Recipe Critique.

[EPS]

Strawberry Ale
OG=1.055
FG-1.015
SRM=8
IBU=21
ABV=5.3%
YEAST=US-05
Volume=5 US Gallons
INGREDIENTS

Steeping Grains
1lb Honey Malt
8oz Carapils

Fermentables
3lbs Light DME
3lbs Light LME
8oz pure raw honey at FLAMEOUT

HOPS
1/2 oz Cascade (60min)
1/2 oz Czech Saaz (20min)
1/2 oz Czech Saaz (5min)

MISC.
1 Teaspoon Irish moss (15min)
1/2 Teaspoon yeast nutrient (10min)

Primary 10-14 days
Secondary racked onto 5lbs Of Frozen strawberrys with blowoff hose for 14-21 days
BOTTLING
5oz priming sugar (dextrose)
And add Strawberry Extract (IF NEEDED)

How does it look guys any suggestions? Thanks for any input. One of my first recipes not in a kit.

 

[daksin]

I'd cut your honey malt down to ~4oz, but you could go as high as 8oz for a VERY sweet beer, if that's your goal. It's powerful stuff. Apart from that, I'd say it looks like a very tasty beer! Let us know how it turns out.

 

[EPS]

I will cut the honey malt back some. I don't know how all these grains really work and what not. So i was just researching and kind of winging it. I usually have my steeping grains laid out for me in a kit. This is my first time putting them together on my own. But i really appreciate the feedback. And i will deff keep y'all updated. I hope this turns out 2 be a nice spring day beer!!!

 

[TahoeRy]

Looks good. Cut back the honey malt as mentioned earlier. I would also skip the strawberry extract. Your going to get that taste from the secondary addition. I would mash up those strawberries though either before freezing or prior to adding them. More surface area will allow for a better taste.

 

[AgentHubcap]

5lbs of strawberries for a 5 gallon batch is a lot. I have a similar recipe and I use 2lbs of honey malt for a 10 gallon batch. The honey malt will balance out the tartness from the strawberries after fermentation.

Here's my recipe for reference: http://hopville.com/recipe/1560601

 

[EPS]

Ok thanks also. I was thinking about adding the LME 2 flameout. And was reading this might mess up my IBUs. Anyone know anything about this? I don't want 2 high of an IBU for a fruit beer maybe 20-25 at the most.

 

[TopherM]

I would disagree that 8 oz of honey malt is "VERY" sweet. I use honey malt in almost all of my APA and IPA recipes, and I routinely use 10% honey malt in those. Even at 10%, the sweetness is not cloying, just firmly present.

However, with the actual honey you are adding, that's kinda a wildcard. Some honeys show up, some don't, and it's all about the florals that make up the honey, which is rarely controlled/predictable.

I would personally keep the honey malt around 8-10%, but would drop the actual honey altogether.

As for the strawberries, even frozen strawberries are notorious for housing Lactobacillus bacteria. It's present in almost all fruit and vegetable skin (it's symbiotic to the skin's health), and doesn't die off from freezing like wild yeast does. I wouldn't rack straight onto the frozen strawberries. I'd boil them for about 5 minutes in just enough water to cover them all, cool to pitching temps, then toss them in the secondary and rack on them. Seriously, there's about a 10-15% chance the Lacto from those frozen strawberries will infect your beer, but taking 20-30 minutes to complete a pastuerization makes it 0%. Worth it in my book. Also, 5 lbs of stawberries is NOT too much if you want it to show up. I routinely use 6lbs of fruit if I want it to be up front and present. If you have a food processor, or even blender, liquify the strawberries before you boil them. More surface area = more utilization.

Finally, the hop schedule is OK if you just want some neutral hops that won't compete with the strawberries and honey, but if it were me, I would use the flavoring and aroma additions as an oppertunity for hops that will complement the fruit and honey. My go to for a smooth, floraly/sweet compliment to non-citrus fruit additions is Centennial. I think you'd be much happier switching those 20 and 5 minute additions of Saaz to Centennial.

Hope that helps!

 

[TahoeRy]

Ok, I have to chime in again here. From my experience and from talking with a commercial brewer, do not boil the fruit at all. I made a raspberry brown ale and added the fruit to the last bit of the boil and the beer was horrible. It was astringent and sour and so bad I had to dump it. After talking with a commercial brewer at a brewfest in Colorado who had an excellent raspberry brown he noted that the flavors I experienced was from boiling the fruit. He is the one that preached to me to never boil any fruit. I will never make that mistake again and would have to stress to others what I have learned from that.

TopherM - I see you have a Raspberry Berlinner Weiss listed on your signature. Did you boil that fruit when making that beer or did you use an extract? I am just curious as I have tried the boil method and got a horrible beer once bottled. It was not infected, the flavors where from the boiling of the fruit. It tasted ok from fermentor samples and just keep building the astringency and sourness. I bottled it because I thought it would be great but just keep getting worse.

Maybe one way around this is to make a simple fruit glaze or homemade extract and add that to the fermentor. Here is one way that I found that might work but I have no idea if it would or not. An extract and glaze calls for more sugar so that has to be taken into account.

http://www.ehow.com/how_8333402_make-strawberry-extract.html

I could be wrong, but based on my personal experience I would stray away from boiling the fruit in the wort. Freeze it and take the risk as I do now or go the route of an extraction that might be more stable at high temps.

 

[TopherM]

TopherM - I see you have a Raspberry Berlinner Weiss listed on your signature. Did you boil that fruit when making that beer or did you use an extract?

I actually bought the canned puree that is already pre-sanatized. Those are pre-sanatized by pasteurization in hot steam baths.

You can also sanatize it by getting it over 160F for 15-20 minutes. That would avoid the tannin effects of boiling fruits containing pith/rind, like oranges/lemons/limes, etc, which I think it what you are talking about above. I don't think you'd get any astringency or sour character from fruits like strawberries/cherries/etc. either way.

 

[AgentHubcap]

I used starsan to sanitize my strawberries.

 

[EPS]

I was thinking about buying the dole frozen strawberry packages. And crushing them a little with my hand then put the unopened bag in the freezer for 24-48 hrs. Then pull them out dip the sealed bag in a starsan solution for a min or 2. Then cut the bag open with sanitary scissors and dump them right in though a sanitized funnel. Then racking the beer on top of them. What do u think?

 

[AgentHubcap]

You still need to sanitize the berries.

 

[EPS]

What did you just soak your berrys in star san for a couple min?

 

[AgentHubcap]

I put the berries in a hop bag, and soaked the whole thing for a few mins. Then I racked onto it.

 

[TahoeRy]

I was thinking of going the route of the sanitized puree's next time to be safe. That seems to be a good way to go without the worry of infection.

AgentHubcap - you soaked the berries in StarSan? Thats interesting. Did you notice any negative effects or off taste by using StarSan? I am assuming that you strained off the fruit and then added that to secondary?

I have heard of another method where you freeze the mashed up fruit then add the frozen fruit to the kettle after flame-out. That should drop the temp to around 160 or so (lots or variables there) to pasteurize them. I am unsure of how this would really work or how much flavor it would add but it seems like you would be able to use the fresh fruit and not have to worry about infection. Again not sure about it, just something I read.

 

[EPS]

Ya this is the same thing i been coming across. Reading and reading a 100 diff ways people do it. Seeing that this is my first fruit beer i'm worried. Don't know witch route i'll take yet. But getting the berries in water covering them to a 160 and holding them for 10 min seems pretty safe and the most full proof. Only thing i hear is about tannins with heating fruit and from what a gather there not good for flavor. But i have know idea what they are or what temp you get them at. Ill have to research this subject more i guess.

 

[AgentHubcap]

No off flavors from the starsan. Just pull the bag from starsan, let it drip for a few seconds, then into the bucket.

I would not boil the fruit or add at flameout. You'll end up with a hazy beer from the pectin.

 

[AgentHubcap]

Ya this is the same thing i been coming across. Reading and reading a 100 diff ways people do it. Seeing that this is my first fruit beer i'm worried. Don't know witch route i'll take yet. But getting the berries in water covering them to a 160 and holding them for 10 min seems pretty safe and the most full proof. Only thing i hear is about tannins with heating fruit and from what a gather there not good for flavor. But i have know idea what they are or what temp you get them at. Ill have to research this subject more i guess.

If you're really concerned, just pick up a 3lb can of puree. I've used blueberry and raspberry with reasonable success. Blueberry is a much more subtle flavor, though.

 

[EPS]

Well you convinced me. I have over star san stuff before. Had airlock water full of star san get sucked into the beer with never any off flavors. So hows this sound i'm going to freeze the berries. Take them out put them in either a 3 gallon or 1 gallon paint strainer bag and dunk them in star san for 3-4min. Should i let them thaw before i give them the star san dunk or just dunk them in the star san frozen? After that let them drain for a sec put them in the secondary and rack beer on top. Is that about right?

 

[AgentHubcap]

I dunked them in frozen. I don't think it matters.

 

[TahoeRy]

Very interesting. I would of never thought about using StarSan to sterilize fruit. I guess thats why we all come onto the forum, right. To get new ideas and share experiences. Keep us posted on how it turns out.

 

[EPS]

Ya i will most certainly keep y'all posted. I guess will see what happens.

 

[thisissami]

=

Ya i will most certainly keep y'all posted. I guess will see what happens.

Hey @EPS - how did that Star San soak work for ya? I'm gonna make a berry mead with berries that I've picked, and am thinking of sanitizing with this approach.