strawberry harvest clone

Airght, so I'm trying to put together a clone of Abita's strawberry harvest. Not sure how many people have had it, but this is what I know about this beer.

SRM 5
IBU - 12
ABV - 4.2

It's a "wheat lager", which has always seemed a bit anti-intuitive to me. This is what Abita says is in this beer...

It's a lager with a mixture of wheat and pilsner malts, mt. hood hops and strawberry juice added after filtering.

From these specs I'm trying to formulate my recipe. I was thinking something like the following..

4 lbs wheat LME
2 lbs pilsen LME

.5 oz mt. hood @ 45
.5 oz mt. hood @ 15

Pilsner Lager yeast from WL??

5 or 6 lbs of strawberry's pulvarized and pasteurized to a sort of "pulp" or juice for and added to secondary for 1 week before kegging.

I think the ingredients will get the beer part pretty close, but I'm not sure how to brew this to get the haze in the beer while still lagering. Also, when and how much strawberry to add?? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!!

Do you have some smaller fermenters to try a pilot batch? I would try this in a 2.5g batch before a 5g.

If you are using fresh strawberry you may try this method.

Thanks for the info sammy. I don't have any 2.5 gallon fermenters, but if I don't get it right the first time, oh well, I still have beer. Does anyone know if I can lager this beer and still get it looking cloudy?? I may just brew this as an ale and use an american hefeweizen yeast. Not sure??

EDIT
After doing a little a little reading, if I boil the strawberry pulp I can get some pectin haze in the beer. Does this give any off flavors??

I absolutely LOVE Abita strawberry. It's what im drinking now. Let me know how it turns out!

If the strawberry juice is added after filtering in the commercial example then that means that they don't want the strawberry to ferment out. Which makes sense as fruit is highly fermentable.

So I would recommend brewing the beer and fermenting without the juice. Then adding campden tablets and potassium sorbate to stop the yeast, then add the strawberry juice.

Of course this will only work if you're kegging as you would no longer be able to bottle condition.

I will be kegging, however that gets me thinking. that's probably why they lagered this beer. After primary fermentation at lager temperatures, I can transfer to secondary, where the temps are colder. This would render the yeast inactive and the strawberry will never ferment out.

However, the campden tablets are probably a better idea. Anyone who has experience with strawberry have any suggestion on amount of strawberry to use? I was thinking 5#'s, pulvarized, boiled, then the juice strained out into secondary for 1 week before kegging.

I wouldn't boil as you will set the pectin and end up with a hazy beer.

Strawberry harvest is a hazy beer, looks like a hefe honestly, although they claim to lager it. If I lager it, I'm afraid it will drop clear. My plan is to introduce pectin right before kegging so the haze comes back. Does pectin have any negative effects on taste. If not, that's my plan for now.

Subscribed to this thread. Tmurph, how is this brew coming along?

Thanks

I went out the other day and bought another 6 pack of strawberry harvest to do a little more testing. The 6 pack I got was quite clear, so I'm going to go ahead and lager it with pilsner lager yeast. I have a few brews I need to make before this one so I'll update in coming months.

For those interested. This is my final recipe. I will not get around to brewing this for a few more months, but anyone who wants to brew it, please feel free. Just let me know how it turns out...

Strawberry Harvest Clone

ABV - 4.2
IBU - 12
SRM - 4.5
OG - 1.044
FG - 1.011
Yeast Starter - Yes

Fermentables:

4 lbs Wheat LME
2 lbs Pilsen DME

Hops:
.5 oz Mount Hood @ 60
.5 oz Mount Hood @ 45

Yeast:
WLP 800 Pilsner Lager

Additions:
5 lbs Frozen Dole Strawberrys
5 campden tablets

Procedure:

2L yeast starter needs to be made due to lagering, however brewday would be as you normally would brew a 5 gallon extract batch. Pitch yeast and lager for 3 weeks, or until fermentation stops, however I think 3 weeks will do it; this is not a big beer at all. Transfer to secondary and lager for 6 weeks.

This is where I think it gets a bit tricky...take the 5 lbs of dole frozen strawberries and pulvarize in food processor. Add the "paste" to a bit of water to get a more liquid strawberry pulp (I think 1 qt water should do it?) and heat to 170F and hold for 10 minutes to kill any bugs, then cool rapidly down to 50F. Crush up campden tablets and add the juice and campden tablets to tertiary and rack beer from secondary to tertiary and let it sit at 40F for one more week.

After a week, transfer to keg, force carbonate at 30 psi for 24 hours, then dial it down to 12psig for 1 weeks. Should be ready to go by then.

Cheers

I just got my fermenting fridge, and this is probably one of my top 3 fav beers ever (we have a history, she and I). I’ve been reading up on this yeast, and I do not want to screw it up. I was just wondering what temps you would lager this at?

Edit : Any reason for the wheat being Liquid?

Edit 2 : I’m assuming that once the campden tabs go in, that I cannot reuse the yeast?

you guys back in the states, how did this season's ASH turn out? It's one of my favourite beers by them but I find it inconsistent. One season will be phenomenal, can't get enough of it. The next season will resemble a watered-down Purple Haze, with absolutely no hints of fruit (essentially a wheat beer). Just reading that recipe makes my mouth water -- when I get more experienced I will definitely give it a go!

3 weeks at 55, diacetyl at 62 for 2 days then lower by 2 degrees per day down to 34. Transfer to secondary and let it sit at 34 for 6 weeks.

I used lme because that gave the closest abv of the commercial beer while still being a whole number.

Yes you are correct you can't reuse yeast after using campden.

ASH was all over the map this year. Some cloudy and delicious, some clear and resembling a normal wheat beer with pilsner character.

alenub said:

you guys back in the states, how did this season's ASH turn out? It's one of my favourite beers by them but I find it inconsistent. One season will be phenomenal, can't get enough of it. The next season will resemble a watered-down Purple Haze, with absolutely no hints of fruit (essentially a wheat beer). Just reading that recipe makes my mouth water -- when I get more experienced I will definitely give it a go!

Click to expand...

Yep, I've had the same experience. Used to live not far from this brewery, became a big fan of their products. Never saw this beer in a cloudy state, always crystal clear. Amount of strawberry flavor varied fairly dramatically from season to season.

Chefencore, if you brew this recipe keep us posted, and post pics. My brew schedule is pretty full but I plan on brewing this eventually. I wanted to get my recipe down on paper while I was still motivated.

I will be brewing this - it’s just a matter of a few weeks (and making sure I know exactly what I’m doing). I have only three batches under my belt, and I want to do it justice. Like I said previously I absolutely LOVE this brew. I was going to convert the wheat to DME, as I find it easier to use and another recipe called for it, but I will brew as is.
Just a few questions:
1. When making the starter, what should I use - I have some muntons plain light dme, does it matter? Should I pour off the ‘beer’ from the starter before pitching? What temp should the yeast be when I pitch? What temp should the wort be when pitching?
2. I haven’t tried my beer fridge yet for layering, and I’m not confident of the temperature control. The thing I am most concerned with is lowering by 2 degrees a day- that’s pretty precise. What’s my rate of forgiveness here?

I’m sure there will be more questions, and if you think of any advice or tidbits that would help, feel free to PM me or post.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter10-4.html

Remember, if you're going to use DME, understand you can't use equal parts DME to LME. I would recommend 3 lbs wheat DME. Substituting DME makes this 4 SRM which is 1 SRM below the commercial example. Probably not a big deal though as this beer is so inconsistent anyway.

Temperature control is crucial, if you don't have one get a temperature controller off amazon for 50-60 bux. Keep us posted!

alenub said:

you guys back in the states, how did this season's ASH turn out? It's one of my favourite beers by them but I find it inconsistent. One season will be phenomenal, can't get enough of it. The next season will resemble a watered-down Purple Haze, with absolutely no hints of fruit (essentially a wheat beer). Just reading that recipe makes my mouth water -- when I get more experienced I will definitely give it a go!

Click to expand...

This year is average, IMHO.

After looking in to what it would take for me to lager (and keg-not there yet either) it will be a while before I can brew this.

I drank a bottle of this years batch tonight and think it turned out quite good. We are lucky to have the stuff in stores for a couple of months in Austin. I think I am gonna look at doing this clone as well so keep us updated when you finally do brew it.

Just spoke with the folks today who live in the area and they said Pontchatoula's strawberry season was pretty good (likely where Abita gets its strawberries from). Already a couple of stores sold out of the stuff. Reports like that can't be bad!

Subscribing to this thread. I love Abita Strawberry Harvest, although like others have said it has been inconsistent. The last year I thought was great, good strawberry taste, this year seems to be a little less noticeable. I've been thinking about a clone as well, so I'm anxious to see how yours turns out! Best of luck!

Any updates on your progress of a clone?

No progress, might be awhile til I get to this one. May brew it in December at the earliest.

Anyone think this could be brewed as an ale? I'm going to try something pretty close, but can't lager. I will try and post back if anyone is still interested. I'm definately doing Mt Hood, wheat and light DME. I may actually switch this recipe to 4# light, and 2# wheat. I plan to use strawberry extract though. Its passed the season for fresh, and it can definately make a mess as I found with fresh peach a few months ago. Thoughts?

You could brew it as an ale with a hefeweizen yeast or maybe even american ale 1072 since the yeast would add so little to the beer. The thing is, if you brew it as an ale, you'll just be making a strawberry wheat beer, you wouldn't be cloning the original.

I really want to make this beer, but like you, don't have the ability. Anyone out there able to lager?!

tmurph6 said:

You could brew it as an ale with a hefeweizen yeast or maybe even american ale 1072 since the yeast would add so little to the beer. The thing is, if you brew it as an ale, you'll just be making a strawberry wheat beer, you wouldn't be cloning the original.

I really want to make this beer, but like you, don't have the ability. Anyone out there able to lager?!

Click to expand...

You have a good point, its won't really be a clone then. Also, I plan to pitch US-05 dry and just let it ride.

Cool when do you plan to brew?

I brewed yesterday, just checked and my airlock is bubbling. I ended up using 4# light DME, and 2 # wheat LME. .5 Mt Hood at 60, .5 Mt Hood at 30. I forgot to add my Irish Moss at 15, so might be a bit hazy or cloudy. This doesn't bother me at all, but I was hoping to get this one as clear as possible for SWMBO.. I have some strawberry extract from my LHBS, but I'm still considering frozen or fresh. .

For the strawberry flavor I think you're better off using frozen strawberries with the campden to keep the strawberry sugar from ferming out. The extracts typically add no flavor and only add aromatics. May use both...

Dont worry about the haze. Most abita strawberries I have are very hazy.

Let us know how it turns out!

Subscribing. This is the SWMBO's favorite beer -- we buy cases of it when it is in season. Hopefully I can clone it once I get some free fermenting space

If I convert this to AG, what would the mash schedule look like?

3.5 lbs wheat @ 2.5L
5.5 lbs 2 Row (or pilsner) @ 1.5L

Mash at 151 for 1 hour

1.25qt/lb thickness

6 gallons wort post boil.

SG-1.042
FG - 1.010

1 oz mt. hood @ 45 @ 5%AA
~14IBU

Yeast WLP 800
ABV - 4.2
Color - 3L ~ a little low as the original beer is ~5L, however, the strawberry probably gives it a little color so, meh.

I'm brewing this up on Saturday, not as a lager though, using wyeast 1056. I found a podcast from the brewing network sunday session where they interviewed the head brewer at Abita, from what he said he uses 75% pilsner, 25% wheat. My recipe is adjusted as follows:

AG recipe
8 lbs pilsner malt
2 lbs wheat malt
.25 lbs acid malt (for mash ph adjusting)

1 oz mt. hood at 60 (I may change my mind and do 45)

75% RO water 25% houston water, minimal water adjustments...

American Ale Wyeast.

Ferment 10-14 days in primary, depending on how lazy I am, rack to secondary and let it sit on 7# dole frozen strawberries (thawed) for 7 days, add 1-1.5 oz mccormick strawberry extract at kegging time.

Currently sitting in the primary, I added the Mt. Hood at 45 minutes, should be about 15-20 IBU's in the finished beer which will probably translate nicely to the commercial example.

My starting gravity came out to be at 1050, with 6 gallons into the primary!! Oh well, guess I'll be getting drunk off strawberry juice

I'll post pictures when I add the strawberries. Also, since this beer will be done around strawberry harvest season I'll post a side by side comparison along with tasting notes.

Not sure if anyone is watching this thread anymore, but I'm going to document everything in case someone else stumbles upon it.

I racked this beer from the primary to the secondary today. I tried to ferment it as cold as possible to get it to ferment out as clean as possible. I use the swamp cooler method of cooling, and my surrounding water was around 61 degrees when I measured it. I kept swapping the frozen bottles out for about a week then let it free rise and stay around ambient (which was still a little cold I think since it's the winter) for another week.

Anyway, after 2 weeks in the primary, I racked it to the secondary and added some gelatin to filter it. (Abita filters onto strawberry juice in the bright tank then bottles the next day). Since I don't have that ability, gelatin is the best I can do. I'm going to let it sit in the secondary and clear out until Thursday, then I'll rack to tertiary, where I'll add 7 lbs of dole frozen strawberries (thawed). I'm going to sanitize a paint strainer bag and put the strawberries in there so it's easier to clean up and strain later.

FG 1.010, surprising since I mashed this at around 155. I think I nailed the base beer, it's got a very light flavor, with just enough wheat that you know it's there. Very little aroma, all malt. Color is a bright clear yellow. I flat out can't wait for this beer to be done!

Sounds good. Don't let it sit on the strawberries too long, the seeds actually can contribute a tannin like astringency to the beer.

Planning on going a week on strawberries. Then an ounce of mccormicks strawberry extract at kegging time.

Still subscribed!!