Rz Wheat Ale?

[the_dam_man]

I figured I would give a shot at making some rasberry wheat ale. I was going to start with a Coopers Wheat Ale kit and use a combonation of fresh berries and sugar for it....Just that I don't know how much berries I should use to subsitute for each pound of sugar they call for. Will 1.5# of berries per pound of sugar work out pretty good? or should I just take a reading when I start and keep adding sugar until I reach a get a SG that should give a decent potential for alcohol content? I have a week or so until the local berries are in (actually some might be coming from the treeline out back if I can scrounge up enough)

 

[FlyingHorse]

I'd make the kit recipe as is, and then add fruit to the secondary. Rasberry's pretty strong; I'd say 2-3 lbs should do it. You can always taste as you go and add more if you like.

 

[the_dam_man]

I ended up making per instructions and adding 3lbs of black berries an about 1/2lb of my backyard berries during the end of the 20 min boil. the boil leached out most of the color from the berries (I would assume most the sugars and juices) and tossed it all in the primary. Pitched the yeast that night around 10pm and by 6:15am when I was getting ready to leave for work it was already bubbling. After work that day (less than 24 hours still) it was going like crazy. so I moved my primary into a large tub and put some ice water in it to cool it down some. tossed ice hunks in it a couple times a day over the weekend and it is really slowing down now. going to move it to a secondary in a couple days and prob bottle it next week (late in the week)

now I pick the next batch. either a dark ale from AHBS or their Blue moon clone.figured I would shotgun a couple batches since I haven't done a batch in over a month.....supply is running low. So hopefully by labor day I can report on the blackberry wheat ale I have going.

 

[the_dam_man]

as per above...

Sampled some bottles the last couple weeks and it seems to have worked out GREAT! very strong berry color to it. I added some pectin at bottling and it helped alot in cleaning it up.