For me (someone who spends their summer months in the inferno that is Austin, TX) a glass of rosé does a good job of temporarily smothering that seasonal blaze. Don’t get me wrong – a good bottle of top-notch rosé is welcome any time of the year. However, that perpetual craving only comes during those fiery months. June and July are bad. Once it hits August – it's unbearable. Expectedly so, the hotter it gets, a glass of rosé becomes more and more appealing.

However, there’s a dilemma.

Regardless of how crisp, thirst-quenching, and refreshing a glass of rosé is, it’s still a glass a wine. And all things compared, it’s strong...and deceptively so. Despite it’s refreshing nature, even the lower alcohol rosés settle into the double digits. It’s illusions tempt you to quaff, but we all know where quaffing wine leads us…

Enter beer. A possible solution?

My goal was to create a recipe that provided the flavor and aroma characteristics of a rosé, encompassing it’s drinkability, while mitigating the alcohol content. Furthermore, and most importantly, I didn’t want it to lose its “beery-ness”.

Before I chose a base style, I chose fruit(s). Initially, I thought about a blend of raspberries and sweet cherries (something like Bing and/or Rainier). However, I decided to whittle the fruit down to just raspberries. Ultimately keeping the fruit additions simple would not overwhelm the simple canvas and low strength of the beer. Furthermore, I didn’t want the nuances of fruit flavors to be over-muddled.

As far as base style goes, I initially considered a fruited berliner weisse. However, I felt that the acidity contributed from the sour mash would merge with the acidic contributions from the fruit additions, swaying the balance and lessening that specific, refreshing quality that one associates with rosé.

Ultimately, I chose to brew a cream ale as the base beer. In the past, I’ve had success with this style acting as a canvas to showcase several fruit additions – namely, citrus. Choosing this style as a foundation would allow the minimal amount of residual sugar from the malt to uplift the fruity flavors imparted by the raspberries. Moreover, a balance could be struck with the acidity coming from the fruit (and the fruit alone).

Onto our solution...

RECIPE SPECS:

Batch Size: 5 Gallons

SRM: (estimated per BeerSmith) 2.8

IBU: (estimated per BeerSmith) 15

Anticipated OG: 1.044

Anticipated FG: 1.007

Anticipated ABV: 4.8%

Actual OG: 1.044

Actual FG: 1.007

Actual ABV: 4.8%

Grain:

Belgian Pils (71.5%), Flaked Corn (17.5%), Flaked Rice (8.5%), Rice Hulls (2.5%)

Hops: HopShot (1.5 mL) @ 60 minutes

Yeast: (WLP-001) - 1.8 L starter made 2 days prior to brewing.

Fruit Additions: 30 oz of organic raspberries pureed in VitaMix, then frozen for 24 hours. Raspberries were then allowed to thaw, then added to a fine-mesh bag, squeezed, and juice was collected.

Water Profile: 100% Ozarka Natural Spring Water treated with Gypsum 4g, CaCl2 4g, 4mL Lactic Acid (88%), 1g BrewTan B for a calculated pH of 5.4

Mash/Sparge Schedule:

Dough-In @ 104ºF (20 minutes),

Saccharification Rest @ 148ºF (60 minutes) with Mash pH taken at 20 minutes (pH = 5.42)

1.5 G of the total initial amount of water necessary for brewing 5G was removed after treating with minerals/lactic acid and used to cold-sparge after first runnings.

Notes:

Recipe was brewed on an electric recirculation system.

90 minute boil performed appropriately with hop additions mentioned above.

Cooled to 68ºF

Whirlpool performed for 15 minutes and subsequently rested for 15 minutes to separate quality wort from trub.

6 Gallons of wort collected into conical fermentor.

69ºF yeast from starter pitched into 69ºF collected wort.

Fermentation kept at 69ºF for 72 hours. Temp then gradually raised to 75ºF to finish secondary fermentation/maturation.

Once final gravity hit (no activity in bubbler), the raspberry juice was added to the conical. Beer was then immediately cold-crashed to 40ºF.

2 days later, the beer was directly transferred (via CO2) to a keg and carbonated to 2.6-2.7 volumes CO2 and placed on tap.

Results & Discussion:

Aroma: Bright berry and rose petal shines throughout. A vibrancy comes from the fruit but nothing potent or objectionable.

Appearance: Fantastic clarity with faint pink hues layered on a soft glowing amber. Foam was superb, as well – densely-packed with great stability.

Flavor: Although the raspberry flavor is delicate, it’s apparent; just enough to distinguish itself from the cream ale base. The gentle acidity works synergistically with the carbonation to crispen-up the finish. A cracker-like malt flavor boosts fruitiness as well.

Mouthfeel: Quaffable. Very light and airy, which was further emphasized by the elevated CO2 volumes. As an aside, there was an initial element to the beer that I could only describe more as a sensation than a flavor – a certain “woodyness”. I presumed the character could be due to berry seeds and pistils making it into the final beer. However, that sensation became completely undetectable after 2 days of cold-conditioning in the keg.

Overall, I was happy with how everything turned out. It's definitely something that satisfies that rosé craving and was popular while it lasted (keg floated in just under 2 weeks). If you're looking for a recipe to get you through those finals days of summer, this is the one.

Future Changes:

The Fruit Additions: The berry came through, but a bit understated. If brewed again, I would bring the total amount of raspberries processed closer to 3 pounds. I’ll likely add a small dose of cherries for the next batch, as well. Hopefully this would bring more nuances from the fruit character without overcomplicating or muddling the flavor.

Skipping The Protein Rest: I’ve brewed this base beer several times before, usually implementing a protein rest. Skipping the rest gave a slight boost to the mouthfeel, still allowing the beer to be light but not watery. Furthermore, there was a monumental improvement to head retention, showing me that I should likely brush aside that step for this base recipe altogether.