Beer Forum

Hey Gang:

Hope someone can offer some insight...here goes...
I'm ferementing a 5 gal. all-grain wheat beer mashed at 155 degrees using American II yeast.
I'm looking to add a can of Oregon Fruit raspberry puree to the secondary.
First I don't want an overwhelming amount of raspberry flavor. I want it to be subtle taste and flavor. I'm thinking about adding 1/2 pound per gallon or about 2.5 gal of puree for a 5 gal. batch.
Anyone who has done a raspberry wheat can tell me if this is about right?
Also, I don't want to dry the beer out too much after adding it to the secondary. I want the beer to have good mouthfeel and some residual sweetness to balance the tartness of the raspberries. That's why I mashed high. Will I lose that if I let it seconday on the puree for two-weeks?
Any help is much appreciated...thanks!

~Rob

I have done a number of batches of beer that use the Oregon puree. A single can in a 5 gallon batch seems to be the perfect amount. 2.5 gallons of puree would be waaaaay over the top, not to mention incredible expensive. Most of the sugars in the puree will ferment out regardless of the amount added, so the long chain sugars from the high mash temp will have to carry the load for residual sweetness.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

Hi Wayne:

Yes, I meant to say 2.5 pounds. It's a three-pound can.
If I add the whole can will you know on the first sip you're tasting raspberry or will it be a subtle flavor you'll have to guess at?
That's kinda the balance I'm looking for.
Thanks for your insight.

Cheers,

Rob

I've done a bit of fruit brewing and have found similar results as Wayne. A three pound can seems to be perfect. I've also found that variables in fermentation can produce different results every time. I like your idea of mashing high to retain some sweetness, but not sure if thats enough. I have brewed some pretty tart rasberry beers!
My feeling after some discussion on the mater is that you'd get a better sweet/tart balance by incresing the O.G. This way you are relying on all wort sugars and not just unfermentable dextrins (which have been argued to add very little if any actual sweetness, and more mothfeel) to blance the tart fruit. To tell you the truth I have found adding the fruit after filtration or removal of the yeast by crashing temperature to result in a more controlled finished product with a better fruit carachter. I found through reasearch that my favorite comercial and brewpub products are produced this way. If you decide to add to the secondary I would avoid a strict time frame and just sample the beer to decide when it is done.

Cheers!

P.S. I think you should probably send me some of the finished beer to analyze for myselF!!

Neither of the fruit beers I have on hand at the moment are particularly "sweet", one being an apricot lambic and the other a clone of New Glarus Belgian Red. Both use a single can of Oregon puree. You get light notes of the fruit in the smell (the apricot slightly stronger) and just a hint of the fruit in the taste. If you can't smell it and haven't been told the fruit, you might have a hard time identifying which fruit though you will note that something is there.

In the last month I have had a couple of commercial fruit beers. One was an apricot wheat (don't remember the brand right off) and the other was a Boysenberry Wheat from the Sam Adams Longshot six pack. Both of these had a high residual sweetness that I felt detracted from the beer. I didn't particularly care for either one.

I think the best way to do is go with your original plan and take good notes so you know what to change next time if needed.

Good luck.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

Thanks J.Brew and again Wayne for the info and help.
My OG is fairly high at 1.057 so, if primary fermentation takes it down to 1.015, hopefully, I'll have a little sweetness for balance.
I'll try the whole can and see what that gets me.
I'm planning to brew it again as I'm trying to recreate a beer I had 20-years-ago that I really liked.
J.Brew, if it turns out to be a worthy effort, I'll gladly send you a bottle. Same goes for you Wayne.
Thanks again,

Rob

Just to clarify, It's not that I'm shooting for sweet, rather just a nice balance. I tend to get a tarter product when my fruit is added during fermentation, this is where a slightly higher O.G. might help!
I'll be expecting a bottle!!
Have Fun!!