Yes, secondary was a bucket. In the past I have pureed the strawberries and added them to a carboy for secondary, but I much prefer the method outlined in the OP.
it says 21 days for secondary, however your dates show from 6/27 to 7/28 31days. Also how did you sanitize the strawberries. I have ordered the supplies and should start brewing next weekend.
Regarding secondary, 3 weeks was what I had planned for that batch, but it ended up being more like a month. I have made this beer several times though and anywhere from 3-6 weeks should be fine.
I don't sanitize the strawberries per se. I just cleaned them really well, cut off the stems, and divided them in half right before freezing them. I made 3-4 batches where I would puree and pasteurize the strawberries, but to be honest I don't like the flavor, clarity, and mouthfeel I get that way as much as the method outlined in the recipe. I have yet to run into troubles just washing and halving them, though.
I just use plain unflavored gelatin that you can find at the grocery store. The one I have right now is just the grocery store brand, but I think lots of people here on HBT use Knorr. I use one packet per batch usually.
It's not cold fermentation. It's cold crashing. The cold crash and gelatin are for improving the clarity of the beer. Especially when adding fruit to a beer, there's a good chance of ending up with a hazy beer, so I try to mitigate that as much as possible throughout the entire process: I vorlauf my mash, I add whirlfloc at the end of the boil, I am careful about leaving trub behind whenever I rack from one vessel to another, and I use gelatin and cold crash before bottling.
I think clarity is important for a blonde ale. My process may be overkill, but I do end up with crystal clear beer.
I beleive you mean Knox gelatin, that is what I have in my kitchen. Would like to try this recipe it looks tasty. I bet my gf might drink a few, if just for the aroma.
Sorry, I'm a noob and plan on brewing this tomorrow...
Are the dates accurate? How long did you leave in the primary before racking onto the strawberries? Also, (showing my brewgenity) carapils, do you steep before adding DME, and do they have to be cracked?
Thanks...I feel like a D.A. (and I don't mean District Attorney!)
OK so my notes in beersmith had the wrong dates in them. Luckily I also keep notes in my calendar, so here's the actual schedule I used for this batch:
You definitely need to crush the carapils. Yes, you should steep the grain at 165F for maybe 15-20 minutes, then remove the grain before adding the DME. You could probably do this without the added carapils and get pretty close. It might have a little less body and head retention, but probably not enough to be really worth caring about.
Ok, so the brew went well, I cracked the carapils and did everything as instructed. I was wondering also, you performed three methods to clarify your beer. Is that necessary? Is doing one or two enough or must it be all three?
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