Raspberry Wheat Ale - Using real fruit in home brewing.

I just made a Red Raspberry Wheat Ale. The question always seems to be - how do you use real fruit in the recipe. Should I just use a fruit extract? Fruit extracts are OK, but I had to try using real fruit.

The opinions of home brewers seem to be all over the place on how to use real fruit. After reading on the subject, I decided to use frozen red raspberries. I simply racked to a secondary after about 10 days of primary fermentation. I used my plastic bucket from my original starter kit and placed the frozen strawberries on the bottom. I racked the beer on top of the berries and let it sit another 10 days. Here's what I got.

I did not know what to expect when I lifted that lid. I had read that using real fruit was messy, hard to rack, etc. When I pulled that lid off, the smell of red raspberries was amazing. All the raspberries were now white and floating on the top. My golden wheat color had turned to this light red color. Racking was very easy with no mess. All the berries were floating on top, so no clogs in racking cane. I racked to a 5 gallon glass carboy for another 7 days for clearing, but this beer really didn't need much clearing. Now for the taste and recipe

My base recipe was for a very light wheat beer using malt extract with grains . We used 1/2 lb. of 20L crystal malt, and 6 lb Wheat Malt extract syrup and 1/4 oz Hallertau hops 60 minutes before end of boil. We came in with on OG of 1.048 and a FG of 1.010. I tasted before racking onto the berries, and this would be a great lawnmower beer. The recipe called for 12 oz of frozen raspberries, but I decided to use 36 oz.

I could not wait to taste, so I popped one open only 3 days after bottling. It had not carbonated yet, but the raspberry taste was out of this world. For me, it was too much raspberry. The next time I make this, it will be with the 12 oz of berries version. I like my fruit beers to taste like the base beer with a hint of fruit flavor. If you like a strong fruit flavor, you have to try this recipe.

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