Fruit Beer Succulent Strawberry Blonde

Cold crashing mine now to try to clear it out a little. Don't think this beer will ever be clear, but mine currently looks the same as the picture above.

Anyone think of putting in a little splenda to combat the tartness? Or is there something else we could do to add a slight sweetness?

D_Nyholm said:

Cold crashing mine now to try to clear it out a little. Don't think this beer will ever be clear, but mine currently looks the same as the picture above.

Anyone think of putting in a little splenda to combat the tartness? Or is there something else we could do to add a slight sweetness?

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Gelatin worked great to clear mine up. Will post pictures tonight. Also, wine conditioner works to backsweeten if you are kegging. It will stop yeast reproduction so if you are bottling youd be better to use splenda or nutrasweet.

Has anyone sweetened this beer using lactose with good results? Trying to decide the best path for some sweetness. Something about using splenda sits wrong with me.

hshiggins said:

Has anyone sweetened this beer using lactose with good results? Trying to decide the best path for some sweetness. Something about using splenda sits wrong with me.

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I am very new to this, but I did use Splenda since i didn't know what would be better. I ended up using 3 tablespoons in the 5 gallons. It didn't add any sweetness, it was just enough to cut the tartness of the strawberries. I just kegged it this weekend and won't be trying it for 3 weeks, but I hope it wasn't too much as I don't want any actual sweetness.

hshiggins said:

Has anyone sweetened this beer using lactose with good results? Trying to decide the best path for some sweetness. Something about using splenda sits wrong with me.

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Funny, I just mentioned this in another thread. I think it would give it a nice strawberries and cream taste.

(excited reading other recipes... I'm making my first strawberry now).



/threadjack

Anybody brewed this and the strawberry alarm clock? Trying to decide which to take on first for the women of the clan. Their criteria will be the one with the best strawberry character.

Ive got this on keg now. Used the all grain recipe with 6lbs of strawberry. I added them to the fermenter after 7 days. left them for 2 weeks, then racked to keg. incredibly cloudy, but that doesnt bother me. This is a big hit with non beer drinking women. it really tastes like a liquid strawberry with a little bit of twang at the end. Im thinking the frozen strawberries i used were fully ripened. i havent made the other beer, but based on the response ive got so far i think this would work well

nootay said:

Ive got this on keg now. Used the all grain recipe with 6lbs of strawberry. I added them to the fermenter after 7 days. left them for 2 weeks, then racked to keg. incredibly cloudy, but that doesnt bother me. This is a big hit with non beer drinking women. it really tastes like a liquid strawberry with a little bit of twang at the end. Im thinking the frozen strawberries i used were fully ripened. i havent made the other beer, but based on the response ive got so far i think this would work well

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Liquid strawberry sums up what they were looking for perfectly. I see a lot of posts on the other beer that seem to indicate it's more subtle and a bit tart which isn't what they are looking for in this. What brand frozen srawberries did you use? Thanks for the feedback!

i used kirkland brand strawberries. it was also the reason i used 6 lbs, because it came in a 6lb bag. This does have a bit of tartness, almost slightly sour, although i think it came from the strawberries and is not an infection. The tartness is very slight and comes after you swallow the beer.

nootay said:

i used kirkland brand strawberries. it was also the reason i used 6 lbs, because it came in a 6lb bag. This does have a bit of tartness, almost slightly sour, although i think it came from the strawberries and is not an infection. The tartness is very slight and comes after you swallow the beer.

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I'm ok with a slight tart finish. I'm more worried about a VERY tart finish like I had on my strawberry mead that was undrinkable. No residual sweetness at all and incurable even with back sweetening.

I definitely think as a young beer, this would have more of a tart finish. Every day it seems to mellow out a bit more.

nootay said:

i used kirkland brand strawberries. it was also the reason i used 6 lbs, because it came in a 6lb bag. This does have a bit of tartness, almost slightly sour, although i think it came from the strawberries and is not an infection. The tartness is very slight and comes after you swallow the beer.

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I too used the Kirkland strawberries and mine came out very very tart. I left it in primary for 1 week, strawberries 1 week, then tertiary 1 week. It was tart enough that we added 3 tablespoons of Splenda to it to kill the tartness. It was enough to remove all the tartness and not add any actual sweetness. We split the batch and one has more splenda than the other, so we will see how it works out for when we brew this again next year.

Still haven't drank any yet since it has only been in the keg for a little over a week. Going to wait 2 more weeks until i tap it and pull a pint to try.

Jumping into this thread fairly late, so a couple questions...

Did anyone end up trying the lactose?

Have people been soaking the frozen strawberries in vodka or just going straight into the secondary?

And finally I'm going to be starting this beer up in the next few days anybody have any suggestions how to make the tart finish as mild as possible?

Thanks

i just had another one of these last night. the tart finish is definitely going away as time goes by.

How long has yours bottle conditioned???

since 05/12; almost 8 weeks. its taking its sweet ass time.

*edit* no pun intended there.

I did a similar brew about a month or so ago - basically a Northern Brewer Hefeweizen kit w/ 1 week in primary, racked on 7lbs frozen strawberries for a week and then another week in tertiary.

It's been in bottles for almost 3 weeks. Started out really really tart. Just tried one last night that finally seems to be mellowing a bit but it sounds like I've still got some waiting ahead of me.

matalec1984 said:

Jumping into this thread fairly late, so a couple questions...

Did anyone end up trying the lactose?

Have people been soaking the frozen strawberries in vodka or just going straight into the secondary?

And finally I'm going to be starting this beer up in the next few days anybody have any suggestions how to make the tart finish as mild as possible?

Thanks

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I used 8 ounces of lactose in mine. Boiled it and added it to the secondary on top of the strawberries. I pulled a sample last night as I'm about to keg and noticed only a hint of sweetness and almost no tartness. Tastes just like a strawberry to my friends and I. I'm assuming the lactose balanced out the tartness which was my plan all along. Note that I did use super ripe fresh Oregon strawberries (one of the perks of living here) so I'm not sure if my low tartness levels are more due to the lactose or the lack of tartness in the local strawberries.

After the fact I thought adding the lactose might be better timed in the keg as opposed to my secondary though as I'm sure I lose some of it in the berries. Anyone have any advice on that?

Also, I dumped 8 pounds of frozen strawberries into a grain bag and then siphoned my beer on top of it, just to answer your other question concerning how to integrate the berries. No sterilization at all. When I checked my fermenter last night (exactly 1 week with berries added) the berries were still perfect looking, not even white or possessing any off smells like others have mentioned.

One more thought/question for those who are more in the know than I.

I was planning to keg this today. Right now I'm at 2 weeks primary, 1 week and 1 day on berries. I saw a few people mention they let the berries sit for a full two weeks. Anyone have any thoughts on what this might do to the beer?

Right now the smell is perfect, the taste is definitely there but isn't anything close to say a lambic of course. I am making this so the chicks can have something to drink I'm curious if I keep the berries on for another week if it'd be beneficial on any level or if I stand the chance of adding more tartness.

Thanks for the lactose input. I've been going back and forth on whether to use the lactose at the last 10 of the boil or in the secondary with the berries. I may be leaning towards the secondary at least for this batch.

Hopefully I can get this beer going on tuesday and have it drinkable for the very end of the summer/early fall.

So I'm brewing this beer as I type, figured I'd share what my final recipe ended up being.

Grains:
8 oz Carapils
12 oz White Whear
4 oz Crystal 20

Fermentables:
7 lb Extra Light DME
1 lb Wheat DME

Hops: 1 oz Sorachi Ace for bittering
.5 oz Willamette at (30 min)
.5 Willamette at (5 min)

Extra:
Whirfloc Tab (15 min)
.5 lb Lactose (10 min)

yeast: WLP 029 German Kolsch.

Im going to be using 7 lb of frozen strawberries in secondary.


I am going to have to add the lactose during secodary cause someone just came and bought the last 2 bags at my store

I had the berries sit for three days and it turned out pretty good.You get the tart in the beginning but it mellows as you drink.

I racked over the strawberries and added my lactose mixture yesterday. I figure I'll give it about 3-5 days sitting on the strawberries and then rack over to tertiary. I can't wait to taste test.

This is an awesome brew. I made it and used 7lb of strawberries in the 2nd fermenter for 2weeks at 60F then moved to refer another week at 40F. Kegged it and added 1.5 oz of Extract. One of my new favorites for the summer.

In case anyone is curious, I did the recipe with 7 pounds of blackberries as well. I think I like it better than the strawberries even.

Bottled this up yesterday. Did a quick taste test and was pleasantly surprised. It had a nice strawberry nose but still tasted like beer instead of strawberry juice. More importantly while there was a slight tart finish it was very subtle and I think the 1/2 lb of lactose I put into the secondary really helped out.

Can wait to try the finished product.

Wish I put lactose in mine as after a few months, it is still tart, though seems to be getting better. Pulled it from the keg and bottled it up and hid it in the back of a cabinet to revisit it in 3 months or so. Even with adding 3 tablespoons of splenda, the tartness is there and it tastes slightly like strawberry juice. I used a Texas blonde kit from ahs and I think it was too light to rack onto.

I bottled mine on 6-8-11 and tried a couple at the end of June. They were good but like most tart. I tired one last night for the first time in a month. Holy cow the beer was SO much better! The tartness was gone and had a smooth taste. I would compare it to Abita Strawberry anyday. If you make this let it sit for 6-8 weeks and you wont be dissapointed!

I ordered the ingredients for this yesterday and will be brewing it next week. I'm really excited to give this one a go and I think SWMBO is going to love it.

So I did my official taste test yesterday, the beer is carbonated and I have to say even though it only bottle conditioned for a week it is extremely drinkable!

There is a light natural tartness (after all it is strawberries) but the lactose did a great job of mellowing it out. It has a a great strawberry nose and a distinctive strawberry taste (i agree with the Abita comparison's) but finishes with a nice lingering malty after taste.

I was expecting to have to give this at least a month to bottle condition but to be completely honest this thing is ready to drink. I'm guessing that the longer it conditions the strawberry flavor will become lighter, so if you are looking for less of a strawberry taste I would still condition for awhile.

Outside of lightening the berry taste a little this recipe worked out great. A definite summer time pleaser especially for those who are looking for a fruiter easy drinking summer brew.

How much lactose did you use? I brewed and drank most of mine and plan on making another batch

I only used a 1/2 pound boiled in water and I put it in the with strawberries in secondary and jsut racked over it.

My original plan was to use the 1/2 pound in the boil, but the store I work at was out of lactose. In the end I'm glad we were out because I think using it in the secondary worked really well.

I brewed this tonight. I ordered the ingredients from Austin Homebrew and the Cascade hops were 5.5% and the Saaz was 2.5% as opposed to the 7.5% and 5.8% respectively that the recipe calls for.

I did 1oz cascade for the full 60 min and 1/2 oz Saaz at 20 and another 1/2 oz at 5 min.

What kind of differences should I expect to see with the hops percentages being different? I figured that the strawberries provide the majority of the flavor in this brew so it wouldn't be a huge deal. Sorry, newbie question...this is my first non-kit batch. Thanks!

So this beer has been an absolute hit, so thanks again to the original poster....not only have the ladies enjoyed but most of my guy friends even those who hate fruity beers have given it a lot of love.

I have one issue however and that is over carbonation of sorts.

It has been bottled for about a month now and up until recently everything has been fine. However over the last few days if I leave a bottle in the fridge for more than an hour the bottle absolute explodes when opened. I know it may sound weird but if I give it less than an hour, or allow it to warm up first when I take it of the fridge it opens fine and tastes great.

I used the standard amount of priming sugar for bottling and have never had an issue like this before.

Thoughts? does it have to do with the lactose or strawberries used in the secondary?

So I'm still trying to figure out what has occurred that is causing issues with my beer.

I've never had an issues with exploding beers so I'm almost positive this is related directly to the use of fresh fruit.

The things I have come up with that could be the issue are...

The extra sugars from the strawberries that were put in secondary plus the priming sugar causing the beer to become way over carbonated. There really isn't any yeast to cause fermentation in the secondary at this point so is it possible that there is no much sugar in the bottles causing the massive amount of carbonation/exploding.

or, I used frozen berries but I only thawed them out and then put them in the secondary. Since frozen berries are "flash frozen" is it possible that the cell structure didn't break down on the berries enough and is causing a problem. And if so should I have thawed them out, and refroze them in the freezer slowly before using them.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, the beer was fantastic and its a bummer to have lost half the batch. I want to make it again but i would prefer to avoid the same issue

Here is what mine looks like at bottling. The color doesn't really come through. It's really red, almost like a red ale mixed with koolaid. It's also a lot clearer than I expected.

To me, it's pretty tart right now. However, I almost had to tie SWMBO down to keep her from diving into the bucket she loved it so much, so we'll see. In the closet it goes for 6 weeks or so.

Hi everyone!
I brewed this earlier this summer but wanted to post my version. It came out great and has been a huge hit with everyone that has tried it! Thanks to the original poster. We decided to try a Strawberry/Raspberry version of the brew, so used the same base recipe. We got about 4 lbs of frozen strawberries from a local farm store, chopped off the leaves and cut them in half after rinsing them all off. Put them in a freezer bag and stuck in the freezer. Also got 2 bags of frozen organic raspberries from Trader Joes and used about 3 lbs of them. After about 1.5 weeks in the primary, transferred to secondary (both were 7.5 gallon buckets) on top of frozen fruit.

Left the beer with the fruit in secondary for another 1.5 weeks. When bottling, I used a sanitized strainer to get all the fruit out, which had just floated to the top of the bucket and were a strange color. Then bottled. Here's a picture of the final product!



One note is that I wish we had done a tertiary fermenter just to get any leftover fruit particles. It really wasn't that bad though, the brew ended up being pretty clear with that pinkish tint. It was pretty fruity, but I liked the taste because it wasn't artificial. Even my boyfriend who doesn't like fruity beers enjoyed this. It came out at about 5.4% but you could not taste it.

Definitely a great summer brew with easy drinking. Definitely going to brew this again next summer!

matalec1984 said:

So I'm still trying to figure out what has occurred that is causing issues with my beer.

I've never had an issues with exploding beers so I'm almost positive this is related directly to the use of fresh fruit.

The things I have come up with that could be the issue are...

The extra sugars from the strawberries that were put in secondary plus the priming sugar causing the beer to become way over carbonated. There really isn't any yeast to cause fermentation in the secondary at this point so is it possible that there is no much sugar in the bottles causing the massive amount of carbonation/exploding.

or, I used frozen berries but I only thawed them out and then put them in the secondary. Since frozen berries are "flash frozen" is it possible that the cell structure didn't break down on the berries enough and is causing a problem. And if so should I have thawed them out, and refroze them in the freezer slowly before using them.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, the beer was fantastic and its a bummer to have lost half the batch. I want to make it again but i would prefer to avoid the same issue

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I had a similar issue with our brew, but I think it might've been unrelated to the fruit since there was a similar problem with earlier brews. I spoke with our LHBS guy and he said that it might've been since we hadn't been thoroughly cleaning our bottles that we'd already gotten the labels off of, just rinsed them with hot water. Not sure if this could be your problem but I had already thought it might've been the extra sugars from the fruit. We also used frozen fruit, not sure if that's the problem. Did you leave it in the fermenter for long enough? We did a total of 3 weeks, 1.5 with the fruit. Annoying problem, but if the fruit is the only change, it could be that. Hope you figure it out!

Yeah knock on wood, I have never had a sanitation issue. I've never had any other beers that have gushed or whatnot.

As far as my length of fermentation I left it in primary for 7 days, racked to secondary where I put the fruit and lactose in, let it sit there for 5 days on the fruit and then racked to a tertiary for an additional 2 weeks. All in all it had about 3.5 weeks of fermentation time.

I've spoken with a few other people and they haven't been able to give me much in the way of answers. It's getting old up here in New England so I will probably have to wait until next spring to try and figure out what the issue was.