Save the Witbier!

[glap1922]

Hello all! Hoping for a little assistance, if possible.

I brewed an extract raspberry witbier and just tried it from the keg, but it is a bit tart and the raspberry is a little strong.

Brewed with some coriander, then did the primary. Then I racked on top of 4lbs of raspberries for secondary fermentation, finally bottled with 1ounce of raspberry extract.
2 weeks later...not super.

First thought is I went a little overboard with the raspberry, but I'm wondering if anyone has experience in "fixing" this sort of problem or if the flavoring might drop a bit over time.

Thanks!

 

[MathiasMicrobrew]

How long did u have it in the secondary?

The raspberry flavor will mellow out with time. Let it age a few more weeks and give it a taste and report back

Cheers!

 

[glap1922]

How long did u have it in the secondary?

The raspberry flavor will mellow out with time. Let it age a few more weeks and give it a taste and report back

Cheers!

Secondary was about 10-14 days, I forget exactly. I'm thinking that is my only real option, hopefully it works out.

 

[MathiasMicrobrew]

I have heard from others experience that the longer you keep the beer on the berries, the more tatrness it draws out of the berries. Give it time and I'm sure it will be with ur wait

 

[Cider123]

I recently made a raspberry wit myself. I used a wit recipe that I have had success with before, but then after primary was done I racked it on 2 pounds of frozen raspberries. I let it sit for another 10-14 days also.

End result: A very slightly raspberry flavor and a definite tart taste. Did it sit on the raspberries too long? Well, what I believe happened is once all the berry sugars were fermented out, all that was left was the acidic tartness of the berries.

Now if I bottled sooner? Well that might mean there would be some residual sugar left and wouldn't that lead to more fermentation in the bottles and possibly over-carbing or bottle bombs.

I believe a possible solution would be to back sweeten with an unfermentable sugar like lactose to balance out the tartness.

So anyway, is it what I expected? no
Is it drinkable? yep, and after the first few swallows you kind of get used to it as a tart summer quencher.
Would I make it again? not that way

 

[MathiasMicrobrew]

You cld possibly rack onto the berries and let it sit for 5 or so days and rack off them and let the new fermentation finish before bottling. That's a lot of racking haha

 

[glap1922]

Thanks for the assistance guys. At this point I guess I will just hope it mellows a bit over time. It wasn't awful, but I was hoping for a bit more.

Thanks again!