I recently made a strawberry kolsch. I followed directions as usual. Kolsch sat in primary for 2 weeks before racking onto 6lbs of crushed strawberry. 2 weeks of secondary on the fruit, 2 weeks of tertiary before bottling. The beer has a distinct sour taste. It's not bad, just really not what I was trying to achieve. What went wrong? Did I need to sweeten it somehow?
Strawberry kolsch turned sour
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jekeane
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I only let most of my fruit beers sit in secondary for a week at most. If the fruit turns white it's done.
Sour if it is truly sour then I would suspect an infection from the fruit possibly.
The two strawberry beers I have done have been light base beers with about 1# per gallon and I haven't experienced any tartness our souring.
At this point I would think finding a quality extract and adding to your bottling bucket is the way to go. You can pull a few 100 ml samples and add 1,5,10ml to each sample then scale up for the batch volume based on what you feel is right
Sour if it is truly sour then I would suspect an infection from the fruit possibly.
The two strawberry beers I have done have been light base beers with about 1# per gallon and I haven't experienced any tartness our souring.
At this point I would think finding a quality extract and adding to your bottling bucket is the way to go. You can pull a few 100 ml samples and add 1,5,10ml to each sample then scale up for the batch volume based on what you feel is right
All fruit is more sour than you might think. After the sugars are all fermented away, the only thing left is the actual fruit flavors and the acid, the sugars are gone which removes the balance from the fresh fruit. To add sweetness back in, I recommend adding 3/4 to 1 lb lactose per 5 gallons. This applies to any fruit beer.
THIS ^.
But also, strawberry is a terrible fruit for beer - it imparts almost no flavor once fermented out, and even then the flavor is very fleeting.
If done right it's got flavor. I haven't done it with strawberries myself yet but I know many who have.
I have had some nice strawberry blondes and strawberry wheats. Not sure if they used extract or real fruit - with real fruit one probably needs to add metric ****-ton and drink it fast. But I also had tasted many mediocre ones. Here's what Mosher says in his Radical Brewing book:
STRAWBERRIES 1 to 5 pounds per gallon Strawberries rarely live up to their promise. The familiar flavor fades quickly along with the color, leaving an orange-hued, vaguely fruity beer behind. The best strawberry beers are those made in a light style, to be drunk in their youth. Absolutely ripe fruit is essential, which means you wont be able to use grocery store berries. Strawberries refuse to ripen further once theyre picked, so commercial berries, harvested when young and rocklike to prevent rotting in transit, arent worth bothering with. Unless you can get out in the fields and pick them yourselves, frozen strawberries are your best bet. Use 2 pounds of fruit per gallon or more, and keep the underlying beer light. Serve it as soon as its ready, and drink it all up when its young; strawberry beer lives best in ones memory.
Randy Mosher (2004-05-06T07:00:00+00:00). Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass (Kindle Locations 6325-6332). Brewers Publications. Kindle Edition.
My buddy does a mulberry wheat every year. He boils down the berries with sugar to make a syrup and puts that into secondary. The result is delicious but very high ABV. I actually meant to make a strawberry rhubarb kolsch sourced from local farms but the strawberry season here in Iowa was cut short due to weather. Now I'm glad I didn't, the tartness of this brew as is with rhubarb would've been undrinkable. Oh, well. Great advice and I'll give it another go in the spring.
I have added strawberries to biermuncher's centennial blond several times. The results are excellent. I puree then pasteurize the berries and dump the slurry right into primary. 4-5lbs does the trick. When the sugars from the berries are fermented out it does give a tart slightly sour flavor due to the acid in the berries. The riper the berries the more flavor they lend. I prefer hand picked from a local farm when possible. I have also used the same technique for raspberries, blueberries, and black berries in various brews. To get the most flavor from the fruit you should put the fruit in a lighter beer. I prefer to use an American wheat or a basic blonde ale.
Great advice given here!
Also, since berries are mostly water, the more you add, the more you'll dilute your beer, so brew a bit higher gravity to compensate.
Also, since berries are mostly water, the more you add, the more you'll dilute your beer, so brew a bit higher gravity to compensate.
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I hate to argue with the experts, but i completely disagree with 95% of Mosher's statement. Ive been making my strawberry blonde for many years, and so have many other people, with excellent results. Kegged or bottled, i've never had the flavor dissapate. 8lbs of strawberries per 5 gal batch is perfect. I will also say that frozen berries are a terrible idea. They are loaded with artificial coloring. Want pink beer? Use frozen berries. I buy fresh, straight from the grocery store. Freeze them a day or two before i need them, And add them to secondary. Then rack the beer on top of them. After a week, rack the beer to tertiary. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=2867396
I love to argue with experts.
In this case it appears to me that you are more the expert than Mosher. Well done.
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hahahahaha
