Fruit Beer Wild Strawberry Blonde

need a beer done in 17 days. will this recipe turn out good still? i keg.

Probably, but that's pretty quick. I would say primary for 7-9 days, secondary on berries for 5 days, tertiary for 2-4 days and keg. Can't promise anything but that's would I would do if I absolutely had too. In reality you want at least 20 days to keg, then carb.

WildGingerBrewing said:

I put them into secondary frozen.

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I was browsing this recipe and I see you put your fruit in while frozen, I assume that's because it is safer to prevent infections or wild bacteria and thus thaw out slowly into the beer?

For example, I have a 5 gallon batch of wheat beer that I intended to split on to fresh picked berries that I froze, but split the rest on to about 1 gallon of frozen watermelon juice that I juiced recently. However both the berries and the watermelon are solid chunks of ice blocks essentially. Seems odd to rack beer onto a cube for all intents and purposes. In my case I'm using carboys so that'd be an impossibility but just curious as to your method of racking while frozen vs thawed

I think the issue would more space than frozen. I secondary on frozen berries in a bucket but even then its reaching full volume. If you have the room, then i see no problems. And yes, i freeze for bacterial reasons. Good luck!

What is the OG?

Typically:
OG: 1.046 - 1.050
FG: 1.012 - 1.014

So I'm thinking about following this recipe but lowering the amount of Cascade hops at 60 mins to make it cream ale...

How do y'all think that would taste? Would the lower hops and IBU make the strawberries overpowering?

I haven't tried the original so I can't picture how this would taste with lower IBU. Any thoughts?

jimbomij said:

So I'm thinking about following this recipe but lowering the amount of Cascade hops at 60 mins to make it cream ale...

How do y'all think that would taste? Would the lower hops and IBU make the strawberries overpowering?

I haven't tried the original so I can't picture how this would taste with lower IBU. Any thoughts?

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WildGingerBrewing said:

Typically:
OG: 1.046 - 1.050
FG: 1.012 - 1.014

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WildGingerBrewing, curious about your thoughts to my question?

Cant really say, as ive never tried it. However, there is not a lot of bitterness in this beer. Just enough to balance the sweetness. My guess is that lowering the IBU's will make the beer too sweet. I designed the recipe for balance. Just a guess though. Try it and let us know. Thats the beauty of brewing!

Just got my grains, hops and yeast for this batch and going to brew this weekend. This will be my first all grain, jumping in with both feet! I'm excited for this weekend. Can't wait!

I just racked this onto the strawberries. I hit the final gravity, although a little low on the initial gravity at 1.4. Tastes like beer so far, can't wait to taste it after its soaked up all the strawberry flavor, aged a bit and carbonated! :rockin:

Hey WildGinger, I plan on making 10 gallons of this and was wondering if adding the strawberries straight into the conical would be problematic? I have made this before with excellent results in a brew bucket but is tacking onto the strawberries to avoid oxygenation? I get some secondary fermentation action from the strawberries so should I be worried about it? Thanks for the great recipe!

Glad you like it. I would rack to secondary before adding berries. It gets the beer off the trub and will help clear the beer up. I know racking multiple times can be iffy, but i think its worth it. My beers come out crystal clear. Just my $0.02.

Thanks for the reply. I should add that I plan on dumping trub prior to adding the berries to the conical. I have many buckets laying around that I can rack to as a secondary, I was just wondering if you would find any problems adding strawberries in a mesh bag straight to conical after removing trub. Thanks!

You know, i think i glosses over the conical part. Ha if you can get the trub removed, i dont think it would be an issue. Space will be the biggest factor. The berries take up a lot of room. I assume you are doubling the amount of berries? Then rack for clearing and cold crash and i'll bet you'll be fine.

Yes, I will be using a 15 gallon conical for a ten gallon recipe (double the berries). I figure 5 gallons of extra space is plenty once the trub is dumped.

To reference, my five gallon recipes have been ok in 6 gallon buckets, with little worry about secondary taking off again once the berries are added. Blow off tubes help haha.

I will be cold crashing and clearing in a separate container so I think I should be good too. Thanks for the help!

Sounds like a good plan. Enjoy.