Roasting strawberries

[Wuggly Ump]

TL;DR: I roasted strawberries in the oven before adding them to the fermenter and I liked the result. You might want to try it, too.

Last June (2021) I wanted to make a strawberry saison. I had never brewed with fruit but after talking to other brewers and reading online about others' experiences, I was somewhat aware of the potential problems brewing with fruit, chiefly the difficulties of sanitizing it before adding it to beer (if you're not up for whatever wild stuff is on the fruit) and not getting enough flavor from the fruit. As an attempt to address these two potential problems, I decided to roast strawberries in the oven before adding them to the fermenter. I knew from baking with strawberries and other fruits that roasting greatly increases the tastiness of even marginal fruit, and I hoped that the heat would kill any organisms I didn't want in there. From looking around online and talking to brewers in my area it doesn't seem like this is a common approach among those brewing with fruit, so in case others might find my experience useful, here it is:

My goal was to end up with 3 gallons of strawberry saison. I took 3.5 pounds of hulled, quartered or halved strawberries and roasted them on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets at 350 F. After 30 minutes or so, I lowered the temp to 325 and took out the sheets after about 45 minutes total. I didn't stir or flip them while they roasted. I dumped the berries and juice into a sanitized bowl to cool a bit, and then I put them into a freezer bag. I froze them until the base beer was through its primary fermentation.

I brewed 4 gallons of 1.058 OG beer, mashed at 149F and hopped with Belma (8.6% AA) at 45, 5, and whirlpool. I added a pack of BE-134 and let it go. Once it was finished (a week or so later), I racked the beer onto the strawberries in another carboy and added 2 more ounces of Belma and let it go ferment week or so until it was totally inactive. I then kegged the beer (FG 1.002) and proceeded to drink it over a month or so. They didn't give the beer as much color as I had hoped for, but the strawberry flavor and aroma were very nice for the duration of what turned out to be a 3-gallon keg plus a few bottles. The extra bottles also kept the strawberry flavor and aroma for as long as I had them around, about 3 months (if memory serves). Next time I might make a lighter base beer and put more strawberries in for the color.

Now I'm not sure how much strawberry flavor and aroma was from the Belma hops, which I chose for the strawberry flavor descriptors I often see applied to them. I'm confident, though, that the roasted strawberries added quite a lot of what I was looking for. A bit before this beer I made an APA with just Belma to try them out and found the strawberry aroma to be there but quite delicate. What I had in the final strawberry saison was a much more noticeable strawberry flavor and aroma than what I perceived in the APA.

I'll attach pictures of the strawberries pre- and post-oven, as well as some of the process pictures in case you're curious. I'm eager to find out if anyone else has tried this approach, because I think it's promising for these and other fruits. My mind goes to peaches and pineapple as other fruits that could add a nice flavor if roasted before getting added to beer.

 

[Sammy86]

Very cool way of adding the strawberries! Never thought of roasting fruit!

Just FYI the heat does in fact kill any bugs...anything over 165 is almost instant if I remember correctly.

Anyway, keep us posted on the next beerxperiment!

 

[day_trippr]

Interesting. Would not have considered "roasting" fruit. Don't recall anyone ever suggesting that, either.
The hurdle is there's no reference/benchmark to hint if there's a win here or not, but if it tastes good, go for it

Cheers!

 

[superiorsat]

I always puree mine and heat in a pot to kill bugs, put tinfoil over the top while they cool, then add to the fermenter just before I add the wort and yeast. This is interesting alternative especially if it intensifies the flavor. I do 8 to 12 pounds in 6 gallon batch to get the flavor to come through but the color never really does. Hibiscus apparently if your looking for color. Fruit is crazy expensive so I'm down with a solution that will cut back the costs but it has to be natural as I can't stand anything artificial. Hmm. Roast then puree maybe so the yeast can have access to all of the strawberry. Saw a brewery in Sioux Falls that did a roasted cinnamon pineapple Neipa but they were out when I was there but my buddy swears by it.

 

[Wuggly Ump]

I always puree mine and heat in a pot to kill bugs, put tinfoil over the top while they cool, then add to the fermenter just before I add the wort and yeast. This is interesting alternative especially if it intensifies the flavor. I do 8 to 12 pounds in 6 gallon batch to get the flavor to come through but the color never really does. Hibiscus apparently if your looking for color. Fruit is crazy expensive so I'm down with a solution that will cut back the costs but it has to be natural as I can't stand anything artificial. Hmm. Roast then puree maybe so the yeast can have access to all of the strawberry. Saw a brewery in Sioux Falls that did a roasted cinnamon pineapple Neipa but they were out when I was there but my buddy swears by it.

I like the idea of it purée-ing the roasted berries. Especially if they’re hot you would be less likely to introduce any unwanted organisms. The freezing process did, however, break down the berries more than I had expected.
I think the next thing to try is to increase the fruit volume. While it looked like a lot fresh, I think another pound or two would have been better. But for the amount I put in I was happy with the flavor I got.