Fruit question.

Getting ready to brew a light summer beer with a fruit addition. Looking at a cream ale or a blond with a strawberry addition. Maybe a strawberry and banana addition. Not sure yet - just kicking some things around.
Questions:
Quantity of strawberries?
Fresh or frozen?
Throw them straight into the secondary or blend into a slushed/purée mix first?
Anything to worry about sanitation-wise with fruit?
Anybody ever used bananas or is this a silly idea?

My thanks in advance.

If you want a strawberry, and banana flavored beer, why not brew a Hefeweizen, and rack it onto 2 lbs of frozen strawberries in the secondary for a week? That would give you the flavors you are looking for. For a cream ale, I would rack onto 2 lb of frozen strawberries, and 1/2 lb of frozen bananas to get what you're wanting. You can also try Hefeweizen yeast and leave out the frozen bananas. That's the beauty of brewing beer, the possibilities are endless.
I have a Kolsch planned that I'm going to rack onto 2 lbs of frozen blackberries when I go to secondary. The sky is the limit with fruit beer. You just need to take good notes, and adjust your fruit additions to your taste.

I'd personally just rack straight ontop of some frozen berries in secondary as well. In theory, the risk of infection should be fairly low thanks to the alcohol content of your beer. I wouldn't blend the fruit up either. Racking off whole fruit can be challenging enough on its own (especially with something like strawberries that have a billion little seeds in them to clog up your racking cane) and I think that all the purred pulp would just make it even more difficult.

Thanks! I think I'll stick with strawberries for now.
I've heard that what's left after my secondary is pretty odd looking. True?

Does the concept of cold crashing apply to every phase of the process? For instance, going to rack my cream ale to the fruit in a secondary. Should I cold crash the primary before doing so?

I posted some pictures in my gallery of the Strawberry Cream Ale. Was surprised when I bottled it how strong the aroma was and how much color had been imparted to the beer.
My taste sample was interesting at bottling. It was good but I could pick up a slightly sour taste. At first, I thought it was a little tart but then decided it was more so sour. Just slightly. Am hoping I was just tasting very young beer.
It was in primary for a little over two weeks and then the Cream Ale sat in secondary on top of five pounds of frozen berries for four weeks. Bottled on May 29. Going to crack one open at the end of this week and see how it is

How many lbs of berries did you use? I made a strawberry wheat with 4 lbs of frozen berries added into the primary after the beer was done fermenting. I let it sit for a month and bottled a couple weeks ago. I tried one a few days back and has a similar, green, sour flavor to it. However, the aroma was like sticking your nose in a jar of strawberry preserves--amazing! Overall the beer tastes like a fresher version of Pete's Wicked Strawberry blonde with a little sour on the end.

I used five pounds of frozen strawberries. I did not boil them - just put them in the secondary frozen and racked on top of them - so I understand that opens up a chance for infection but there were no obvious signs of that when I bottled. I putting one in the fridge today to sample this weekend - will be about 11 days since bottling.

Awesome! Just checked out your gallery. Did you notice any seeds in the bottling bucket? I was afraid of getting strawberry debris in my beer so I put the berries in a nylon bag then put the whole thing into the primary. Definitely nerve wracking thinking about fruit sitting at room temperature for a month but the results speak for themselves, thankfully.

Lots of post on racking into a secondary on top of the fruit. Is there any reason the fruit cannot be added to the primary after one or two weeks?

Then, if necessary, rack to a secondary off the fruit to allow for clearing.

Zombie -- did not have an issue with seeds at all. Am assuming that was because I used frozen instead of fresh but I have no knowledge of why exactly that would be the case. When I went to rack to the bottling bucket, the berries were still floating on top and were mostly intact -- just mostly grayish in color and mushier.
Racking it off the strawberries wasn't as big an issue as I thought it might be (because they were floating and there was five pounds worth). As it got near the end, I had SWMBO tilt the bucket a bit and that moved the beer to the side and kept the berries at the bottom. Might have a left 12 oz worth or so in the bucket but that's worth it to keep a berry mush out of bottling bucket.

Endless -- I think you could add directly to primary. I chose not to because A) by racking to secondary I was hoping for a slightly cleaner/clearer beer. and B) since I was using frozen and didn't think about using a bag or any sorts, I couldn't think of a way to do it without dumping them in and potentially oxidizing things.

Cheers!

I was just thinking the fruit in the secondary would add to the stuff you are trying to rack off of, but it sounds like it was not that big of a problem. Oxidation would definitely be a consideration when adding to the primary - slowly pour instead of just dump. (I'm thinking plum puree for one idea I have)

I'd purée them and pasteurize them. Also, if youre wanting flavor, I'd do minimum 4 pounds.

EndlessPurple said:

Lots of post on racking into a secondary on top of the fruit. Is there any reason the fruit cannot be added to the primary after one or two weeks?

Then, if necessary, rack to a secondary off the fruit to allow for clearing.

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I tend not to use a secondary. This was the case for the strawberry wheat I made. I put the whole, frozen berries into the primary.

First pint today. I'm only about a week and a half or so since bottling. While the beer is still young and needs more conditioning, I am really excited. Good strawberry aroma and a nice berry flavor. Not overpowering -- but enough to let you know that it's there. The "sour" taste that I had detected when I bottled was ever so slightly present but not nearly what I tasted at bottling and nothing that takes away from the beer. I think as it conditions, I think this beer is only going to get better.
This is the perfect fruity, refreshing lawnmower beer I was looking for and just in time for summer!
https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/data/500/medium/photo130.JPG

Edit: Forgot to mention one negative -- poor head retention. Picture shows what I'm talking about.

I see you guys are talking about using frozen strawberries. Is there a reason why you couldn't use fresh strawberries? We have a local farm that grows the most delicious strawberries and I'd like to use them.

So, first off, is using local fresh strawberries a possibility? And if so, could I just add them fresh after fermentation or should I freeze them first and then add them after fermentation?

MMJfan said:

I see you guys are talking about using frozen strawberries. Is there a reason why you couldn't use fresh strawberries? We have a local farm that grows the most delicious strawberries and I'd like to use them.

So, first off, is using local fresh strawberries a possibility? And if so, could I just add them fresh after fermentation or should I freeze them first and then add them after fermentation?

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I think you need to boil fresh berries because of potential for infection. That risk is far less with frozen berries, but still possible.
Or so I've been told.

MMJfan said:

I see you guys are talking about using frozen strawberries. Is there a reason why you couldn't use fresh strawberries? We have a local farm that grows the most delicious strawberries and I'd like to use them.

So, first off, is using local fresh strawberries a possibility? And if so, could I just add them fresh after fermentation or should I freeze them first and then add them after fermentation?

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Buy the strawberries you like and freeze them.

Thanks. Do I need to boil them first or just freeze them?

ZombieBrew83 said:

How many lbs of berries did you use? I made a strawberry wheat with 4 lbs of frozen berries added into the primary after the beer was done fermenting. I let it sit for a month and bottled a couple weeks ago. I tried one a few days back and has a similar, green, sour flavor to it. However, the aroma was like sticking your nose in a jar of strawberry preserves--amazing! Overall the beer tastes like a fresher version of Pete's Wicked Strawberry blonde with a little sour on the end.

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Hey Zombie. Did you use your own recipe for your wheat beer or did you use a kit? I'm intrigued on making a Strawberry Wheat as well and was wondering if a specific wheat beer is better to brew for this type of beer?

MMJfan said:

Thanks. Do I need to boil them first or just freeze them?

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I think you just need to freeze them. The freezing also helps break down the fruit. In racking wheat that i boiled the peel of 3 lemons onto 5 pounds of frozen raspberries.

MMJfan said:

Hey Zombie. Did you use your own recipe for your wheat beer or did you use a kit? I'm intrigued on making a Strawberry Wheat as well and was wondering if a specific wheat beer is better to brew for this type of beer?

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I used the extract version of this recipie:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/strawberry-alarm-clock-v3-0-strawberry-blonde-132129/

The extract ingredients are in a post toward the bottom of the first page. This recipe turned out so well that I plan on trying it with raspberries, cherries, or watermelon next time.

Cool. Thanks for the recipe suggestion zombie. Sorry for the questions, but did you use DME or LME? I've only got 3 brews in me and I've yet to use anything other than LME.

I'm going to get my fresh strawberries today and cleaning, halving and freezing them and planning on brewing this beer sometime after my vacation.

I used 3.3 lbs of Wheat LME and 3.3 lbs of Gold LME. I also used 8oz of Crystal 10L to bump the sweetness a bit because I was worried the berries might make it too tart. The beer is still on the tart side but quite quaff-able. I am so pleased with this beer! The nose is simply divine. It's a lot like a jar of strawberry preserves. It carbed up to perfection after 3 weeks in the bottle.

I mostly use LME because it's a little cheaper than DME and I know that my source is fresh since I live near Midwest Supplies. If you are looking to keep your beer lighter in color, DME is the way to go. Funny thing about this hobby is there is never only one way to do things to make good beer and it is always fun to learn from experimenting. Good luck! Be sure to post your results in the recipe thread.

I did raspberries with my hefeweizen. I bought them frozen then heated it to about 115-120F for 15 minutes. This really helped to break it down and it got a bit juicy. I really liked how it turned out and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Heating the fruit not only broke it down more allowing for easier infusion of flavours and aroma, but it may have contributed to a more sanitary way to adding fruit. Personally, I don't believe that freezing fruit kills bacteria, but instead just puts them into a dormant state.

jpmg said:

I did raspberries with my hefeweizen. I bought them frozen then heated it to about 115-120F for 15 minutes. This really helped to break it down and it got a bit juicy. I really liked how it turned out and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Heating the fruit not only broke it down more allowing for easier infusion of flavours and aroma, but it may have contributed to a more sanitary way to adding fruit. Personally, I don't believe that freezing fruit kills bacteria, but instead just puts them into a dormant state.

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I was under the impression that a minimum of 140 degrees was required to kill bacteria. . .

Desp said:

I was under the impression that a minimum of 140 degrees was required to kill bacteria. . .

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I admit that my decision to 'pasteurize' the fruit at 115-120F was based on anecdotal evidence; none of the information I came across during my research cited any empirical evidence to support that temperature range as being sufficient to kill any bacteria which may have been on/in the fruit. My decision to use that temperature range was largely based on three things:

(1) my assumption that the alcohol content of the beer (which had completed primary fermentation) would inhibit unwanted bacterial growth
(2) the well-documented experiences of others who had skipped the pasteurization step altogether without any negative consequences.
(3) my hesitation to go to a higher temperature range as others had anecdotally claimed that it might reduce the flavour of the fruit

Again, I found the greatest benefit derived from heating the fruit came from the accelerated breakdown of the fruit's cellular structure allowing its juices and flavours to go into solution at a much more rapid rate.

Ever hear of freezer burn? It's caused by a type of bacteria that thrives in below freezing temperatures, and usually causes diarrhea. Just an example of the freezer not killing all bacterias. Also if you look into food prep laws, there are reasons restaurants need to heat foods to the temps they do... bacteria. I know not everything that applies to food directly translates into brewing, but, somethings are relatively universal. I have not used the fruit and am no authority on the subject, but it seems to me that adding fruit at flame-out would probably be the safest way to ensure the best of all worlds. The only way I see that fruit would "lose flavor" would be that the fruit was heated with water, and naturally the water would carry away juices and sugars. If it was heated in the wort, then the juice and sugar would still be right where you want it. Just a little out loud thinking....