Strawberry blonde ale

Interested in doing a strawberry blonde ale. I'm still a bit new (only 2 batches in) so I've only used extracts so far. Does anyone have a recipe for strawberry blonde ale using extract? My thought was maybe I could just use a Blonde Ale extract kit and then add strawberries in the secondary? Any thoughts?

Also, never done a fruit beer before so I have no idea how much fruit is required for 5G of beer to get a nice subtle flavor but not make it overpowering. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=132423 Try this one

I like that. I'll need to modify recipe for my MR Beer LBK.

I've found that a secondary is completely unnecessary in most cases. Put 5 lbs of pureed strawberries in your fermentor 3-4 days after pitching. The blonde extract kit should work fine.

If I puree the strawberries, then do I need to filter when I transfer to the bottling bucket? Seems like small pieces of strawberry would make their way into the bottles if I didn't.

Thanks for the info!

stratstud00 said:

If I puree the strawberries, then do I need to filter when I transfer to the bottling bucket? Seems like small pieces of strawberry would make their way into the bottles if I didn't.

Thanks for the info!

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There's no need to filter anything. But you do need to avoid the trub during the transfer. If you have the ability to cold crash, that helps immensely.

As one who has had a Strawberry beer before, a wheat, i advise on filtering! The seeds are smaller than you think and will make their way to every glass/bottle.

As someone who makes a Cherry Wheat, I put my cherries in the end of boil and pasteurize for 20 minutes at around 170 and throw everything (chilled) into my primary then pitch. When racking to secondary, use some Potassium Sorbate in the end. Never had a problem.

Good luck, sounds like a great idea.

dammBrewer said:

As one who has had a Strawberry beer before, a wheat, i advise on filtering! The seeds are smaller than you think and will make their way to every glass/bottle.

As someone who makes a Cherry Wheat, I put my cherries in the end of boil and pasteurize for 20 minutes at around 170 and throw everything (chilled) into my primary then pitch. When racking to secondary, use some Potassium Sorbate in the end. Never had a problem.

Good luck, sounds like a great idea.

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Well, I've only made 2 strawberry beers, but neither had any seeds present that I noticed.

Unless the OP has a filtering system l wouldn't encourage him to attempt it. Trying to filter while siphoning doesn't work well.

I used the Centennial Blonde recipe on the forum as my base then added 3lbs of quartered freshly frozen strawberries to secondary for 5 days my wife soloed the keg in less than a month and is demanding it be rebrewed. By quartering the berries rather than pureeing there will be minimal sediment transferred to your bottling bucket.

I have done both strawberry extract and secondary strawberries BMC drinkers prefer the extract but I prefer the real thing in a blond or cream ale . I have always gone 1LB to the gal frozen berries and 2OZ to 5 gal extract.
Like I said the frozen berries give a much better strawberry taste
I have only halved the berries no filtering fermenting at 65 or less and at least 2 weeks in secondary

emorris said:

I have done both strawberry extract and secondary strawberries BMC drinkers prefer the extract but I prefer the real thing in a blond or cream ale . I have always gone 1LB to the gal frozen berries and 2OZ to 5 gal extract.
Like I said the frozen berries give a much better strawberry taste
I have only halved the berries no filtering fermenting at 65 or less and at least 2 weeks in secondary

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So if I use frozen strawberries, do I need to thaw them out and cook them to pasteurize before putting them in the fermenter? Or do I just dump them in frozen?

stratstud00 said:

So if I use frozen strawberries, do I need to thaw them out and cook them to pasteurize before putting them in the fermenter? Or do I just dump them in frozen?

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I have just thrown them in the secondary frozen. Then cold crash and bottle or keg. In my opinion cooking will change the flavor of the berries

I thawed mine, then dipped each bag in sanitizer, opened the primary, and carefully poured/dumped 8lbs of strawberries in. Closed up.

Week later, I took a sample out. The "raft" of strawberries on top were still pretty red. But when I put a (sanitized) spoon in to make room for the thief, I noticed the strawberries on the bottom of the raft were very light, almost white.

So when done with the sample, I carefully stirred the berries to get the top ones on the bottom.

The weird thing is, the sample smelled citrusy and tasted of grapefruit. Very strange. May have to change my label to "Fruit Kolsch" and have my guests guess.