Fruit Beer Belgian Strawberry Blonde - "Evil Charlie's Dog Drool"

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PhelanKA7

Relax? RELAX?!
HBT Supporter
Joined
Feb 4, 2010
Messages
995
Reaction score
103
Location
Indy
Recipe Type
Partial Mash
Yeast
Wyeast 3944
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.062
Final Gravity
1.018
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
19
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
21 days @ 68-72 F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
7 days @ 68-72 F
Tasting Notes
Citrusy with a hint that lingers on the backend
(EDIT: ^ Tasting note should read "Citrusy with a hint of strawberry that lingers on the back end")

Here's a crowd pleaser for the summer. The ladies love it too as I came up with it from toying with BierMuncher's classic SWMBO Slayer. I call it "Evil Charlie's Dog Drool." Long story behind the name which I won't get into.


charliesample.jpg


5 gallon boil
O.G. - 1.062 (OG is based on calculator usage. I never measured the OG when I first brewed it, being the second beer I ever made. Haven't checked it ever because I don't want to jinx a batch by getting too sophisticated. 1.062 does sound pretty close to the results I get however.)

beersupplieslabeled.jpg


Fermentables
* (1) 2.00 lbs Flaked Wheat steeped in for 60 minutes BEFORE boil @ 150F
* (3) 3.00 lbs Light Pilsen DME for 60 minute boil
* (4) 3.30 lbs Bavarian Wheat LME for 60 minute boil

Hops
* (8) 1.2 oz Willamette (4.7% Alpha Acid) for 60 minutes of boil

Yeast
* (2) Wyeast 3944 - Belgian Wit yeast

Misc
* (5) 0.50 lbs Dark Belgian beet rock candi @ the start of the boil
* (5) 0.50 lbs White Belgian rock candi (Yeah, I mix em. It's just what I do.)
* (7) 1.00 oz Sweet orange peel added @ 30 minutes of boil
* 4.00 lbs of frozen strawberries added to secondary fermentor before racking

Notes:
*Honestly I don't really worry about the gravity readings at this point anymore. I just brew it and it comes out pretty dang good every time. IIRC it's about a 6% ABV beer. Just make sure to do the primary fermentation with a blow-off tube or you will have a potential yeasty/grainy mess the next morning after brew day. Fair warning.

*Blanche the strawberries after thawing them properly. Blanching involves putting the strawberries into boiling water for 2 minutes or so. This has the desired effect of both pasteurizing them and softening them up to get them to release their sweet, sweet nectar.

*I typically do the primary fermentation for 2-3 weeks before racking to secondary on top of the strawberries. Then I let them sit with the strawberries in the secondary fermentor for a single week. This is a quick beer and honestly it is best enjoyed sooner rather than later. This is a beer for the impatient brewer. I have seen this beer be fully carbed after a mere 4-5 days after bottling.

*I use .5 lbs of the light candi and .5 lbs of the dark candi mostly for color reasons. Belgian candi is the same amount of fructose/sucrose no matter the color IIRC. Feel free to do a full lb of either color if you want to save money. Because I brew this beer on a regular basis it doesn't matter if I am buying 2 lbs of candi to only get 1 lbs per batch because I will use the left over .5 lbs out of each bag the next time.

Here is what the final product looks like:
2011-04-26_17-15-33_904.jpg

As you can probably tell, this is a hazy beer because of the pectins from blanching the strawberries. If you don't like hazy beers, don't bother :D
 
Interesting, I'm in process making something similar. I brewed stronger version (6.4%) of SWMBO Slayer with WLP400 and planning to rack my beer on top of frozen strawberries. Do you say 4 lbs is enough to have strawberry aroma and flavor in beer? Did you find that fermentation re-started in secondary? I was thinking to keep it really cool (below 40F) after initial ferment for the whole time to avoid secondary fermentation. My SWMBO Slayer turned out dry as is, so I'm not looking for strawberries to ferment out
 
Interesting, I'm in process making something similar. I brewed stronger version (6.4%) of SWMBO Slayer with WLP400 and planning to rack my beer on top of frozen strawberries. Do you say 4 lbs is enough to have strawberry aroma and flavor in beer? Did you find that fermentation re-started in secondary? I was thinking to keep it really cool (below 40F) after initial ferment for the whole time to avoid secondary fermentation. My SWMBO Slayer turned out dry as is, so I'm not looking for strawberries to ferment out

The strawberry flavor is there but not in a sweet candy sort of way. It's a little bit on the tart side, but not lip-puckeringly so. As I said in the recipe it is definitely citrus up front (ruby red grapefruit) and a swallow finishes with a lingering wild strawberry flavor.

Fermentation kicked back up very slightly after 3 weeks in primary and racking to the secondary, but only by 2 gravity pts after 7 days in secondary. And I think this was also likely due to the a fresh supply of oxygen to the yeast coupled with the addition of a little bit more sugar from the strawberries. I dunno. But no, I don't think the strawberries will dry your beer out. Oh, and another word of warning... After 7 days in the secondary those strawberries will look really gross. A very pale pink to white mass of what looks like brains or something equally gross. Don't worry. Your beer isn't infected as long as you properly blanched the berries and racked 6% ABV beer on top of them :drunk: (EDIT: Based upon appearances my first reaction to the sight was that mold had set in but it wasn't the case. The juice drains out of the berry and leaves it pale in color. The beer itself has a very, very slight hint of rose color if held up to the light but the strawberry juice doesn't seem to radically change the body or head color in the beer.)
 
Wow looks awesome, Im making this tomorrow (im sure SWMBO will like it) I'll be spliting it into 2 batches with half on 1 pound of strawberries and the other half on 2 pounds of strawberries to see if I can taste the difference. Any thoughts? I'll post pictures and tasting notes.
 
Wow this beer looks great! I've never done a partial mash and I had a quick question about the steeping the Flaked Wheat. I see in your pic that you have muslin bags. Can I just use them to steep the Flaked Wheat. I have a lot of them left over from the last brew. Also it says before boil so I should have them steep why it heats up? Sorry for all the questions. I really would like to try and make this over the weekend. Thanks!
 
Wow this beer looks great! I've never done a partial mash and I had a quick question about the steeping the Flaked Wheat. I see in your pic that you have muslin bags. Can I just use them to steep the Flaked Wheat. I have a lot of them left over from the last brew. Also it says before boil so I should have them steep why it heats up? Sorry for all the questions. I really would like to try and make this over the weekend. Thanks!

Use the muslin bags. Steep the flaked wheat for an hour or so at 150 <-> 154 degrees F. Then after the hour is up you can begin your boil after removing the muslin bag full of wheat.
 
Use the muslin bags. Steep the flaked wheat for an hour or so at 150 <-> 154 degrees F. Then after the hour is up you can begin your boil after removing the muslin bag full of wheat.

Thanks. Its in the primary now. You weren't lying about this brew being active! I made a few mistakes in the boil stage but as I have read just let it sit in the bottle longer and it will all work out. This beer was a good learning experience since all the other beers I made were extract kits. I cant wait to try this beer! :mug:
 
This looks awesome ! Will try it soon. I'm new, so please forgive me if this is a dumb question ... how much priming sugar did you use to bottle ?
 
Here is an All-Grain version of this recipe...

Grains
2 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct
5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
4 lbs Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L
8.0 oz Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM)
1lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)
1lbs Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)
1 lbs Candi Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM)

Hops
1.00 oz Willamette [4.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min 16.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [4.70 %] - Boil 15.0 min 8.2 IBUs

Spices
1.00 oz Chamomile (Boil 5.0 mins) Herb 12 -
1.00 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 13 -
1.00 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 14 -

Yeast
1.0 pkg Belgian Witbier (Wyeast Labs #3944) [124.21 ml]
(Make a 2L starter and agitate for 24 hours for best results.)

Mash In - Add 16.25 qt of water at 157.9 F to achieve 148.0 F for 75 mins.

Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.79gal, 3.29gal) of 168.0 F water.

Because of all the wheat malt, flaked wheat, and oats don't sweat it if you don't achieve good efficiency. I've gotten low efficiency (60%) and it still makes a very tasty beer.

Enjoy!
 
Just tried this after only 8 days bottled. This is going to be GOOD !! Great aroma. And a nice hint of strawberries at the end. Thanks for the recipe !:rockin::rockin:
 
stdywell said:
Just tried this after only 8 days bottled. This is going to be GOOD !! Great aroma. And a nice hint of strawberries at the end. Thanks for the recipe !:rockin::rockin:

Great! I hope you like the finished product. You definitely brewed at the right time. It's perfect for these hot summer days. If you do it again try it with the chamomile that I listed in the All-Grain version on this page. It gives it a nice, light honey-like quality on the finish. Next time I brew this I'm going to try replacing the Belgian Candi Sugar with a pound of Indian Jaggery. I'll let yall know how it turns out.
 
What is the proper procedure for blanching? Do I need to add salt to the boiling water. Also should the strawberries be completely thawed before boiling them?
Thanks!
 
What is the proper procedure for blanching? Do I need to add salt to the boiling water. Also should the strawberries be completely thawed before boiling them?
Thanks!

I've never added salt to the water and strawberries should be mostly thawed before boiling. Just enough so they aren't all rock solid seems to be enough. I usually let them sit out for at least an hour or two. This will make sure that your water stays boiling too when you drop them in I think.
 
Could you use a strawberry extract instead of real strawberries for this beer?
 
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