Raspberry wheat beer

[Strata]

Currently in the cask -

No-one told me raspberry canes need to be kept under control consequently the garden is heaving with them, rather than turning out another years worth of jam I thought I'd brew this year -

Base beer - light on the hops
2kg Pale wheat malt mashed at 50c - 30mins, 65c 60mins to 80 and sparged
1.5kg Pale spray malt
30g fuggles - 90min
1tsp irish moss
belgian ale yeast M27 - high attenuating yeast
13 litres
OG 1065 FG 1010

This fermented for ten days, I then took 2.5kg autumn raspberries, crushed, heated to 70C for 15 mins and added to the cask and the beer added on top.

OK - First mistake - The cask was really quite full and I hadn't anticipated just how much foam this was going to kick out - pink goo crawling out of the top of the cask for about a week - thankfully I put the cask in the bath.

Three weeks for it to calm down ( anyone know why that was so slow compared to the primary ferment ?) then I transferred it to a second container and let it sit. I lost about a third to foam/sediment in the end.

Sampled it today after four weeks - it's good, damned good and cloudy as anything. I doubt it will ever clear - I suspect both the high wheat content and the heated fruit will stop that happening but I don't mind.

I'm now trying to decide whether to bottle now or leave it another month. The danger is if I don't bottle it'll get sampled a little too much over the next few weeks......

 

[pittsy]

sounds nice , get it bottled . Wheat won't last too long and it'll be best drunk young so sooner the better into the bottle . :thumb:

 

[brewtim]

Three weeks for it to calm down ( anyone know why that was so slow compared to the primary ferment ?) then I transferred it to a second container and let it sit. I lost about a third to foam/sediment in the end.

I know nothing about adding fruit to beer, but could it be that the fructose in fruit is different to sucrose or dextrose that would normally be used in a secondary ferment and the yeast react differently with fructose and go through a slower phase? And could the foam be caused by the naturally occurring substances in fruit reacting with CO2, pectin is it or something else? Maybe 2.5Kg is too much fruit for 13l. As I said I know nowt about fruit in beer so this is pure guesswork

It would be interesting to know though as I have foraged blackberries stored in the freezer just waiting for a wheat beer :wha:

 

[Strata]

I got the quantity from the Graham Wheeler book - it's about as much as is advisable. The flavour seems bang on - powerful raspberry kick with a hops coming in a little later. Could well be the fructose, or just the high alcohol content slowing things down.

Bottling on Thursday then, I expect more pink foam to contend with :)

 

[PawsOfEvil]

I wish we could 'like' posts here just like facebook. This recipe makes my mouth water, I first tried raspberry wheat beer in Canada. Drinking pints of pink beer got me a few odd looks but it was soo good I couldn't stop at just one...or 8 for that matter. The following day was pretty awful and I looked like I was wearing lipstick but have loved it ever since. Might need to give this one a go!

 

[Strata]

Disaster! All the bottles sterilised and three filled when the pressure release became enough to float all the sediment and turn it back into pink soup. I've fully released the pressure and I'm just hoping the weekend will be long enough for everything to settle again.

 

[Strata]

Finally in the bottle - and it did clear completely. Out of the 13 litres I've bottled six and we've drank two so that's five litres lost - worst yield I've ever had but totally worth it and I'll be doing some more. The last few went into colourless glass so we can see the sediment when we're pouring.

Lessons for next time - fruit pulp is going in a jelly bag so pips don't escape, when I add the fruit it will be in another tub rather than a cask - I wasn't prepared for the amount of foam.

I'm toying with adding the fruit to the primary and pasteurising it by chucking the hot wort on top.

My dignity has gone - I'm supping the last half pint from the cask through gritted teeth.

Dunno whether to call it Red October or Phantom Raspberry Blower.

 

[Rivvo]

Looking at this recipe with interest, do you think boiling/heating the raspberries up with the right ammount of sugar for priming and a small ammount of water then sieving and adding it to the FV immediately prior to bottling like a sugar syrup would work?

 

[pittsy]

Best to add the raspberry like dry hopping , a few days at least after pitching . I would leave till around day 5 then add raspberry then leave in for a week .