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Hey guys.
Im gonna try this tomorrow...

- Coopers Canadian Blonde
- 1kg DME
- 10 - 15g of either Saaz or Hallertau
- 1L of a raging WLP802 Czech Budgievoice Lager yeast

...and I want to add raspberries. ( coles didnt have frozen cherries ).
Now, i have 2 questions:

- I got 350g frozen raspberries - is that enough? ($6 a pack - bastards )

- Should I add them to the primary or secondary?

I do plan to heat up the raspberries for 30mins at just under 70*C to sterilize, then im gonna chuck em in.......no muslin bag.
Thanks for your help guys.

Cheers

You will need at least 1.5 kg of rasberries and you want to rack onto them in the 2nd, ive just done this and it looks good although i would even probably go for an extra 500gm of rasberries if i was to do it again, other wise it will work great

i was hoping you were going to say that 350g was plenty

I might have to shop around, because another 5 packs of those things from coles is gonna cost me anothe $30



Thanks for the tip

Why not the primary?
Is it because the beer will sit in the secondary for longer, therefore it will pick up more raspberry flavour?

Thanks Lethal

Go and have a look at coles m8 i got 500gm packs for $5.70
and to be quite honest im not really sure why not in the primary but i have noticed that everyone racks onto them, maybe theres to much heavy duty yuck crap in the primary and when you rack it you get rid of most of it, make sure you use that damn muslin bag to as i didnt and oh my god what a mess and a hassle cos you want to rack it maybe twice more after second, as the fruit breaks up it creates a hell of alot of sediment

do you get a strong raspeberry flavour and is it very pleasant?
i have never had beer with fruit in it so i have no idea what it would taste like but they aren't two things i canimagine would mix very well.
are there other fruits that you can use maybe peaches or strawberies

Cant tell you how it tastes yet as i only just bottled and didnt taste it, but looks and smells great, you could probably use almost any fruit and they must go pretty well together as many people do it around the world, this is my first one though and if it works out i will deffinately do it again

The reason you rack onto the fruit is because the large amount of CO2 produced in primary scrubs the nice fruit flavours out of your brew.

Also, don't boil the fruit as this releases pectin... just bring your fruit boil up to 70-80°C and keep it there for a while to kill nasties.

thanks guys.

will look harder at coles for raspberry deals, and i'll have to find a muslin bag.....

What are your thoughts behind making this a lager rather than an ale?

i'v only tryed a fruit beer once, with 1.5 kg mixed berries into a lager...worst beer i'v ever made, very dry and tart, still bad after 3 months in bottle, this is only my opinion tho and i will be trying it again as i know some people have made really nice beers using fruits, next time will be an ale tho hopefully won't come out as dry

-Phill

Yeah, I reckon as this is your first attempt, don't overdo the fruit. One or Two punnets should be fine. It's too expensive to risk more on something you don't have a lot of experience with.

aaaaahhh...................finally, the answer i was looking for.

Thanks rwh.

( or are you just telling me what i want to hear to shut me up? )

Cheers

ACTbrewer wrote:What are your thoughts behind making this a lager rather than an ale?

i figured that i'd get more raspberry flavour with the lager, because of the cleaner, crisper characteristics of the yeast.

Hope im right...........

The Carbonator wrote:thanks guys.

will look harder at coles for raspberry deals, and i'll have to find a muslin bag.....

sorry carbo i may have misled you i actually meant to say safeways sorry