Strawberry Hefeweizen for the Girlfriend

Ive already posted once about this brew, but I am fairly excited about it. Mostly because Its the first time I actually got to customize my beer and go off the recipe list a little.

However, I have a question or two, I've been searching the forums for a bit but the only searches that have came up have been in the Wine and Mead forums and I don't want to take any information that isn't meant for beer.

I racked my 5 gallon batch of a German Hefe onto 5 lbs of pasteurized strawberries that smelled fantastic after I pasteurized them and let them cool for a couple hours in the fridge.

Now, its been 4 days since I racked, the fermentation was vigorous for the first couple days, I had to clean my blow off tube since some of the strawberry residue had gotten all the way into the pitcher of water I had my blow off tube in(how often should I change this water??)

The strawberries have been floating at the top since a little after racking, I don't think much of any of them have dropped off yet and its still creating carbon dioxide and bubbles every so often. I know it hasn't been long, I just need some information to please my worries. hah

QUESTIONS: How long will the fruit float on the top of the beer and should I mix it or try to push them down??

and how will the added fruit affect my ABV?

The fruit will always float, so pushing it down won’t do anything, because it will just come right back up. As for the ABV, it will increase the amount of alcohol but I would not think that much.

Sounds Delicious
:rockin:

RowleseyCraftFoods said:

Sounds Delicious
:rockin:

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It looks delicious! I hope it lives up to its looks. NOMZ

I'm gearing up to make some Strawberry Champagne, and have a Raspberry Cream Ale Fermenting now. Also some Raspberry wheat in bottles that my wife loves.

The flavor will come out of the strawberries just fine with them floating. The fruit will only add about one or two gravity points, so the change in alcohol is negligible.

One recommendation: When racking to the bottling bucket put a hop sock or some kind of filter on your racking cane or auto-siphon. And also put a filter on when bottling if you are using a bottling wand. Most of the trub that makes it into the bottles will settle to the bottle, and having it in the beer isn't going to taste bad or cause any problems down the road, but it doesn't look appetizing.

Here are the recipes for my Raspberry beers if you are interested:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/search?q=raspberry

WoodlandBrew said:

I'm gearing up to make some Strawberry Champagne, and have a Raspberry Cream Ale Fermenting now. Also some Raspberry wheat in bottles that my wife loves.

The flavor will come out of the strawberries just fine with them floating. The fruit will only add about one or two gravity points, so the change in alcohol is negligible.

One recommendation: When racking to the bottling bucket put a hop sock or some kind of filter on your racking cane or auto-siphon. And also put a filter on when bottling if you are using a bottling wand. Most of the trub that makes it into the bottles will settle to the bottle, and having it in the beer isn't going to taste bad or cause any problems down the road, but it doesn't look appetizing.

Here are the recipes for my Raspberry beers if you are interested:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/search?q=raspberry

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Thanks Woodland! The raspberry cream sounds fantastic! I may need to clone your recipe to try once. And thanks for the tip about the hop sock, I was trying to decide on how I was going to auto siphon without getting all the grub. I was thinking about using a sanitized mesh bag but i wasn't sure if that was a good idea. Any and all suggestions are appreciated. You're awesome!!

So, the majority of the strawberries have officially dropped to the bottom of my secondary. I thought it would always float? I took a gravity reading tonight and it was just about 1.010. It looks good, tasted good, I want to leave it in with the strawberries for another week or so to gain some more flavor. But I'm nervous that the fruit dropping down to the bottom is a bad sign? Am I okay to let it sit for another week or so?

Don't worry about the fruit sinking. I've seen the fruit sink in some beers and float in others. By the end of fermentation it's pretty normal for quite a bit of it to sink.

WoodlandBrew said:

Don't worry about the fruit sinking. I've seen the fruit sink in some beers and float in others. By the end of fermentation it's pretty normal for quite a bit of it to sink.

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Hey woodland, all the fruit is now floating again.. Haha

I'm very interested to hear how this turned out. I just recently bought a Raspberry Wheat recipe for the wife and she loves Strawberries.

evolcoms said:

I'm very interested to hear how this turned out. I just recently bought a Raspberry Wheat recipe for the wife and she loves Strawberries.

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Ill report my final diagnosis once it's done!

Well, it is bottled and instead of using the dextrose from the brew store I decided to go with brown sugar, I figured it would give me a interesting after taste and I feel like it would compliment it nicely.

How much brown sugar did you use?

evolcoms said:

How much brown sugar did you use?

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I researched a bit before hand and everything kept saying 2/3 cup for 5 gallons instead of 3/4 cup. I always heard that its difficult to get an accurate reading of brown sugar due to it being thicker and what not. So I smashed it down as much as I could to try to be as accurate as possible.

With a scale you can more accurately measure sugar. If you don't have one you might want to put it on your Christmas wish list. If you use a scale, you don't have to clean the measuring cups. Just put your sauce pan on the scale, tare it, and measure the sugar. Less cleaning and more accurate, it's a win-win!

My Strawberry hefeweizen is done and carbonated, it's a little to sweet tasting IMO so I'm going to let them age for a little while in the bottles to mellow out a bit. However, I am very happy with this brew.

awesome dude. i'm think about making one for my wife.

My strawberry blonde came out delicious, it used 8#'s of Strawberries.

Honestly it took a long time for it to be drinkable, or atleast taste like strawberries.

After kegging and trying the first few pints, it was so tart it tasted more like a grapefruit beer.
Now 4-6 weeks later its really getting good. I cant drink much of it though since its for a party

FuzzeWuzze said:

My strawberry blonde came out delicious, it used 8#'s of Strawberries.

Honestly it took a long time for it to be drinkable, or atleast taste like strawberries.

After kegging and trying the first few pints, it was so tart it tasted more like a grapefruit beer.
Now 4-6 weeks later its really getting good. I cant drink much of it though since its for a party

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Did you use frozen or fresh berries?i went with 6#s of frozen strawberries, after boiling in a cup of water and cooling for a couple hours, I added them to my carboy and then I transferred the brew from my primary onto the berries in my secondary and let it sit for about 3 1/2 weeks.I also primed them with brown sugar when I bottled and I can definitely tell that it made a differences

I can't wait to see how it tastes mellowed out!

Welp, this brew did NOT turn out like I was hoping for at all. The flavoring is kind of weird. It doesn't have much of a beer taste at all and has a lot of carbonation(seems like a lot more than it should have). It has a nice white head with a tint of red and is hazy reddish/light brown in color. I'm bummed about it.

Thats a bummer...I was hoping to try this one out. You think it was the brown sugar?

Getting fruit right can be tough. I made a strong ale (8.6 ABV) that tasted amazing. I split the batch and put 4lbs blackberries in 2.5 gals. It came out hazy-purple, all you could taste was the berries with a weird bitter aftertaste. They completely overpowered the strong ale.

Next time, I'll mash higher for more residual sweetness, cut the berries in half and use pectic enzyme to help it clear.

evolcoms said:

Thats a bummer...I was hoping to try this one out. You think it was the brown sugar?

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I'm sure the brown sugar is part of the problem. Besides that I'm not too sure. I think hefeweizen's may just be better untouched. Haha. I should have went with a blonde. That seems to be the most common.

Right now i am putting a Honey Orange Hefeweizen recipe together. I hope it turns out good.

evolcoms said:

Right now i am putting a Honey Orange Hefeweizen recipe together. I hope it turns out good.

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That sounds fantastic! In sure it will be better than mine!

Kobrew said:

I'm sure the brown sugar is part of the problem. Besides that I'm not too sure. I think hefeweizen's may just be better untouched. Haha. I should have went with a blonde. That seems to be the most common.

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American wheats make a good base for fruit IMO. German hefe yeast has so much character, maybe it was clashing? I'm not a big fruit beer drinker, but for my friends who are I've had good success using a very basic recipe with about 50/50 pale and wheat malt (could do same with extract) and Wyeast 1010.