Strawberry shortcake beer help

Hey,

I'm trying to recreate strawberry short's cake from short's brewing company in my next 3 gallon experimental batch.

Here is my proposed recipie created in beersmith

1 lb light dry malt extract
3 lbs pale malt US 2 row
.5 lbs biscuit malt
.5 lbs carapils
.5 lbs crystal 10
8 ounces of invert sugar added near the end of the boil
1 oz glacier hops
2-4 ounces of lactose sugar

mash grains at 152 for 60 mins in 2 gallons of water
sparge with 1 gallon of water at 170

boil for 30 mins and add 1/2 of glacier preboil and 1/2 at 5 mins - I want to keep the hops low so they do not interfere with the malt and fruit flavor

fermentation temp around 66-69, this is the best I can do with ambient temp in my basement

leave in primary for about 7-10 days then rack to secondary on top
of 3-5 lbs (1+lb per gallon) of fresh pureed strawberries that have been preboiled for santitation, add pectin enzyme to clear beer of hazy pectins, leave in primary for 2-3 weeks

add lactose sugar to taste when transferring to bottling bucket and bottling.

yeast selections - which is best?
I would like one with high flocculation to keep the beer clear though I'm not sure if a low attenuating yeast is best to keep the beer sweeter or a higher attentuating yeast to dry it out and rely on the invert sugar, lactose sugar and strawberries to add sweetness.

1968 London esb, low attentuation very high flocculation, can get fruity
1099 whibred ale, higher attentuation slightly lower flocculation, less fruity, more malty and clean
1272 Amerian Ale 2 - can get pretty fruity and tart
1187 ringwood ale
1332 northwest ale

I would like a clear, haze free beer to have noticable sweet strawberry flavor upfront, good sweet cakelike malt base with a bit of cream flavor from the lactose sugar and a dryish finish. Yeast flavor, esters and diacetyl should be low, some is ok, even welcome depending on the yeast ester character.

What I need to know is what is the best method to achive this?
do I..
- increase or decrease my mash temperature to create more or less unfermentables?
- choose a low attentuting or high attentuting yeast?
- rely on adjunct sugars to give it sweetness?
- change the recipie at all?

TIA!

Seems like you are on the right path. I've really enjoyed 1968, but for something like this I might go with a really clean yeast like 1056.

Why are you adding invert sugar? You get some simple sugars from the berries, more simple sugars will lead to a drier beer.

I would go with the ripest, freshest berries you can since they have a lot more flavor. Maybe find a local pick your own place?

Good luck.

boomstickbrews said:

Hey,

I'm trying to recreate strawberry short's cake from short's brewing company in my next 3 gallon experimental batch.

Click to expand...

I'm thoroughly interested in making a strawberry shortcake beer, partly because I wanna see if I can do it, but mainly because I need something to satisfy SWMBO, whose favorite dessert is strawberry shortcake.

I know I would use strawberries in secondary and use lactose for the creaminess factor, but I'm looking for the right combo of malts to emulate a sweet, bready cake flavor.

I was thinking of using a good bit of munich or maybe vienna in the mash, along with some victory and lighter caramel malts.

Anyway, boomstick, how did this recipe turn out for you? Any suggestions on how to approach this?

let me know about the outcome. Wish you all the best

Any updates on this brew?

I was interested in this recipe but wanted to try a 5 gallon batch, so I used the same ratios to make 5.5 gallons, with the assumption that I would lose 0.5 gallon to strawberry pulp in the secondary. Also, I wanted to goose the ABV a bit so I added more liquid extract. The OG was calculated as 1.075 Here's what I used:

5# light LME
5# 2 Row Pale Malt
0.8# Biscuit Malt
0.8# Carapils
0.8# Crystal 10L
1# Belgian candi sugar
2oz glacier hops
6.5 oz lactose sugar
4# fresh strawberries
2.5 tsp pectin enzyme
2 packets of Safale US-05 yeast


I followed the previous recipe for times, 1oz hops at 30min and and 1oz at 5 min. I fermented at 68 degrees, one week in the primary and one week in the secondary. I crushed the strawberries and boiled them at 160 degrees to maybe diminish the amount of contamination. I prefer to keg so l tried to leave as much pulp behind in the secondary as possible. The final brew had a tea color, not as dark as the original, the ABV was about 7%. The flavor is pretty close, mine is not as hoppy as the original but very drinkable. All in all, a great recipe!

Cheers!