Raspberry Witbier

[rabbie]

I've just got clearance to get a brew on this afternoon :

Time for a witbier with a hint of raspberry:

2.5 kg Pale ale
2.5 kg Wheat malt
10g Coriander seed

20g East Kent goldings

Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit

I'm planning to siphon onto some raspberries in the secondary FV after a week, still not quite sure how much to add...

 

[robsan77]

I'd say about 500 grams per gallon.

 

[rickthebrew]

sounds great - how much do the raspberrys flavour the final taste? would like to try a simular brew for those long summer days (if we get a summer :? )

 

[leedsbrew]

Can't beat a frambozen in the summer. Never had a raspberry wit though. looking forward to seeing the results! our lass wants me to do a cherry kriek. got a pack of WB-06 so might have to do a cherry wiesse! let us know how you get on :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[rabbie]

Yep, I'm brewing this with long summer evenings in mind!

Hopefully there will be a strong hint of berry flavour and a nice red colour without being too over the top.
I do like the lambics, but this won't have any sourness so it'll be interesting to taste. When I bought the grain I went for double the bill for this one, so I might brew a cherry version too or just a plain wit (with a bit of orange peel).

Couple of pics so far, I'm just getting the boil going now.

Ingredients, minus the grain which was already in the mash

Protein rest

Thirsty work, so a wee taster of the dark ale from a couple of weeks ago

Mash out, almost literally...

 

[dreamworker]

I've just got clearance to get a brew on this afternoon :

Time for a witbier with a hint of raspberry:

2.5 kg Pale ale
2.5 kg Wheat malt
10g Coriander seed

20g East Kent goldings

Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit

I'm planning to siphon onto some raspberries in the secondary FV after a week, still not quite sure how much to add...

:thumb: This one I did last year had about 2.1 kg rasps in it:

I sanitised the rasps by giving them a 15 min simmer then putting in 2ndry for a few days before racking off for conditioning. It came out quite hazy at first but its aged nicely as you can see. I'd ike to try another one with double the amount of fruit... :hmm:

 

[Vossy1]

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out, sounds :drink:

 

[Neil09]

Very interesting i would like to do a raspberry beer this year

 

[highwayman]

I have only ever used honey in my brews..but I must admit the idea of a raspberry beer sounds very appealing.....I am watching this one..so please keep us updated on how it turns out Neil09 :thumb:

 

[rabbie]

Right, dropped into the supermarket tonight to pick up the berries and got a nasty shock, 4 quid for 150g!
Plan-B, frozen berries. I had 3 packs of raspberries in my hand when I decided to try something a bit different, so went for forest fruits instead :hmm: These should give a darker colour and hopefully might add a bit more complexity...
Ayway, 1.2 kilos went into the FV and I siphoned (18l ish) on top:

OG was 1042 and it was down to 1010 tonight, so with the extra sugar I guess the finished brew will be about 5%?
It's only been sitting for an hour but here is how it's looking so far:

 

[leedsbrew]

Looking good. I brewed my weisse base beer on Sat for the kriek I'm making for her.

I would have been tempted to blitz the fruit 1st to get more juice out.

:thumb: :thumb:

 

[rickthebrew]

So frozen fruits or purees will work well then? Does this end up as a cloudy beer?
Also I have some K-97 yeast would this work OK?

Cheers

 

[rabbie]

I'm not sure how it'll go with the frozen fruit to be honest, bit on an experiment....I've seen a few recipes using frozen berries on the net so it should be ok.
Yep, this won't finish clear at all hopefully it'll look like a deep red Hoegaarden when it's done.

Blitzing/crushing the fruit might well have been better idea. When I opened the packs there was a lot of liquid in the bottom so I thought that'd give a good bit of colour and taste without going over the top.

Just had another sample from the FV and it's picking up a nice flavour already, fingers crossed. The weather is picking up here now too so I might be able to have a bottle outside in the warm in a month or so... :thumb:

 

[retourrbx]

cool !

 

[rabbie]

Tonight was bottling night. Those berries were a bit of a hassle to be honest, but the end product might be worth it.
Picked up a nice colour and lovely aroma of fruit:

The pieces of fruit were a bugger for clogging the siphon, so I was left with 2 or 3 litres of good beer in the fermenter which I couldn't get into the bottling bucket. Oh well, I'll just have to enjoy what I managed to bottle. :

Looking forward to getting a first taste of this one...

 

[onelegout]

For gods sake man taste it! Surely you took a sip while bottling?!

 

[retourrbx]

have you tasted it yet - any good?

 

[State of the mind]

Wow, that's a beautiful colour, that will look amazing when it has cleared. :thumb:

How long are you planning to age for??? :hmm:

 

[rabbie]

Don't worry, I had a good tasting during bottling :thumb:
The last couple of bottles got some of the fruit dregs in them so I cracked one open today to see how the carbonation is going rather than serving them up (ok, I fancied a taste):

Have to report that this looks like being a successful experiment. It'll be cracking once the carbonation is done properly. This is 50% wheat malt so won't get any clearer.
Lovely fresh fruit smell, and nice and dry. I'm not sure this batch will make it through the summer so I might just have to get another one on the go... :

 

[rickthebrew]

looks great - going on the to do list :thumb: