Please give me some feedback on this strawberry blonde good or bad all is good

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jimmywit

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6 lbs light dme
1 lbs wheat dme
8 oz carapiles
8 oz crystal 10-20
1 oz cascade-60
.5 saaz -20
.5 saaz


secondary- rack onto 5 lbs of frozen strawberries for 2 weeks

Let me know what you guys think. All feedback is good even if it is bad feedback
 
Ive read strawberrys dont come through well unless you use a lot. IMO, Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager is quite weak in the strawberry flavor.. I assume the above is a 5 gallon batch.. 1lb Strawberry/gallon will likely not be near enough... start with 2lbs/gal or add extract flavoring to taste at kegging/bottling. See page 175 in Radical Brewing - 2+ LBS of strawberries are recommended. Ive read some people use about 4-5lbs per 5 gallon batch
 
i have been looking to make another fruit beer for my wife. From what i have read when using fresh fruit you need to use A LOT. This is why I think most commerical micro's use extracts for flavoring.

I do like the Saaz, they tend to pop up in most of the fruit beers I see. I also used them in my raspberry Ale and Blueberry Ale.

I am not a huge fan of fruit beers, but my wife is....so she wins.
 
This one is my second attempt at a strawberry blonde and it turned out amazingly well. I used a very light hop, 1 oz of Willamette, only for bittering, no aroma or flavor. I agree with maxhavoc. It's gonna take about 1.5 lb/gal and up. I used 1.75. The other thing I did differently, and got amazing results, was buying fresh strawberries and then pureeing them followed by throwing them in the freezer. When I was ready to put them into secondary I thawed the puree and racked on top. The beer sat on them for about 2 weeks. The result was a lightly pink colored blonde ale with an amazing aroma. Oh, and also because strawberries can be very tart or bitter, when I added the strawberries I also added about 1/2 to 1 cup of lactose boiled in about 1.5 cups of water to mellow out the tart taste. I'll try to get a pic up when I get home from work but the result was pretty amazing.

The nice thing about using the puree is you don't have to sanitize the strawberries; at least that is what I was told. The source for that info is Brewing Classic Styles under the fruit beer chapter.

Overall, I'm pretty amazed by the results. The beginning is a rush of strawberries followed by a nice mellow tart at the finish. So far it has received good reviews from beer drinkers and non beer drinkers alike. Hope this helps! :mug:
 

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