Fruit Beer Succulent Strawberry Blonde

bottled this weekend and all I can say is wow...I mean WOW! ended up with 7.1 ABV!! insane and this is really good, brewing this again. All my beer glases are dirty after a good weekend so i used SWMBO wine glass.

I brewed his early this afternoon but made a few adjustments.I add an ounce of cascade instead of half and because of what was available I use 6 lbs of light pilsner LME, and 3 lbs wheat DME.Any thoughts king of new and no sure on what to expect.......

Just racked my beer onto 8 lbs of fresh strawberries that I halved and froze. Temp of beer was 54 degrees with strawberries. Looks good so far!

i didnt take a final gravity. SHould i have done this before or i racked onto the strawberries or should i do it when its all complete?

smithnick0 said:

i didnt take a final gravity. SHould i have done this before or i racked onto the strawberries or should i do it when its all complete?

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Without taking an FG reading, how did you know fermentation was complete? It won't hurt anything to take a reading after you rack off of the berries. I usually take it when I add the berries and have taken one again when I rack off of them just to see if there was any change. There hasn't been one. So as long as you know fermentation is complete, it doesn't matter when you take the reading.

Yeah I totally forgot to take it. I figured it had been 3+ weeks so it should have been done. I'll let this sit for another week and check it. Thanks!

Bump. I've ordered the components for this recipe, but I have a couple questions. Have those that used frozen dole strawberries run into any problems? I just want to use something with preservatives in it. Thanks!

I might be stupid im pretty new to brewing but i cant find anything called Extra Pale LME is there another name for it?

Pale LME or Gold LME will work fine ask the folks at your LHBS.

wolfnforest said:

Bump. I've ordered the components for this recipe, but I have a couple questions. Have those that used frozen dole strawberries run into any problems? I just want to use something with preservatives in it. Thanks!

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you want something that does NOT contain preservatives. I found organic strawberries from Trade Jose and this **** is good and still have 1.5 weeks in the bottle before ready (i snuck one last weekend ).

well, i have to say that the dole strawberries did the job well but you dont know what youre going to get with them. they have a chance to be very tart and if that is the case, you are going to get that tart off-flavor in your beer.

my beer has in a little over sweet because it finished very high but it also has a little bit of a tart aftertaste which, when trying one of the strawberries, i got a hint of. if you can afford it, go to your local hippie organic place and pick up a bag of frozen organic berries. IMO, i feel that they are much more sweet.

On a little off not last night i tried a Fruli strawberry beer. WOW, talk about a strong strawberry flavor!

wolfnforest said:

Bump. I've ordered the components for this recipe, but I have a couple questions. Have those that used frozen dole strawberries run into any problems? I just want to use something with preservatives in it. Thanks!

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I've used Dole frozen many times and have never had a problem.

Thanks for all of the advice! I've got a whole foods and trader joe's near, so I suppose I will go check out what they have. Can't wait to brew this beer.

I bought a 6 lb. bag of strawberries from Costco for $8. They specifically state on the label, no sugars or preservatives added, just individually quick frozen strawberries. I sure hope they are sweet enough since i don't want a tart strawberry flavor. I guess i'll have to thaw one and try it out before i rack onto it this coming weekend.

wolfnforest said:

Thanks for all of the advice! I've got a whole foods and trader joe's near, so I suppose I will go check out what they have. Can't wait to brew this beer.

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I picked up 8 (1 lb) bags of Trader Joe's branded organic strawberries and it taste great

Are you all racking on top of frozen strawberries or have they been thawed?

Frozen in my case.

Must be my problem. I froze fresh strawberries for about a week-and-a-half, then thawed, then racked on top of them. My beer has an almost weird-ish strawberry flavor, not exactly rotten, but close. At that point the fermentation temp was about 73 degrees. I decided to let it sit a few more months to see if the flavor subsides. The taste it has now though I can really tell it has great potential to be a great beer.

NWAleDad said:

I kept mine frozen, this is the best way to avoid contamination and the freezing kills avoids the need to sterilize the berries in vodka or something.

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Wow that is barely coherent

I kept mine frozen, this is the best way to avoid contamination. The freezing avoids the need to sterilize the berries in vodka or something.

NWAleDad said:

Wow that is barely coherent

I kept mine frozen, this is the best way to avoid contamination. The freezing avoids the need to sterilize the berries in vodka or something.

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No worries

this hobby definitely has its perks

This would be my first fruit beer, so with that said would 1 week in primary be enough I've usually kept my brews in there for 3 weeks.Is it beneficial for the fruit to be added to the brew that early?
I was thinking 2 weeks in the primary than 1 week with fruit in secondary.I just don't want to ruin the batch....

Here is what I did. 2 Weeks in primary, 1 week on fruit, 1 week in tertiary, and 3 weeks in bottle.

pretty much what i did too except i did 3 weeks primary

Mine has been on the strawberries a week today. I have not seen any bubbles come out of it since i put the strawberries in. Did anyone else not have ferminatation start back up? Ive been keeping it around 62-66 degrees

just because it doesnt bubble doesnt mean fermentation didnt occur. whats your gravity reading before and after adding the strawberries?

I added my strawberries 3 days ago and haven't seen any fermentation either. The strawberries are floating at the moment. I didn't take gravity readings either... oh well I did check the blonde that I used and that reached its fg. I am just hoping it is sweet and not tart! The strawberries were relatively sweet, just not super sweet like a later summer berry.

My OG was 1.060, and i didnt take a FG. I thought i would after it was on the strawberry. I should have done one before i added the strawberry though.

Bottled today. FG was 1.010. Got ready to bottle and forgot priming sugar. I whipped some up and poured on top and gave it a good swirl. With this be ok?

smithnick0 said:

Bottled today. FG was 1.010. Got ready to bottle and forgot priming sugar. I whipped some up and poured on top and gave it a good swirl. With this be ok?

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Did you pee in it? No? It'll be fine. A few bottles may have less carbonation, happened to me, but I think i was just being overly critical and expecting the worse to happen.

I brewed up a batch a few weeks ago. Sunday will be 3 weeks in bottle. Sampled a bottle last week great strawberry aroma but a little bit of a bitter strawberry taste. ie unripe strawberry. Berries I used where nice and sweet hope it will show through in profile later.

Quick question, I'm going to rack to the secondary this Sunday.I plan on using 6lbs of frozen cut strawberries any thoughts of using a different fruit??? Apricot, raspberries its my first fruit brew and would hate to mess up the base batch.I wouldn't mind bottling what's there now before the fruit ......!!

I just racked to tertiary tonight and took the beer off of 6 lbs of frozen strawberries after they were there for a week. The strawberry smell is amazing but the taste is a little tart at the moment. I also noted that the beer tasted a little watered down so i took a gravity reading. It was 1.005!!!!! When i racked it onto the strawberries, it was 1.011 (AHS Texas Blonde Extract kit). I'm thinking that the frozen strawberries had a lot of water in them and watered down the beer? Is there anything that we can do to fix this and get rid of the watered down flavor? I'm totally new to this so the only thing i can think of is Malto Dexterin (don't know how to spell this)? Would that work? Any guidance would be appreciated!!!

I wouldn't worry about the excess water that the strawberries gave off.I mean that's the flavor we're looking for right?Besides think about how much water is needed to make beer alone.Some strawberry juices aren't going to ruin it, that's peanuts in the grand scheme of things.Carb it up the flavors should out.

Level out....

Okay, tonight is the night! going to crack the finished product this evening when i get home...will post pictures and comments.

Okay, after 4 weeks in the bottle (was out of town last week on biz) and almost 3 months obsessing over this brew I'm finally enjoying a glass.

Aroma: WOW - the strawberry smell is amazing, so crisp and refreshing. but it does not over power at all. You can still very much smell the beer.

Head: very limited head retention, but this has been common of late, since the i started using the priming sugar from LHBS. Thinking of starting to measuring my own and stop using the pre measured from the store.

Taste: Very good, but tart and a subtle finish. it might be that I obsessed over this brew so much, that i expected taste bud sex. But instead ended up jerking off to porn from the seventies. I have read a few things on this thread about tart brews and it could be that it is based on the type of strawberries used. I want to try to this again, using fresh organic berries that taste the way i like and freeze on my own. i think this is the best way to get the kind of taste profile i'm looking for. Not completely disappointed, but defiantly need to to do this again before i can call it perfect!

Really interested in hearing about other folks brew turned out in comparison to mine. I used 7 punds of berries and it is a little weaker than i would like. Overall this is freaking wonderful brew and can't wait for the next batch.

Trying this, but changed the recipe slightly.
6# pale LME
1.4# wheat LME
And northwest (1332?) yeast

Bought 8# strawberries, cut stems, pasteurized, and sitting in my freezer now. I plan to rack on to strawberries tomorrow. When pasteurizing am I supposed to dump the water I boiled it in n freeze that and add it to the secondary as well? I put about 0.5 L of the the "juices" in the bag to freeze.

Not worried. Had a home brew. Jus curious what others do.

Pretty excited, as this maybe the 1st homebrew my SWMBO will be willing to try.