Carboy

My homebrewing misadventures

A mad concoction

Experimenting with mixing yeasts in a Raspberry Wheat.

From Carboy

The other day, I was preparing to brew a long overdue Raspberry Wheat. When I checked the yeast I had on hand, I noticed that the Wyeast Labs German Wheat was eight months old. This seemed like it might be problematic. So I went to my local homebrew shop to try to pick up another, fresher yeast.

Unfortunately, the only yeast they had in stock was Wyeast's Bavarian Wheat. It, too, was about seven months old. Bavaria is a section of Germany; how different can they be, right? So I decided to try an experiment. Since both yeasts are old, I thought I'd pitch them together and see what happens. I made a large yeast starter the night before and did exactly that.

The yeast turned out to be very active. If my gravity readings are accurate, the Raspberry Wheat should turn be more than 5 percent ABV, instead of 4.5. As for the taste? It'll be a few weeks until I can tell. I've got my fingers crossed it turns out well.

Recipe for Raspberry Wheat

Fruit beer, All-Grain

5 gallon batch

Ingredients

Grains
4.5 lbs Rahr White Wheat
4.5 lbs, Rahr Premium Pilsner

Hops
1 oz. Hallertauer Hersbrucker, 60 mins.

Adjuncts:
4 oz. Raspberry extract

Yeasts
German Wheat, Wyeast Labs 3333

Original recipe from Northern Brewer.

Mash schedule

Single infusion mash
Start by adding 9 qts of water @ 172.9°F
Take saccharaficaiton rest for 60 min @ 152.0°F
Add 4.63 qts of water @ 212.0°F
Mash out for 10 minutes @ 170.0°F
Fly sparge with 20.17 qts of water @ 170.00 °F

Fermentation schedule

Primary, 14 days @ 69.0°F
Secondary, 14 days @ 72.0°F
Add raspberry extract to taste
Keg, 14 days @ 74.0°F

Stats

  • ABV: 6.03 percent
  • IBU: 15.65
  • Boil Size: 6.53 gals
  • Batch Size: 5.0 gals
  • Color: 4.2 SRM
  • Boil Time: 60 minutes
  • Estimated preboil OG: 1.036
  • Actual postboil OG: 1.046

Stats by iBrewmaster

Other notes

I added about 2.5 oz of raspberry extract to the beer at kegging. It is just about right, but maybe a tad too heavy. Next time, I might try using just 2 oz.

By Tom on 06/25/2017

Stage: Brewing


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