As of right now I've only brewed one batch of beer, and my second is coming up, but as spring and summer are just around the corner, I want to have something refreshing ready to brew once I get my upcoming batch racked into my secondary.
Conversations with friends led me to the idea of making a strawberry basil beer, which I immediately thought would work best in a wheat beer. I want this brew to be simultaneously quaffable and interesting. Soooo, as I am new at this, I wanted to get some feedback on my (very tentative) extract recipe.
Here's what I'm thinking, for a 5 gallon batch.
.5 lb Cara 20L
.5 lb Carapils
6 lb Wheat LME
1 lb Golden Light DME
1 oz Cascade hops (boil 60 minutes)
.5 oz Belma hops (boil 30 minutes)
.5 oz Belma hops (aroma)*
1 oz fresh basil at flameout
2 pkgs rehydrated US-05 yeast**
Primary fermentation 3 weeks
Rack onto 6 lb strawberries***
Secondary fermentation 2 weeks
Rack into bottling bucket, prime with 5 oz corn sugar and bottle.
* Toying with the idea of dry hopping with another ounce of Belma. Whatcha think?
** I chose US-05 because it tends to ferment "clean," and also because it's apparently relatively more forgiving of temperature variations. Keeping my carboy a steady temp in my tiny Manhattan apartment without sophisticated temp control equipment isn't easy. Any thoughts on a more appropriate yeast strain?
*** The threads I've read about adding strawberries are many and varied. Because of the basil I want to make sure that the strawberry tastes/smells really fresh in the final product. Any consensus on the best way to go about doing this? Freeze them? Sanitize them? Puree?
Any other suggestions/tips/general wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
Conversations with friends led me to the idea of making a strawberry basil beer, which I immediately thought would work best in a wheat beer. I want this brew to be simultaneously quaffable and interesting. Soooo, as I am new at this, I wanted to get some feedback on my (very tentative) extract recipe.
Here's what I'm thinking, for a 5 gallon batch.
.5 lb Cara 20L
.5 lb Carapils
6 lb Wheat LME
1 lb Golden Light DME
1 oz Cascade hops (boil 60 minutes)
.5 oz Belma hops (boil 30 minutes)
.5 oz Belma hops (aroma)*
1 oz fresh basil at flameout
2 pkgs rehydrated US-05 yeast**
Primary fermentation 3 weeks
Rack onto 6 lb strawberries***
Secondary fermentation 2 weeks
Rack into bottling bucket, prime with 5 oz corn sugar and bottle.
* Toying with the idea of dry hopping with another ounce of Belma. Whatcha think?
** I chose US-05 because it tends to ferment "clean," and also because it's apparently relatively more forgiving of temperature variations. Keeping my carboy a steady temp in my tiny Manhattan apartment without sophisticated temp control equipment isn't easy. Any thoughts on a more appropriate yeast strain?
*** The threads I've read about adding strawberries are many and varied. Because of the basil I want to make sure that the strawberry tastes/smells really fresh in the final product. Any consensus on the best way to go about doing this? Freeze them? Sanitize them? Puree?
Any other suggestions/tips/general wisdom would be greatly appreciated.