AG Brew Day #9 Raspberry Ale

[jafski]

Having a stab at this today.

Batch size 13l

Ingredients:

2.66kg Maris Otter
0.66kg Vienna Malt
0.21 kg Pale Crystal Malt
0.06 kg Roasted Barley
12g Centennial Pellets 10% a.a.
12g Cascade Pellets 5.5% a.a.
5g Irish Moss
1x Safale 05 US Ale Yeast
760g Raspberries
3.25g Gelatin

Additions:

6g Centennial Pellets 10% a.a. @60 minutes
6g Centennial Pellets 10% a.a. @35 minutes
6g Cascade Pellets 5.5% a.a. @20 minutes
5g Irish Moss @15 minutes
6g Cascade Pellets 5.5% a.a. @5 minutes

So far so good. Closest to the target pre-boil gravity I've been so far.

Will rack onto the (frozen then boiled) raspberries in the secondary then fine with the gelatin when it's ready before racking to bottling bucket. Not done a fruit beer before, but that seems to be a reasonable method. Anyone got any advice?

 

[Poochops]

Consider doubling your raspberries, the flavour will struggle to break through the malts IMO. If you were doing a wheat beer you'd probably be on the money with that amount but raspberries don't have a whole load of flavour so I'd double up. You don't need to boil them necessarily either, although last time I used frozen fruit I did pasteurise by raising to 80 degrees then leaving the lid on for ten minutes before I cooled and threw them in. :thumb:

 

[JFB]

I’ve made love loads of raspberry beers(misses loves em).I just add the raspberries on day four of fermentation. Just defrosted and added, no problems so far..
Think I add 2.5k for a 23l batch.

 

[jafski]

Consider doubling your raspberries, the flavour will struggle to break through the malts IMO. If you were doing a wheat beer you'd probably be on the money with that amount but raspberries don't have a whole load of flavour so I'd double up. You don't need to boil them necessarily either, although last time I used frozen fruit I did pasteurise by raising to 80 degrees then leaving the lid on for ten minutes before I cooled and threw them in. :thumb:

Thanks for the advice, will double up the fruit!

 

[jafski]

I’ve made love loads of raspberry beers(misses loves em).I just add the raspberries on day four of fermentation. Just defrosted and added, no problems so far..
Think I add 2.5k for a 23l batch.

So I will defo need more fruit, thanks.

 

[jafski]

Just racked on to 1.5kg of frozen then pasteurised raspberries. Smelt lush. Got an ABV of 5.5& pre-fruit.

I read somewhere that the fruit doesn't change the FG as despite the amount of sugar in the fruit, there is also a lot of water so it cancels it out. Anyone?

 

[Zephyr259]

I read somewhere that the fruit doesn't change the FG as despite the amount of sugar in the fruit, there is also a lot of water so it cancels it out. Anyone?

That was true for my chocolate cherry porter, the beer finished at 1.010 then the 7 - 8 L got racked onto 1.35 kg of cherries, 2 weeks later it was still 1.010, but did go through a second fermentation.

The sugars in the fruit will fermement completely so in theory if you could dissolve them all at once it'd bump the gravity then go back to where it was before.

I guess the water in the fruit could dilute the batch and lower the gravity but we're so close to 1.0 sg that it'd probably need a significant amount fruit to do that.

 

[Slid]

Just racked on to 1.5kg of frozen then pasteurised raspberries. Smelt lush. Got an ABV of 5.5& pre-fruit.

I read somewhere that the fruit doesn't change the FG as despite the amount of sugar in the fruit, there is also a lot of water so it cancels it out. Anyone?

Yes. that sound about right to me. Over the summer / autumn of this year I picked around 6.5kg of acidic Northern England blackberries and added them to 3 different beers - a Belgian Wheat, a Stout and even to a clone of Robinsons Old Tom.

The wheat beer has only just recovered from the acidic shock and it was a bit sharp at first. Nice, drinkable beer, just as it has run out, now.

The stout is so good it has also almost gone.

The Old Tom is intended for when my other strong winter beers have gone - so maybe Feb 2018? Sneaky bottling taste was very promising.

 

[jafski]

Cheers all. It's bubbling away nicely, gone for a blow off tube instead of the normal airlock just in case.

 

[jafski]

Bottled it today. Lovely red colour to it, dregs in bottling bucket tasted nicely of Raspberry but not too much. Indebted to Poochops and JFB for the advice on upping the amount of Raspberries. Cheers!

Boiled up some muslin and a rubber band and put over the end of my syphon, then sanitised again to keep everything gunky in the FV. Here's what was left in the secondary once I'd racked to the bottling bucket:

 

[Poochops]

Will be really interesting to see how it turns out, should be at its peak by Christmas that :thumb:

 

[jafski]

Will be really interesting to see how it turns out, should be at its peak by Christmas that :thumb:

This turned out better than I hoped. Everyone loved it who tried it at Christmas, and it scooped the beer of the month at our Homebrew club!

Nice red tint to it, with a pinkish head and just enough raspberry flavour to be able to taste it while complementing the malt but not overpowering it, slightly tart as well.

Think it's probably the best one I've done so far, so thanks for the advice all!

 

[Poochops]

Result then! Well done on your beer of the month too, that confirms your friends and family weren't just blowing smoke up your arse :lol: saved your recipe for doing a batch for the summer BBQ season :thumb:

 

[jafski]

Result then! Well done on your beer of the month too, that confirms your friends and family weren't just blowing smoke up your arse :lol: saved your recipe for doing a batch for the summer BBQ season :thumb:

Most important, the Mrs liked it, so less grief for taking over the kitchen to brew from now on! :lol:

 

[Leemond]

Well done on your beer of the month too, that confirms your friends and family weren't just blowing smoke up your arse :lol:

:lol: It is always a concern when everyone is complimentary of your beer!

Interesting read this as I want to rack off some of my latest brew into a demijohn and strawberry purée. Though now considering frozen strawberries instead :hmm:

Glad the beer turned out great :thumb: