Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde Clone

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jayhoz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
154
Reaction score
0
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
Wyeast Labs #1272 (American Ale II )
Yeast Starter
Yes
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.5
Original Gravity
1.050
Final Gravity
1.012
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
4.7 SRM
Color
4.7 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
7
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14
8.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 80.0 %
1.50 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 15.0 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 5.0 %
0.75 oz Cluster [7.00%] (50 min) Hops 17.3 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (5 min) Hops 1.5 IBU

Single infusion mash at 153 F for 60 minutes.

Strawberries: Heat 7# of frozen strawberries to 160F for 20 mins. Bring to room temp, place in secondary, and rack from primary.

* Made a mistake above which I can't change. IBU's = 18.8

The brew was very difficult to clear. Time, cold temps and gelatin finally did the trick.

After normal aging there was a tartness that seems to be typical with the use of strawberries. After a month or so this has mellowed. When compared to Pete's I would say that the color and IBU's are spot on. There is less strawberry aroma than Pete's and the strawberry flavor is less sweet than Pete's. For an exact copy I would say go with the artificial strawberry flavoring.

This beer continues to get better with age (as all beers seem to do). After 4 months the tartness is completely gone and the strawberry flavor seems to be part of the beer rather than it's own distinct taste.
 
I used to make a strawberry lager. Your's looks like a great beer. Definately but the berries in the secondary and the more the better. Frozen works well because the freezing ruptures the cells and lets the juice flow. With frozen I never worried about preheat.
 
I'm coming up with a Strawberry Blond concept myself and this sounds pretty good.

I'm not far off from this other than I may use a little more wheat malt, maybe flakes, and my yeast may be Wyeast 3068 to try and get that vanilla and banana touch in there. Also my base would be Pale DME, and keep the rest status quo, making it a PM.

Also, keeping the strawberries that hot for that long may have been what nullified the aroma and flavoring in your brew. I have yet to add fruit to any of my brews but I would presume 10 minutes would be enough at that temp.
 
I just ordered a Bavarian Wheat Extract Kit from AHS and hoping to rack it onto strawberries for a Strawberry Blonde type beer. Hoping it will turn out well as I don't have enough patience during ordering for anything else but kits. Should I use gelatin to clear it in the secondary?
 
I just ordered a Bavarian Wheat Extract Kit from AHS and hoping to rack it onto strawberries for a Strawberry Blonde type beer. Hoping it will turn out well as I don't have enough patience during ordering for anything else but kits. Should I use gelatin to clear it in the secondary?

Since wheat beers are typically cloudy, there wouldn't be much reason to add a clearing agent to it. You should be fine letting it settle out in primary/secondary.
 
So if I add frozen berries will they already be sanitized or pasteurized? Can I just let them thaw to room temp and dump them in the secondary?
 
Bump...

I'm trying to do my due diligence here in researching this... I have a kit for a Summer Ale, that we plan to infuse with fresh local organic strawberries.

What I DON'T want, is for the strawberries to spoil the whole batch, like with wild yeasts or bacteria or fungus or whatever other crap could be in there.

If they go in the secondary, the sugars in them will just ferment anyways right? So my question is... Why can't you wash them thoroughly, then add them to the last 10 minutes of the boil? Would this totally kill the strawberry flavor and/or aroma?

I bought a bottle of the artificial crap, but I'd honestly like to do it with fresh local stuff, if nothing else just to say they're fresh local strawberries. I figure if worse comes to worst, we could just add artificial stuff to it at bottling, adding slowly to taste.

Thoughts?
 
Well, you'll be boiling off a lot of the fresh fruit flavor. Additionally you'll be setting the pectin, causing a permanent haze in your beer. I have heard that adding fruit at flameout (right when you kill the heat to the kettle) and letting it sit for ~30-45 mins. pasteurizes the fruit, reduces the risk of extracting pectins and still preserves the fruit flavor. YMMV. The one fruit beer I have brewed, I added at secondary.
 
Well, you'll be boiling off a lot of the fresh fruit flavor. Additionally you'll be setting the pectin, causing a permanent haze in your beer. I have heard that adding fruit at flameout (right when you kill the heat to the kettle) and letting it sit for ~30-45 mins. pasteurizes the fruit, reduces the risk of extracting pectins and still preserves the fruit flavor. YMMV. The one fruit beer I have brewed, I added at secondary.

Thanks for the tip. As for the haze, that's not a problem at all... It's going to be called 'Hazed and Infused' Strawberry Summer Ale.

Yes, I know the name is stolen. Dazed and Confused is perhaps her favorite move of all time (and it makes me sick to think that it's almost 20 years old!).

What do you think about adding some at various stages in the boil... maybe 2lbs at :30, 2lbs at flameout, and 6 or so lbs into the secondary. (7 gallon batch). If that doesn't do it... I can always add the artificial a little at a time, but I don't think that'll be necessary.

My main concern was having fresh fruit contaminate the beer. Good procedure would be to wash them, dice them up, and gently simmer them for say 10 minutes? Then drop that in the empty secondary, and rack the primary on top of it?
 
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