Any ideas? Beer with raspberries.

Sounds like some tasty ingredients! Earlier this year, I brewed a blonde ale with honey, oats, and raspberries. I really liked it. I learned, however, that it was better fresh. The berry flavors started to dwindle after 4 or 5 weeks.

 

Here's one I liked quite a bit, with raspberries.
Raspberry Grisette

 

I also brewed a blonde with raspberries. I used around 5 pounds or so of fresh raspberries, (may have been 7 lbs...), pulped up, sticking them in the beer after primary fermentation.

The beer is red with a pink head which is kinda cool. Since some additional fermentation occurred, the beer doesn't have any sweetness associated with the addition of raspberries.

I doubt I would do it this way again, though the neighbor seems to be enjoying it, (being free may be factoring into that as well)

 

Chocolate Raspberry Porter around this time of year would be nice.

 

If the only thing holding you back from sours is the time (year to finish). Why not go the sour wort method with some Good Belly? You can be enjoying a tasty Berliner in about 2 weeks.

 

Somewhere in the archives you might encounter a recipe for and imperial stout with raspberry from Weyerbacher. It dates back several years, but the recipe was supplied by a brewer from there and was well liked by some peeps I know who wanted to know more about it.

 

Agreed. I made a berliner (goodbelly) with about .75lbs /gal raspberries this past summer. Will be doing it again for sure.

 

This was my first thought as well. I'm not too familiar with what mulberries taste like but a raspberry stout sounds really appealing to me. It could be a regular or imperial stout, add some cocoa nibs, add some vanilla bean, or just add raspberries on their own!

 

http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Alternative_Bacteria_Sources

1) Collect wort.
2) Cool to 100-110F.
3) Add Goodbelly (mango flavor works nice).
4) Leave at room temp for 36-48 hrs.
5) Rack to kettle and do quick boil (I do 10min).
6) Cool and pitch yeast, per the usual.

You can also sour wort with some uncrushed grain instead of Goodbelly. But it takes a little longer and ideally should keep temp around 90F. Also, it runs the risk of wild yeast infection.

 

In my opinion, mulberries are not too flavorful. They can be pretty sweet, but are sort of generic berry-flavored. I grew up around them an would stop to snack on them when I walked by a neighbor's yard that had a mulberry tree, but I never knew anyone to cook with them. Fast forward 3.5 decades and my mother-in-law shared some mulberry jam with me and I had the same perception. Sweet (in this case with added sugar) and not super-distinctive.

 

I'll add that I wish I still lived near mulberry trees. I probably would explore them in cooking and brewing and mead-mazing and so forth. Plus, they attract birds, so it might pique my inner bird nerd. Double plus, they are botanically interesting, a multiple fruit (one fruiting body from multiple flowers), and there are not a whole lot of examples. When I was teaching plant science classes in a northern WI college, no one knew this fruit, so it made for a poor example (fortunately, pineapple is also a multiple fruit). Yeah, not really a beer post, but I don't want to dis the mulberry.

 

The Berliner will turn out great for sure, especially with the berries added. And if you do a 10-15 min boil post souring, you won't have to worry about any bacteria/wild yeast infecting your clean gear. Not turning you away from the raspberry grisette though, as that sounds tasty as well

 

What he said.....down to the milkthefunk wiki which I also used. The goodbelly got mine down to 3.5 pH in 48hrs in my garage which was 85-90 F. I used WLP 565 + a pack of US05 cause I was worried about the 565 at that pH. I'm sure you could just use german ale or cal ale and get good results.