Berliner Weisse Fruit Additions Tweak

Hey guys. Here's the recipe for my Berliner Weisse -



The yeast I'm using is WLP630.

I want to do some additions to this near the end. My GF had a Rhubarb Wit a few months back and loved it!

So, I want to do Strawberries and Rhubarb in this Berliner Weisse...it's a 5 gallon batch

And I have NO idea how much to use.

I was thinking, 8-12 stalks of Rhubarb and 4 pounds of Strawberries. I'd chop both of them up and then boil and add to the carboy.

I figured 2 weeks is good enough...I'd do it near the end of the fermentation.

Thoughts?

Looks delicious. I have found that if you can wait til fermentation is over, and then juice the strawberries to add them you can pretty much get whatever level of desired flavor. Just make sure to add potassium sorbate with the juice to keep it from fermenting. I would assume juicing the rhubarb would yield the same results. Boiling them might take away from the flavor/aroma. A good juicer comes in handy here!

Okay. Thanks! I have a juicer that works very well. I can juice and pick up some potassium sorbate. Good idea on waiting until fermentation is finished.

N.P., made a few fruit beers all sorts of ways, finally Abita stated on their bottle that they juice their strawberries in their strawberry harvest... I followed suit last batch and it was smooth sailing. Not sure why I never thought of it,

agentEhrman said:

N.P., made a few fruit beers all sorts of ways, finally Abita stated on their bottle that they juice their strawberries in their strawberry harvest... I followed suit last batch and it was smooth sailing. Not sure why I never thought of it,

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Sorry..one more question. So I should just juice everything I got? 10 stalks of rhubarb and 4 pounds of strawberries and add that to my fermented beer and keep drawing samples until I'm happy with the flavor? Should I boil the juice first? Just add it to the carboy and pull samples..then sit for a few days to let any extra pulp settle and then rack?

Thanks!

If you're sorbating, no need to boil the juice. The sorbate should take care of whatever bugs might be there. Boiling will just make things cloudier. I would juice the strawberries and rhubarb separately, in case you want to change the ratio. Just remember that the dissolved CO2 will make the beer seem more sour/bitter than your sample.

Well crap, I had the brewer of a great commercial strawberry rhubarb berliner weisse (Catwba Napoleon) tell me how much he used, but it was at a beer fest

I want to say 10 lbs ea for 5 gallon batch was his recommended amount for 5 gallons.

TNGabe said:

Well crap, I had the brewer of a great commercial strawberry rhubarb berliner weisse (Catwba Napoleon) tell me how much he used, but it was at a beer fest

I want to say 10 lbs ea for 5 gallon batch was his recommended amount for 5 gallons.

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WHOA that's a lot! Thanks. I'm going to email the fine brewers at Throwback and ask them what they used in their batch of this - http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/throwback-rhubarb-wit/176858/

The old rule of a # per gallon is a great place to start. That rule is usually associated with adding the fruit to the secondary though.. I recently used 5# of strawberries juiced in 5 gallons and I thought it turned out about right. I also waited until the strawberries were really ripe to get the most out of them.

I think he said he'd only used half that much rhubarb, but would have used more, but I was 'sampling' pretty heavy at that point....I've got my first sour mash batch in the carboy now, might rack some onto strawberries and rhubarb as I've got lots frozen, but I'll probably wait for another batch in case this one is no bueno.

adamjackson said:

Sorry..one more question. So I should just juice everything I got? 10 stalks of rhubarb and 4 pounds of strawberries and add that to my fermented beer and keep drawing samples until I'm happy with the flavor? Should I boil the juice first? Just add it to the carboy and pull samples..then sit for a few days to let any extra pulp settle and then rack?

Thanks!

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Then nice thing about juicing, is that you can easily add more. So I would start with less than all of it, unless you are going for a really strong flavor. If that's the case, go with with you have now and add more after your first taste. That's probably what I would do anyways. It's much easier to add more, than to try to deal with it if it's too much..

agentEhrman said:

Then nice thing about juicing, is that you can easily add more. So I would start with less than all of it, unless you are going for a really strong flavor. If that's the case, go with with you have now and add more after your first taste. That's probably what I would do anyways. It's much easier to add more, than to try to deal with it if it's too much..

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Great idea. Going to juice both separately and keep adding until I get the taste desired.

I wish I could try it, I might have to brew your recipe!

agentEhrman said:

I wish I could try it, I might have to brew your recipe!

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I'll for sure keep this thread going as long as I can...will try to remember to post final product photos and taste test notes w/ exactly how much of the additions I used.

Thanks!

How did it turn out?
I'm trying to do a similar brew since I'm expecting to have way to many strawberries after this summer.

radicaledvard said:

How did it turn out?
I'm trying to do a similar brew since I'm expecting to have way to many strawberries after this summer.

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Tasting Notes - http://adam-jackson.net/beer/homebrewing-my-strawberry-rhubarb-berliner-weisse/

VERY VERY delicious!

1st taste - http://adam-jackson.net/beer/homebr...hes-now-that-fermentation-has-slowed-stopped/

Racking to kegs - http://adam-jackson.net/beer/homebr...cent-beers-to-kegs-and-some-initial-thoughts/

It came out really good. Maybe a bit too sour (brew in september, rack late December) so I'd rack it a month earlier if I did it again.

How are the strawberries holding up? I have only had 2 other commercial beers with strawberries and they seem to fade quickly. I love how well they work in a sour beer but am always interested in their longevity (not that beer lasts long around my house).

Cheers!

Biohazard said:

How are the strawberries holding up? I have only had 2 other commercial beers with strawberries and they seem to fade quickly. I love how well they work in a sour beer but am always interested in their longevity (not that beer lasts long around my house).

Cheers!

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A guy I know on RateBeer with 5,000 reviews picked out the strawberries before the rhubarb on a taste test last week. So I think they're holding up nicely but the rhubarb is very tart, almost like chalk in mouth feel on my teeth. Should have uses less of them I think.