Strawberry Blonde

WillieRivers · 08-18-2005, 03:53 AM

Picked up a partial mash kit for a clone of Pete’s wicked Strawberry Blonde. It calls for strawberry extract, but I would like to use real strawberries. I have 4 pounds of frozen strawberries and need to know the best way to sanitize them before I add them into my secondary. I would use strawberry puree, but I cannot find it.

Thanks in advance for the help.
Bill

Beertracker · 08-18-2005, 09:39 PM

Quote:

I have 4 pounds of frozen strawberries and need to know the best way to sanitize them before I add them into my secondary. I would use strawberry puree, but I cannot find it.

If you're looking for "real" strawberry aroma & flavor, then I'd suggest a min. of 3#/USG. I've made a strawberry beers & wine before and it requires a lot of fruit to get any character.

The addition of strawberries will add quite a bit of fermentables (fructose) as well, so keep that in mind when formualting your original gravity. I recommend pureeing the fresh fruit with a food processor and flash freezing them before adding them to the secondary.

Note: You may want to use the extract for aroma as well, because strawberry aroma is delicate and sometimes gets scrubbed out during active secondary fermentation.

Rhoobarb · 08-18-2005, 09:50 PM

I'd just take the frozen strawberries and make my own puree in the blender. I'd reason that the more surface of the fruit exposed to the beer, the better the strawberry flavor will come out.

In the meantime, check out this link!

Rookie · 08-20-2005, 07:46 PM

You are going to need a lot more than 4 pounds of strawberries. They have a subtle taste and aroma for using in beer. If you can find (or make them) dried strawberries are stronger as the drying process concentrates the flaver. You may also want to add a little stawberry extract

cowain · 08-20-2005, 10:08 PM

You can also add a strawberry tea to the secondary. After pureeing the straberries, add some water if necessary to have a liquid. Stick in a pot and boil it (also kills germies) and then add that sucka to the secondary.

Rookie · 08-22-2005, 11:46 PM

The problem with boiling is that it can cause pectin haze which would not be a problem in a strawberry hefe, but may not be what you want in a blonde ale. Steeping the fruit at 160 or so for 20 minutes would work.

WillieRivers · 09-10-2005, 10:48 PM

First of all, thanks for all the help. I am well on my way with my first fruit beer. I put 10 pounds of strawberries into the secondary, after I pureed them and heated them. I let them get room temperature and then racked on top of them from my primary. It looks as though the strawberry puree has settled to the bottom. As far as kegging goes, how long should I wait before kegging? Also do I need to make sure to keep the racking tube off the strawberries when I do keg?

Thanks,
Bill