[Clint04]

That Lambic recipe with raspberries sounds delicious. However, you may be in for something entirely different than the Lindeman's Framboise you have tried. Lindeman's adds artificial sweeteners to most of their fruit lambics, which leads to a sweeter beer.

If you add enough raspberries - probably >1lb per gallon - than the raspberry flavor should hopefully come through. If all goes well, the beer will be much more funky and sour than a Lindeman's Fruit Lambic, but that is a good thing! (In my opinion).

 

[levifunk]

Well, first off, I'd highly recommend seeking out some other raspberry lambics. IMO, Lindeman's fruit beers are just that, Fruit Beers, not Lambics. I'd venture to guess AmandaK's recipe will result in something much more Lambic.

1.) As for your fruiting. Rule of thumb is 2lbs per gallon. It seems to be pretty standard to have the lambic on fruit for 3 months. If you want more raspberry fruit flavor, add more than the 2lbs/gallon.

2.) No, as stated above, this will not yield anything in the vicinity of what you are expecting. Lindeman's fruit beers are loaded with sugar and artificial fruit syrup. You would have to add sodium benzoate to the final product to kill off all the yeast, and then load it with sugar. Then force carb it into bottles.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

It's not that you can't make something like those Lindeman's fruit products but you have to make the decision to backsweeten the beer and after 12-18 months of work it may be more work than necessary to get that small amount of funk in the beer to then add a bunch of sugar back to it. It would be easier to simply make a wheat beer and add raspberries to it. Instead of 12-18 months it could be ready in a few weeks. I'm not being critical of your preferences, I actually stumbled into this part of brewing with the same question. It's just a question of effort versus result.

If you want to go down the lambic path and make a lambic without backsweetening, you should check out some of the non-backsweetened lambics first. You may decide you really like unadulterated lambic even more. If you get Lindeman beers you should be able to find Lindeman's Cuvee Rene Gueuze or Timmerman's Gueuze. Both are un-backsweetened so you just taste lambic. I don't consider either terribly sour -- my own lambic is much more sour -- but it will give you an idea what lambic tastes like without all the sugar. Then picture raspberry with it (or not). If you like it, then revisit the idea of committing the time to aging lambic. If not, a wheat beer is very easy and adding raspberries is no chore either.

 

[Zippox]

Thanks for the replies. I will definitely pick myself up a bottle of Cuvee Rene. I went to my local liquor store and had them show me all of the sour beers they had (because I want to add dregs on top of the Wyeast packet). The ones that I have read that work best that were at that place were all of the Jolly Pumpkin ones and the Cuvee Rene.

Seems crazy to me how much raspberries are needed to impart good flavor but I guess that's just the way it works. (Why do they have to be so expensive?)

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I usually keep an eye on berry prices at the store so when they go on sale I can buy and freeze until needed. Out of season berries are really expensive but around the end of summer they can be pretty cheap when the stores are trying to sell through their supply. Another place to look is in the frozen fruit, it's usually near the frozen deserts. You may be able to find frozen raspberries without any other berries mixed in. That's usually a really cheap option as well.