I’ve been wanting to revisit my last Framboise attempt for some time, and with our kitchen being clean I decided now is the time.  So, after some research and some thinking, here’s the recipe I’ve come up with:

7lbs liquid wheat malt extract (I believe Steinbart’s uses a 60/40 barley/wheat ratio)
1lb dry malt extract
1lb 20L crystal malt
1.5lbs white wheat malt
1lb honey (holly/berry honey)
2oz Saaz hops
Safale SA-05 yeast
Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Strain
96oz Canned Raspberries (for wine making, but it was all Steinbarts had!)

Framboise Ingredients

Now, here is my plan:  mash the grains for 45 minutes at 145-150 degrees, sparge, add malts and honey, add Saaz, boil.  After boil remove from heat, add raspberries and pasteurize for 30 minutes.  Since most of the raspberries in the can were liquified, I could easily strain before adding to the primary.  Cool, aerate, take gravity, add yeast and Clarity Ferm (to make more clear and remove glutens.)*  After a week transfer to a secondary, pitch the Lambic yeast, and wait a few months.  At bottling time I plan on either using sugar water or some Raspberry Torrani syrup to give some sweetness to the beer.  As I get closer to bottling I’ll make that decision, but I’m leaning towards the Torrani syrup idea.

My Brewing Assistants

So, I started with mashing the grains.  The crystal and white wheat malts should add some sweetness to the final body of the beer.  And I always have extra little hands around to help.

Josiah helping to stir

Grains Mashing

With the mash done, I did a lazy man’s sparge (i.e. used a strainer and some 170 degree water), and added a bit more water and brought it up to a boil.  Once boiling I added the wheat malt, the dry malt extract and the honey.  Of course, Josiah decided to touch the burner during this time and burned his finger.  I was able to quickly rescue him with a rapid administration of ice and ibuprofin, and fortunately no blisters emerged.

After adding the Saaz, I boiled the wort for an hour.  Then, I removed the pot from the heat and added the raspberries.  I waited 1/2 an hour, then strained the mash and added it to my fermenting bucket.

Early this morning I aerated the wort, took the gravity, and pitched the yeast.  Initial gravity turned out to be 1.068.   Should turn out somewhere around the 7% alcohol range when done.

Of course, the clarity ferm was supposed to be added at this time, but I forgot.  Fortunately, I texted my wonderful wife and she added it to the beer.

Now, to wait a week to transfer the beer to the secondary!

* Having friends with gluten issue, I can’t share my beer with them.  Clarity Ferm by White Labs, which is made with Brewers Clarex, is a clarifying agent that removes excess proteins from the beer to make it clearer.  Removing proteins also means removing glutens.  Thus, a simple solution to make gluten reduced beer without too much extra effort.  😉