Strawberry blond is a surprise hit

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g_rath

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So I have taken a few bottles of a strawberry blond that I made to the last two parties that I have gone to. I only brought a few thinking that it was going to be more of a novelty beer. It has gone over so well. My friends wife (who doesn’t like beer very much) wants to pay me to make her a full batch of it. Even a lot of the guys liked it, and it’s really easy to do.
Props do have to be given to the base recipe creator, cant have a good beer with out a good base.
If any one wants to here is what I did:

Make BM’s Centennial Blonde
Omit the late addition hops
Add 6# thawed, pasteurized strawberries to the secondary fermenter. I got these at the local wholesale club.
 
Strawberry beers can be a real challenge. The flavor has to be balanced with some sweetness. Sounds like you hit it first try.
 
So I have taken a few bottles of a strawberry blond that I made to the last two parties that I have gone to. I only brought a few thinking that it was going to be more of a novelty beer. It has gone over so well. My friends wife (who doesn’t like beer very much) wants to pay me to make her a full batch of it. Even a lot of the guys liked it, and it’s really easy to do.
Props do have to be given to the base recipe creator, cant have a good beer with out a good base.
If any one wants to here is what I did:

Make BM’s Centennial Blonde
Omit the late addition hops
Add 6# thawed, pasteurized strawberries to the secondary fermenter. I got these at the local wholesale club.


6#'s of berries for a 5.5 or 11g batch? I'm looking at a 5.5g batch but that sounds like alot of strawberries.
 
Generally it's 1.25lbs of fruit per gallon of beer. I have 6lbs of blended nectarines going into primary for a blonde.
 
The amount of fruit you are going to use is going to be different depending on what the fruit is, and how strong the taste it and how strong you want the taste to be. I had a very precise method to determine the amount of strawberries I used, it came in a 6# bag and I didn’t want any leftovers. It was a 5.5gal batch and yes it is dominated by strawberry flavor. But it turned out good.
 
My Strawberry Blonde is in the primary right now. You simply let the strawberries thaw out, then dumped them in the secondary and racked on top? You didn't pasteurize them yourself?
 
commercial bought frozen strawberries should already be pasteurized. Check the label it should say they are pasteurized.
 
I did pasteurize them before I tossed them in. I put them into a big pot with a little water and let them thaw and heat up. Once they got soft I mashed them up a bit for good measure. Just a FYI if you use all 6# it added about another gallon to the volume. Because I didn’t have another 6 gal fermenter I just added them to the primary bucket.
 
I did pasteurize them before I tossed them in. I put them into a big pot with a little water and let them thaw and heat up. Once they got soft I mashed them up a bit for good measure. Just a FYI if you use all 6# it added about another gallon to the volume. Because I didn’t have another 6 gal fermenter I just added them to the primary bucket.

I've only got 5 gallon secondaries, so adding them to the primary may be my best bet. How did you do that without splashing?
 
For those of you that brewed this, was the final product extremely cloudy? Even after putting a few bottles in the fridge for several weeks it's still cloudy. There's an odd flavor to it as well, not really tart, but hard to describe.
 
Yeah I have the same "odd" flavor.

Not realy tart, but not really gasoline either.. LOL.. maybe not that bad...
The smell is like raw green strawberries in a blender..

Next batch will be with Oregon Fruit Purees...
 
The cloudiness could have been from pectin. Even if the entire batch of fruit didn’t boil during pasturing/thawing (assuming you did that) some of it could have gotten hot enough. Or it could just be one of the many forms of haze you can get in beer.
As far as the odd taste. It could have been the taste of strawberries with out the sugar. I was thinking that I might back sweeten the next batch just a bit to bring out the berry flavor more.
 
I was thinking that I might back sweeten the next batch just a bit to bring out the berry flavor more.

Can you explain this a little? what do you mean by back sweeten? I am thinking of doing the centennial strawberry blonde and I am not sure if I should go get some frozen strawberries or go with the Oregon fruit puree.

Any guidance would be appreciated.
 
I totally just gave a Strawberry Blonde a try tonight.

I borrowed an idea from this board. I took an AHS Texas Blonde Ale recipe kit (extract) and I racked it in the secondary with 38 ounces of frozen strawberries.

I'll let you know how it comes out.
 
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