Hola Raspberry Cerveza! What you need after a heavy lawnmowing.

So my first ever adventures with an extract can are all done and unlike my all grain brews, this was one destined to be a lawnmower beer - namely something cool and refreshing to cool off with after a hot day toiling away in the sunshine.
It's not meant to win awards, just to hit the spot on a hot summers day.

We've just hit summer now here in Australia so did we manage to land on target?

Firstly the recipe: 

Low powered but should hit the spot!

1 x can of Coopers Cerveza extract (going for rock bottom prices at Safeway)

Water to make up 21 litres (not 23 three, only 21 to make it a bit stronger)

1 x box of 1kg brewing sugar (again on special down to $2 a box)

1.5 kgs of frozen raspberries added to the fermenter after 7 days and allowed to ferment for 7 more. If not using frozen ones, make sure you boil them first.

Annnnd, that's it. Deceptively simple and provided everything is on special, pretty damn cheap to boot. My biggest problem here was making a mess of the raspberries and running out of bottles.
But in the end there were 45 bottles of raspberry lawnmower beer ready to condition.

That's the next couple of weeks sorted really.

Will help with many mowing sessions.

SO HOW DID WE GO?

Well in a first here at Beers in our Backyard, this is a two parter review, based on the first and second week after conditioning and spending at least 48 hours in the fridge. Why? Because the raspberries are super tart to start and calm down a little over time. So first up:

SUPERTART HOLA RASPBERRY CERVEZA

What am I smelling here?: Just raspberries. You can barely make out any essence of beer here. That's to be expected given that the tartness is off the scale. 

What am I tasting here?: Roasted spiced goat hind, cheese toast and steamed salmon. Ha ha who am I kidding, it just tastes like very tart raspberries. There's almost a cidery feeling to it to with just a ghost of apple. If you like very strong raspberries and precious little else then this one is for you!

(A WEEK AND A BIT LATER) NOTSOTART HOLA RASPBERRY CERVEZA

What am I smelling here?: The all conquering raspberry aroma has faded and now it's half as potent as before. Nothing else is really jumping out off the page either. 

What am I tasting here?: The tartness has eased off the throttle but there's a little more cider action going in to take it's place. You can barely taste the beer part as the fruit has moved in and setup shop. Sweet to start with a slight sourness on the back end. 

Overall: The head comes and goes like my pay packet when my better half goes shopping. The color is pretty cool though with plenty of bubbles to start. Even with a low ABV, a couple in quick succession seem to give me a nice beer buzz...even though it does not taste like a beer. 

It is refreshing and it hits the spot after a hot day in the sun though and even though it'll never win any award (aside from creativity with frozen raspberries) as a lawnmower beer, it's worked well.

As a beer: 1 out 5 busted lawnmowers

As a refreshing fruit drink: 3.75 of of 5 manicured lawns.