Strawberry Blond Recipe ideas (intergalactic only)

Batch one finished, moving on to... SPACE BERRIES!

I'm looking for some good Strawberry Blond recipes. I have found a few that sound promising but they would have to be converted to extract (still new, still prone to muck ups). The thing is, although I want the strawberries to be noticed and present in the beer, I want a strawberry beer, not a strawberry wine cooler/spritzer like monstrosity.

I'm aiming for an AVB of around 5 and up and I'm thinking more along the lines of wheat rather than ale, although I'm still open to ideas. Maybe add a small amount of honey to the primary before pitching the yeast to help up the alcohol content.

Also advice as to using fresh strawberries and pureeing them, or buying already pureed strawberries in light syrup, or creating genetically engineered, hydroponic, space berries grown on comets orbiting a distant sun for use.

Any recipe recommendations? Advice? Random thoughts? Coupons?

Remember, I'm only toying with extract ATM, but I can take on some new tasks as long as they are simple additions.

Cheers!

-Mark K.

you might look up some blonde ale recipes as a starting point /base recipe. they tend to be light and drinkable beers that go well with fruit (think petes strawberry blonde). usually fruit is added after primary fermentation is done, it has tendency to drive out the more volatile aromas, and either fresh or frozen will work with the puree.

where i can't help you is quantities, remember though that the sugars from the berries is also going to ferment

TheRedSalamander.com - Recipe

I did this recipe, however it turned out a little odd. I can't put my finger on the off flavor because it's not like anything I've tasted, but by no means is it bad.

Brett3rThanU said:

TheRedSalamander.com - Recipe

I did this recipe, however it turned out a little odd. I can't put my finger on the off flavor because it's not like anything I've tasted, but by no means is it bad.

Click to expand...

Maybe I'll give this a try. Any idea what might have caused the off flavor? Did you add the strawberries during primary or secondary fermentation?

Quick note about fresh strawberries in beer - the common wisdom is that they end up tasting like apricots most of the time. You best option is to find some high-quality commercial grade extract rather than fresh fruit.

And on that note - a good idea would be to find a commercial example of the kind of blonde you want to brew, get a graduated cylinder (hm, my second post with graduated cylinders today...) and work out your extract additions before hand to try and nail the flavor profile you're looking for. Much less risky than trial and error with 5g of homebrew.

+1; I have a dark cherry stout I am going to be adding extract to; just be careful how much you put in- you can always add more, but you can't take any away once it's added!

Gordie said:

Quick note about fresh strawberries in beer - the common wisdom is that they end up tasting like apricots most of the time. You best option is to find some high-quality commercial grade extract rather than fresh fruit.

And on that note - a good idea would be to find a commercial example of the kind of blonde you want to brew, get a graduated cylinder (hm, my second post with graduated cylinders today...) and work out your extract additions before hand to try and nail the flavor profile you're looking for. Much less risky than trial and error with 5g of homebrew.

Click to expand...

I used frozen strawberries from Costco and my Strawberry wheat came out great.

My advice is to add them in a bucket, NOT a carboy. A Better bottle may be okay. Just make sure they don't clog the neck of the fermentation vessel.

In my one experience with strawberries, my friends and I brewed an extract hefeweizen. After a week in primary, we racked it onto 6 quarts of deleafed, sanitized (brieftly in weak StarSan) and then quartered, in season local strawberries. Bottled a week later.

The strawberries had indeed dried it out a bit, either through tartness or through additional fermentables. Part of what I felt like dried it out taste-wise was the flavor of the strawberry seeds, which I think some people might not enjoy. It was tart, almost sour, and had the effervescent aroma of strawberries. It's almost like it beat around the strawberry bush, reminding you in several different ways of strawberries, but not knocking you out with their presence.

The berries lent a nice, almost red-orange tint to the otherwise very pale beer.

Maybe my favorite part was eating the strawberries after secondary. Next time I will have some vanilla ice-cream and granola or something on hand. They were tingly and awesome, if a little bit brown.

UPDATE

I moved my brew day back because of my change of heart. I still want to make the strawberry beer, but a wheat base is the way I want to go. Strawberry wheat sounds good lordbeermestrength.

Here is my problem:

Since I am new to real brews and this is my first partial boil/extract, I'm having trouble understanding the recipes I have found and want to modify. My LHBS does not sell much LME, but does have some various DME. The wheat DME is 60wheat/40barley. Would that still work? Hops don't seem like they would be a problem although they sell mostly in leaf rather than other forms.

What kind of wheat based beer should I start with?

Here is a link to my LHBS.

Dry and Liquid Malt Extract

Thanks for all of the responses everyone, you can ignore the post above this one.

My current primary is filled with an error that I'm going to experiment with, and the strawberry blond is going to be my next brew. I should have it fermented and aged a few weeks by Memorial Day.

Currently I'm working out a recipe based on other proven recipes. I will then split the batch in two and use two different yeasts, one neutral, the other most likely Wyeast 3068. Once I have the PM recipe finished I'll come back and have the forum proof it and give me feedback.

Also, I have this thing about using non fresh/real items so I'll probably still use real strawberries. Most feedback I have gotten from various places have praised real strawberries, although I doubt the extract would hurt it in any way.

Any update?