Anyone made a Raspberry Ale? Just a couple of questions

[joeskidmore]

When I brewed my blackberry APA last year BYO gave me plenty of information:

1. http://byo.com/issues/item/319-brewing- ... techniques
2. http://byo.com/hops/item/679-fruit-brew ... techniques

I ended up splitting my brew with 1 lot of frozen blackberries mashed up with a camden tablet overnight and another just thrown in straight from the freezer (after defrosting) - both were very nice but overall I think the whole defrosted fruit gave the nicest flavour. Perhaps the same could be said for raspberries?

[liamtmt7]

I made a simple pale Ale with Chellenger this year and tried a raspberry ale as an experiment.

Semi-mashed 2KG of frozen raspberries at about 70C for half an hour then scooped the pulp into a DJ and left for a week.

Only got 6 bottles out of it, and not sampled any yet but the taster from.the DJ was dry as hell. So I'm not holding out much hope

[daf]

When I brewed my blackberry APA last year BYO gave me plenty of information:

1. http://byo.com/issues/item/319-brewing- ... techniques
2. http://byo.com/hops/item/679-fruit-brew ... techniques

I ended up splitting my brew with 1 lot of frozen blackberries mashed up with a camden tablet overnight and another just thrown in straight from the freezer (after defrosting) - both were very nice but overall I think the whole defrosted fruit gave the nicest flavour. Perhaps the same could be said for raspberries?

As someone up the thread noted, frozen fruit is better as it has already broken down the fruit and it gives out more flavours and sugars I suppose. Same reason you need to put sloe berries in gin AFTER a frost has had a go at them.

Here's my cherry wheat beer, which I've kept in the garage, it is delicious. I would recommend bottling in smaller bottles - San Miguel ones are ideal.