homebrewandbeer.com

Evening brewers,

Have done a little searching for guidance with regard to adding fruit to a beer but haven't come up with much.

I've made a basic wheat beer which has been fermenting in primary for 2 weeks. question is how to best add the raspberries. I've got a kilo and I'm planning to steep them in a little water at around 70c, then mush them up and add to a second fermenter then rack the beer onto the top and leave for another week or so.

Anyone got any tips/pointers/thoughts?

Freeze berries first, or so I've heard

I'm with bobbioli.
Freeze them first, which swells the water in the cells and breaks the cell walls, so you can get all the goodies out of it.

Banger,

When I last did a fruit beer, I basically brewed as normal and then racked onto the pasteurised fruit as you're planning to do. From memory I racked 1/2 a batch onto 2kg apricots and the other 1/2 bottled as normal. I'd be tempted to do the same with yours. I've seen recommendations on the amount of fruit per full batch and I think it's something like 3-4kg. I reckon 1kg in a full batch would taste too thin - try with a 1/2 or 1/4 batch and see how you go.
You might also want to put the fruit in some sort of mesh bag (like a grain bag) to keep the pulp out of the beer. Leave it in there for a couple of weeks then bottle/keg.

btw - Sam Calagione's Extreme Brewing book has a bit to say about brewing with fruit and has suggested quantities. It's not cheap but has some interesting recipes...

Cheers,

Tim