Cats Meow 3
[Prev] [Next] [Contents] [ConvertUnits] [About CM3]

Wheat Berry


Classification: wheat beer, weizen, fruit beer, raspberry wheat, blackberry wheat, extract

Source: Tom Childers (TCHILDER@us.oracle.com) HBD Issue #1144, 5/19/93


I've been playing with raspberry wheat beers for a few months now, and am drinking my third batch. You don't need to go all-grain, but you do need to sanitize the fruit somehow. There are two main choices:

I use the first option, which has the advantage of being easy and pretty bullet-proof. The disadvantage is that you lose some of the aromatic qualities of the fruit by heating it.

Here is my current wheat-raspberry recipe (many thanks to Kathy Henley of Austin, TX for getting me going in the right direction). Sorry, but I don't take specific gravity measurements.

Ingredients:

Procedure:

Boil 2-1/2 gallons of water, add malt extract and boiling hops, and boil for 55-60 minutes. Turn off heat, add finishing hops, cool to 190 F and add the frozen fruit and vanilla. Let sit covered for 20 minutes, maintaining temperature at about 170 F and stirring occasionally. Cool to below 100F, add to carboy pre-filled with 2-1/2 gallons of water, straining out and pressing the fruit to extract most of the juice. Pitch the yeast, ferment at 70-72F, transfer to secondary after two days, then ferment completely out (about another 7 days). Prime with 3/4 cup corn sugar and bottle.

24 oz of raspberries gives a fairly subtle beer, with a mild tart raspberry underpinning that all of my friends loved. 36 oz of berries give a more assertive, but not overwhelming, raspberry flavor. Note that Belgian ale yeast will give stronger "clove" overtones when fermented at temperatures of 75-78F, and milder flavors at 70-72F.