Strawberry Tart Dessert Beer (might need some tips)

Just tossed this recipe together, and will try to brew this weekend. We're going up to rural Wisconsin to celebrate Independence Day a little early. There will inevitably be some fresh strawberry picking going on. My family loves the New Glarus Raspberry Tart, so I thought I might try to make something out of 5lbs of fresh strawberries to rival it (certainly won't match it).

Here's what I have so far, but I could use some thoughts and opinions since I've never used some of these ingredients (or fruit).

6lbs Briess Pilsen LME
8oz Honey Malt (Gambrinus)
8oz Acidulated Malt (Weyermann)

Munton Dry Yeast (going incredibly cheap/simple here)

3AAUs Cascade Pellets 60 minutes
3AAUs Citra Whole Leaf last 10 minutes
3AAUs Citra Whole Leaf last 2 minutes

Going to do a light dry hopping with 1/2oz (the remainder of my bag) of Citra during secondary fermentation.

Hoping this produces a sweet yet tart strawberry beer. Crisp and clean with a citrus/floral finish and aroma on top of the strawberries. Trying to keep the bitterness low but increase the citrus by dry hopping with the Citra. Not looking for the yeast to add any kind of contribution. Great for sipping after dinner.

OG: ~ 1.046
FG: 1.011
ABV: 4.6%
IBU: 15-17

Was thinking of adding 5lbs of fresh crushed strawberries to the secondary fermenter. I've also seen people do this during the boil. Not sure which is better, maybe folks have some advice? I would be curious to know when I should boil them (2 hours, 10 minutes, whole day) if I do. Would prefer not to make an extract. I've felt that cherry or fruity extract beers taste a little like cough medicine.

Also in all of the recipes I've looked up, no one's suggested boiling the strawberries to make them sanitary for the secondary fermenter. In fact most recipes recommended freezing the strawberries (I assume to rupture cell walls and such but I'm going to mush them up). Is infection not really an issue here? I'd be surprised to hear that it's not.

I'm using about a 5.5% (8oz) amount of acid malt. Never used the stuff. I was hoping it'd make the beer a little tart. Is this an ok idea? I couldn't really gauge the amount I should use. 3% is to adjust pH, I saw 8% was to make something quite sour...so I opted for a happy medium. Hoping to get a sweet/sour effect with the two contrasting malts.

Last but not least, I'm trying to make a decision on whether I should make a mini-mash with the honey malt and acid malt, or if I could just steep them like specialty grains. Honey malt seems like it could be steeped, but again...never used acid malt. Any thoughts? If I do a mini-mash, maybe I could see what mashing in the strawberries with the malt does for me.

Thanks for the help/comments as always. They're much appreciated.

Oof! First post I haven't drawn a single view in. I'll press forward with what I have anyway and give my usual updates on how things turn out. For science and what have you.

How did it turn out?

I completely forgot about this post! I usually tend to post updates along the way, sorry.

Just to clarify, I actually changed this recipe into an all-grain recipe. You can see that recipe and the hop schedule here.

That recipe turned out pretty good actually. Now that it's aged out a bit, it's during into a nice auburn color (used to be a more...strawberry blonde maybe? more gold). It actually does taste tart, so the experiment with the acid malt worked great. It's a pretty refreshing beer, dry with strawberry flavor in the background.

Personally, I think I need more strawberry flavor in the beer. I like the dryness, but I felt like I couldn't taste enough of the strawberry. In the end after cleaning, I really only had about 4lbs of berries for the secondary. I might use 6lbs next year...or maybe I'll experiment with cutting the berries in half, or crushing them. I stuck the WHOLE berries in the secondary. Everyone else disagreed though and told me there was enough.

Next, there's not really any head retention on this beer. I can't really tell if that's a bad thing for this one though. I think it works great in a champagne flute as a sipping beer. Still, maybe I'll try Carapils in the mash next time?

This brew is where I learned to do a better job of mixing my priming sugar into the bottling bucket. I get the subtle feeling that the carbonation isn't consistent from bottle to bottle. Maybe I'm wrong, no one else seemed to notice. Maybe the lack of head retention is psyching me out. Either way, I do a lot better job of stirring at bottling time.

Here are some clarifications on the recipe:

• I actually changed this recipe to be completely an all-grain recipe. If you follow the posted recipe, you'll need to do a mini-mash with the acid/honey malts for them to work.
• Also changed hop schedule. I went with Mt. Hood and Fuggles for a cinnamon/sweet aroma and a woodsie aroma to remind me of picking the berries.
• For primary, I waited a week. I added the berries to the secondary bucket, then after a week, transferred to a tertiary bucket for an additional week.
• I sanitized by tossing the berries in Everclear, and then by vacuum sealing/freezing. I did this on brew day, so they were in the freezer for a week.
• Check here for another update that I gave in my other thread.

Happy brewing! Let me know if you have any questions. I have my brew journal handy. If you want pictures, let me know! I'm feeling kind of lazy right now, but I could be coaxed into digging them up if there's interest. I'll probably post them to the other thread though since I technically didn't make this recipe.