Adding Strawberries to my Blonde

I have a question about adding Strawberries to the Blonde I brewed last weekend. Can I add them to the primary after 10-14 days. I would rather add them to the primary as it would be easier. Or do I have to get the beer off of the yeast cake? I tried searching and didnt come up with a good answer. Thanks in advance :fro:.

When doing fruit beers, it has always been my understanding it is better to add the fruit in the secondary vessel after racking the beer off the yeast once primary fermentation is complete. This allows you to concentrate on dialing in the fruit flavor without worrying about yeast autolysis.

Also, I've never used strawberries, but I have heard it takes a lot of them to impart any real flavor into the beer.

For my strawberry blonde, I rack to secondary, on top of 5 lbs of fresh trimmed and cut strawberries that were frozen then thawed. I leave the blonde on the strawberries for a week to 10 days, cold crash, then rack into the keg, set and forget carb it for 3 weeks and enjoy!

So, is there any need to boil the strawberries before freezing? Are we worried about infection?

I gave mine a good washing first, but no boiling, that would make for a gnarly pectin haze.

+1 on the Cold Crash. Have fun restarting your siphon about 8 times to unclog all the seeds from your racking cane when you go to bottle/keg. I threw 4 lbs of frozen mixed berries into a secondary and then racked on top of them and did my secondary inside my kegerator for about 10 days before kegging. Had great results.... But seriously... Berries have more tiny little seeds in them than you even want to think about... fertile little bastards!

I do almost exactly what azcoob says.

I put my frozen washed & halved strawberries in a paint strainer bag, tie up the bag, throw it in a bucket and then rack on top of it. I usually let mine go longer than 10 days though...more like 2-3 weeks usually IIRC. My recipe for this beer is in my profile.

EDIT:

Right, so I checked my brew log and ended up doing 3-4 weeks primary and 8-9 weeks (!) secondary on the strawberries. I seem to recall that I was pretty busy around that time and just didn't get to it very expediently.

On the batch before that, I did 3 weeks primary followed by 1 month secondary on the strawberries, then cold crash & gelatin, then bottling.

I racked mine into a secondary. If I were smart I would have made that secondary a 6.5 gallon secondary and not the 5 gallon that I used. After the fermentation started back up, seeds built up in the air lock and when I pulled the airlock out to unclog it I got a strawberry volcano to the face and ceiling. The wife was not amused by the strawberries dripping off the ceiling and surrounding walls.

Thanks guys...looks like I will do 4lbs. in the secondary. On a side note I got a great deal on soda kegs $15....they are like new :rockin:. I have 4 kegs now so I can get a nice rotation going. I will be brewing again this weekend WOOOOOT.

I racked my blonde onto strawberries and are sitting in small fermented mason jars with airlocks. (one gal. batch) So, I was planning on leaving them for a week, then transfer the mason jars into the fridge for a week or two, then transfer into bottles with priming sugar. Then once primed, allow the bottles to ferment at room temperature for two weeks then put into the fridge to enjoy.
-I need more explanation on cold cashing, and gelatin. What is the purpose of adding gelatin, how much, and when is the time to add gelatin?

Interesting as the September 2020 BYO has the article "Fruit Beer Techniques and Design Strategies" by Brad Smith.

Twenty9inarow said:

I racked my blonde onto strawberries and are sitting in small fermented mason jars with airlocks. (one gal. batch) So, I was planning on leaving them for a week, then transfer the mason jars into the fridge for a week or two, then transfer into bottles with priming sugar. Then once primed, allow the bottles to ferment at room temperature for two weeks then put into the fridge to enjoy.
-I need more explanation on cold cashing, and gelatin. What is the purpose of adding gelatin, how much, and when is the time to add gelatin?

Click to expand...

I would recommend starting a new thread instead of reviving one thats a decade old.

The purpose of cold crashing and/or adding gelatin is to help create a more clear beer. I am short on time but a quick search of the forums will provide more details for how much and methodology.