SO ... the beer turned out quite well, the swamp cooler must have saved the day? It is getting a lot of attention and being drunk very vast. Three different people have tasted it and stated it tasted like a lighter Frambrose minus the sour. I can only conclude that if there are off flavors, they are covered up well. Yet I must say, given its very smooth finish ( thanks to low hops and 2 lbs of honey), I am surprised I cannot detect any. So this brings me a few points/questions,
1) Given my risk for off flavor, when would I taste them in this particular beer? When I smell it, at the beginning, throughout, after I swallow etc?
2) I used honey to create a dry smooth finish and thus one of my biggest fears was that this would get over shadowed by off flavors. Yet what I got was similar to a previous cru ( the base for this raspberry) that I have made, very mild all but unnoticeable esters with a tiny bit of spice to bring it home. But with the cru the fermentation temp never got past 66 and took forever ( two months... I only used one starter ). I know this wit strain is known for low ester with mild spice flavor, but I still feel like I got away with murder. Has anyone has similar experiences with this yeast? Is this what I should have expected?
Here is my Ingredient list:
5 lbs Briess Pilsen light
2 lbs Weyerman pale wheat malt
2 lbs organic wildflower honey ( could care less about organic, but wildflower definitely has a different taste)
1 oz whole Hallertauer hops (boiling)
1/2 oz Hallertauer hops whole flavor
1/2 Hallertauer hops ( aroma)
5 lbs of raspberries held a little over 160 for 20 minutes before being added post boil
Wyeast 3944 - 2 packs