First AG brew, would this work?

golfguy819 · 07-03-2009, 02:29 PM

So even though I still have 2 months stuck on a deployment, and my wife asked me today what I was going to brew when I get home. I asked her what she had in mind and she told me that she got a ton of fresh strawberrys from the fruit farm up the road and put some aside in the freezer *hint hint* for me. Now I'm not much of a strawberry fan, so I took it as "I WANT A STRAWBERRY BEER!!"

So, I'm leaning towards doing a strawberry blonde for the SWMBO since she's been so supportive of going AG. So my question is, how do you guys think this simple receipe would work?

11.5# 2-row
0.5# carmel 10
1 oz willamette (60 mins)
Safeale US-05

I thought about a 2 week primary, then rack onto 5 lbs of strawberrys for another 2 weeks. Any input or advice would be greatly appreciated!

**samc** · 07-03-2009, 02:46 PM

Pale ale with Strawberries on a piece of pound cake with whipped cream.

When it comes to beer I am a hop/barley/yeast/water brewer. And I also hate pineapple & ham on pizza!

Buy your wife a piece of jewelry and she might forget the fruit in beer thing.

LOL - just my own personal preference - there is no right or wrong on brewing.

bbrim · 07-03-2009, 03:00 PM

If you want to lighten the beer even further you could swap out a pound of malt for a pound of rice. Personally I would also sub out another pound of pale malt for a pound of wheat to give it additional head retention and body. Then again maybe less body is better here. I would say when you have your hops in hand use an IBU calculator and make sure you're at about 20, even to balance the beer out but not dominate or make the beer bitter. Good luck with the all grain, we'll be glad to have you home when they let you return.

MarsColonist · 07-03-2009, 03:15 PM

Might want to go with more than 1 lb strawberries/gallon... IMO, strawberry flavor is pretty disappointing at that level.

Bob · 07-03-2009, 04:19 PM

Concur. I'd increase the amount of strawberries. That flavor tends to get lost rather quickly.

Also concur on a pound or so of wheat malt.

Good luck!

Bob

P.S. My wife - gawd bless her - prefers beer to jewelry.

**weirdboy** · 07-03-2009, 07:10 PM

I put 4# of strawberries in my 5 gallon blonde ale and it tastes fantastic, but that's the flavor I'm going for. Just a hint or undertone of strawberry; certainly not a dominant flavor.

I let it sit in secondary for 4-6 weeks though.

BrewUnited · 07-03-2009, 07:17 PM

What type of beer does you wife like?

golfguy819 · 07-03-2009, 08:22 PM

she's not much of a beer drinker, but ever since i started brewing she's been getting into it. i think she drank as much of my pumpkin ale last years as i did! thanks for the advice on the wheat malt, i'll have to keep that in mind and maybe go a little longer in the secondary. i used to secondary all my beers, but now i think i'm going to go w/ a longer primary and skip the secondary to get my pipeline going.

golfguy819 · 07-08-2009, 10:01 AM

ok, so after taking everyone's advice and building the brew on brewmasterswarehouse (your site rocks btw Ed!), i think i've got a pretty good brew lined up.

8#- 2 row
1#- unmalted wheat
.5#- caramel 10
2 oz willamette (add at 60 and 15 mins)
wyeast 1056

i changed to wyeast because i've had great success with it in the past. the estimated specs are:
OG-1.052
FG-1.013
IBUs- 26.2
SRM- 4.1
ABV- 5.1

i'll up the amount of strawberries to 7 or 8 pounds, stick w/ the 2 week primary and shoot for probably a 4 week secondary. I want some strawberry flavor, but nothing overkill. let me know what you think of the updated version.

bbrim · 07-08-2009, 11:51 AM

I like the hop schedule. Willamette at 15 minutes will give you some flavor but not so much as to compete with the strawberries. This beer should be good! Happy Brewing.