Fruit Beer Wild Strawberry Blonde

So did the yeast drop? How did it turn out?

It did drop after a few days

Will be making this ASAP, half size batch (3.25 gallons for a 3 gallon keg) and one of the 4 lb frozen organic strawberry bags from Costco. Wish me luck!

ire2661 said:

It did drop after a few days

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Looks good!!!

wantonsoup said:

Will be making this ASAP, half size batch (3.25 gallons for a 3 gallon keg) and one of the 4 lb frozen organic strawberry bags from Costco. Wish me luck!

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Good luck. I still recommend fresh berries though. You might get a very "pink" beer using frozen. At least that is my experience.

WildGingerBrewing said:

Good luck. I still recommend fresh berries though. You might get a very "pink" beer using frozen. At least that is my experience.

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Color doesn't matter to me at all - and frozen is half the price! I don't want to spend $20 on berries for a HALF batch !

Hahahaha i understand. Hope it turns out great!

I can't wait to try this one....thanks for the recipe. I got three little plants of strawberries I planted in my garden last summer that just erupted and overtook a whole 4'x4' portion of my raised 4'x28' garden bed I built last spring. They produced a handful of strawberries but I'm expecting a bountiful crop this summer. I'll be picking, sanitizing and freezer storing them as they come in now til I hit 8 lbs and rock the recipe out. The wifey will love it I'm sure.

That will be awesome!

IS this correct?
Sparge with 2.5 gal @170F for 10 min
Sparge with 2.5 gal @170 for 10 min

Based on the original recipe, yes. I used to do a double batch sparge. I do a fly or single batch sparge now, but when i posted the recipe, that was how i brewed. I also mash fairly thin.

Oops - I didn't double-sparge this last week. OG was low. Now I know why! Oh well, what's done is done.

Just kegged another batch. Damn, its good!!! The fresh berries are the key!View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1429984838.372053.jpg

WildGingerBrewing said:

Just kegged another batch. Damn, its good!!! The fresh berries are the key!View attachment 273659

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I need to do this one again. The fresh berries are definately key! My last batch didn't last long. As much as I loved having this on tap, I might have to bottle the next batch just so it lasts longer

This batch is excellent!

looking to do this recipe. I just moved from extract to partial mash. I can handle about 5lbs of grain and 6.5 gallons for a boil. How should I attack this recipe with my equipment?

I actually just picked up all the ingredients to make this batch.. sounds fantastic!!!

Steve3730 said:

looking to do this recipe. I just moved from extract to partial mash. I can handle about 5lbs of grain and 6.5 gallons for a boil. How should I attack this recipe with my equipment?

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Are you stil using extract as well? Take a look at the Succulent Strawberry Blonde thread. It is a extract and the inspiration for mine. Maybe between the two recipe's, you can come up with a hybrid?

Gonna try this one once my back heals from surgery

Also if I batch sparge should I just combine and do a single 5g?

I brewed this the other week and the strawberries have been sitting for 7 to 8 days and the strawberry flavor is not really coming through its just more tart/acidic. I am thinking of adding some extract at kegging. That way you still get some strawberry flavor and a bit of tartness.. I will post up the results in a day or so..

WildGingerBrewing said:

Are you stil using extract as well? Take a look at the Succulent Strawberry Blonde thread. It is a extract and the inspiration for mine. Maybe between the two recipe's, you can come up with a hybrid?

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I will check it out. I use extract but as little as possible. My first partial mash i used 6lbs of grain in 3 gallons. Sparged with 2.5 gallons and added 3.5lbs of extract for a 1.070 beer

RunNakeDnECU said:

Also if I batch sparge should I just combine and do a single 5g?

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I would definitely sparge. at least once.

The Costco berries worked great. I used 18lb on a 10gal batch. The aroma , color and flavor is great on the berry side. Just re-racked them and pulled all the strawberries out. Will keg and bottle in 5 days. cold crashing right now. Something on the front end does taste a little off. It's only the 1st sip and a spit sec. after that all is great. I didn't find American Pils so I think I used Canadian or German. We'll check my notes. Hopefully it will go away in the re-racking.

HalfWit said:

The Costco berries worked great. I used 18lb on a 10gal batch. The aroma , color and flavor is great on the berry side. Just re-racked them and pulled all the strawberries out. Will keg and bottle in 5 days. cold crashing right now. Something on the front end does taste a little off. It's only the 1st sip and a spit sec. after that all is great. I didn't find American Pils so I think I used Canadian or German. We'll check my notes. Hopefully it will go away in the re-racking.

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Frozen or fresh berries? I notice a big difference in taste (a little off) when using frozen. That's why I only use fresh now.

I wanted to update on my attempt at brewing this. I brewed the base beer and racked the beer onto the strawberries within 10 days. I actually got really busy so I was not able to keg the beer and take it off the strawberries until about 20 days later. Most of the strawberry flavor was gone and it was a bit too tart(used 5lbs in 5 gallon batch).
I really wanted to get a great strawberry flavor, I was planning on using the strawberry extract but after getting a bottle of it, it was too artificial for me so I didn't want to use it. I ended up taking 4lbs of fresh strawberries, freezing them and then putting them into my blender. I blended for about 5 minutes until I knew it was nice and liquefied. I then poured the puree into a hop bag and added it to the keg.
I will post another update with the taste once the beer has carbonated and is ready to drink. Its been a fun learning process..

brewing this next weekend. How is everyone sanitizing their strawberries? I plan on stemming them and freezing them, but do we give them a little spray of starsan too?

Steve3730 said:

brewing this next weekend. How is everyone sanitizing their strawberries? I plan on stemming them and freezing them, but do we give them a little spray of starsan too?

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I just washed really good, freezed, then pitched. I don't think you need to stem them though. The OP might know more.

And on that note I am off to go pick 20# of hood strawberries this morning!! strawberry fields forever!

I rinse, stem and freeze. Thats all. In my mind, right or wrong, the freezing will kill any bacteria. I've never had an infection, so there's that. Im sure a spray of star san wouldnt hurt, but dont know if it's necessary.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1433614796.497573.jpg
I lied 25#'s of hoods!

Nice!!!!

I've not brewed this recipe but in my experience yeast will absolutely go to town on strawberries so the risk of infection is pretty low no matter what you do. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm even close to dumping a load of just picked strawberries into my carboy without some sort of sanitation! Just not something to loose sleep over IMO.

I found it was a little off right away too but a few weeks later it's phenomenal.

Knowing that I love sour beers, at what stage, or what would be needed to turn this into a sour strawberry batch? I have 10 gallons (2x5) almost fermented out (1week so far) and just about ready to add the berries for the next steps. Just wondering if I could add Brettanomyces yeast next with the berries and make a sour strawberry brew?

I'm not a fan of sour beers, but this idea sounds great. Someone with experience in sours will need to chime in though.

It's not sour at all.

Wreck99 said:

It's not sour at all.

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haha

The reason I am curious about this is because last weekend I was at Portland's Fruit Beer Festival and they had a Widmer fresh strawberries beer that tasted really good...notes below.

Widmer Brothers Brewing: Fresh Strawberries
Tart Farmhouse Saison with Strawberries
Fresh Strawberries is a collaboration brew with Coda Brewing from Aurora, Colorado. Using Saison as a base, we added fresh strawberries and then kettle soured the beer with Lactobacillus to increase the tartness and balance out the sweetness from the fruit. French Sasion yeast allowed us to pull some subtle spicy notes in the aroma and flavor. 5.4 % ABV.

Any sour pros out there?

Well after racking to secondary on the strawberries this was the first time i have had anything blow up through my airlock.. cleaned it out and it is still going nuts.. may need to do a blowoff tube..

Sounds like you racked to secondary too soon. How long did you ferment in primary before racking?

it was in primary for 10 days at 68 degrees, krausen dropped to almost nothing showing, racked it to secondary and then 3 days later i checked on it and it was blowing thru.