BM's Centennial Blonde -> Strawberry Blonde

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illin8

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OK...so I promised SWMBO a strawberry blonde. My original plan was to add strawberry extract so I purchased it. Now that this batch is day 14 in primary I'm having second thoughts about using the strawberry extract after reading some previous posts on using extract. So I'm looking for your opinion...what should I do? Do a 1/2 blonde and 1/2 strawberry blonde using the extract or use real strawberries (keeping in mind I'm on day 14 primary)? I don't want to ruin a good batch...or should I just keep it unflavored? She was looking forward to the strawberry blonde though. Thoughts?
 
I'd be tempted to rack half of it to the bottling bucket, add a little strawberry extract, swirl it with a spoon and then taste a bit (out of the spigot?). Then you can continue to add extract until you hit where you like. Add the priming sugar solution then bottle. Then bottle the other half as normal to make sure you have some blonde that is the control.
 
Yeah that is what I was gonna do, but started reading about the taste of extract after bottling was noticeably artificial, almost in a bad way. SWMBO has Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde in mind so I'm not sure if extract will get me there.
 
I made a strawberry batch from the Centennial Blonde recipe. Came out fantastic! I brewed 10 gallons so I split the batches, one reg the other strawberry. After fermentation I transfered 5 gal onto 5 lb of mushed up frozen-thawed strawberries. It thinned out the beer nicely and gave it a great strawberry aroma (flavor was subdued, you might want to add an additional lb).
 
fresh will turn out 100x better than extract in my opinion.

ymmv.

Oh ****, I'm replying to a 4 year old thread. :drunk:
 
I did this exact thing, but I only used half the bottle of extract hoping it wouldn't be too overwhelming. The beer is great, but you cannot taste any strawberry, so I would either use the whole bottle or use fresh strawberries.
 
racked my second batch of BM's Centennial Blonde onto strawberries earlier today. looks like it's still bubbling. :)
 
I know this is an old thread, but replying to it is better than starting a new one on the same topic... right???

Anyway, I am using the extract version of the CB recipe, and want to secondary over some strawberries, and my question is this: what do you all think of replacing the Cascade hops with Huell Melon hops? AA% is close, so it seems a good fit, after looking at the rest of the specs on them.

BTW - my strawberries will be fresh-picked from a local farm here in NC. Just picked 10 pounds the other day, made almost all of them into jam (had to save some for just eatin'!) and they were like candy. The ones in the grocery store can't hold a candle to these, in either flavour or sweetness! I am hoping 3 pounds in a 2.5 gallon batch will be enough to give it good flavour in the beer, as I am not a fan of extracts.

All comments welcome! And as always, TIA!
 

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