Beer Around Town

Finding time to post has been difficult lately. Finding time to do beer-related things to post about has been even more difficult. A couple weeks and the schedule will clear up and posting should be more frequent, besides, I’m itching to brew up a couple more batches, I think a Tripel and a smoked beer will be in the works.

Last night I did however get to try an early tasting of my Raspberry wheat and was excited by the results. The beer has only had one week to bottle condition, but seeing as I had one bottle that had a big chip in it, I didn’t want the compromised bottle turning into a bottle bomb while trying to contain the 3.5 volumes of CO2. The beer pours a cloudy dark red/pink, just like some Ocean Spray Ruby Red. With a vigorous pour a pink head emerges and sustains pretty well, so it should have a nice presentation once fully carbonated.

Compared to Lindaman’s Framboise the sweetness is subdued and the body isn’t as full, both due to me chickening out on the amount of lactose sugar, call me selfish, but this is sweet enough for my taste. The raspberry comes through really well, showing off both their sweetness and tartness, sure it tastes more like raspberry soda then beer, but when asked to make Lindamans what do you do?

The bottom of the glass had a slight film of sugar once it was empty, so I’m not sure if all the sugar dissolved into the solution, maybe next time it should be added to the full volume at the end of the boil or maybe I should have dissolved it in more water. Live and learn. In the end it turned out really well, showcasing the berries, providing an easy drinking summer quencher, and even the most stringent anti-beer foe wouldn’t mind the taste of this. Can’t wait to try the boysen berry version as the pre-bottling sample I had was hands down the victor over the raspberry.