Strawberry & Mango Weizenbier

[HPEtech]

I brewed this up using a Brewer's Best Weizenbier extract kit http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/1030 2013 Weizenbier Recipe.pdf along with 4lbs of strawberries, and 1.5lbs of mango.

Before starting, I soaked my fruit in cool water to remove bugs/pesticides, etc.. I then diced everything to small bits, around 1/4" square or so.. I followed the recipe as stated, except after termination of the boil, I added a small amount of chilled water to get my temps quickly down to 180 degrees. I added my diced up strawberries and mango, and covered the pot. I let the fruit/wort sit for around 20 minutes, and the temp was around 170 after this.

I chilled my wort to 70 degrees, funneled into my 6 gallon carboy, and added my yeast. I let it sit at 68-70 degrees for 14 days. FG was 1.011 @ 72 degrees, with a starting gravity of 1.050 at 70 degrees.

I bottled 6 days ago, and decided to taste this evening. Even though it's early, there was a good bit of carbonation.

The strawberry and mango aroma is very strong, but the strawberry flavor is more pronounced out of the two. The finish is very tangy and a bit sharp. This is probably due to the fact that I aerated the beer a little when transferring to my bottling bucket. I had to get creative to avoid having chunks of fruit transfer over. Even with my siphon pulling slowly, I had issues. Some of the fruit went to the bottom, but most of it was still up top. So, I ended up having to pour a bit through a sanitized strainer.

Overall, I'm very happy with the way it turned out.. The weizenbier was a very neutral base to add fruit to, and my wife is going to love this during the hot summer months.

 

[Jayslay]

Hmm, this seems nice. Sort of what I will be trying in the next week or two, deciding whether to go strawberry or raspberry.. Strawberries are cheaper up in Alberta right now.

Now you are tasting at 9 days, so my advice is to just wait another couple weeks. Your beer sounds like it is pleasant now, but I bet some of those sharp edges and tange will blend over the next week. I've found that to be the case sometimes.

For fruit beer you are racking, try and get a piece of plastic mesh/weave. Sanitize that and wrap it around your cane tip and fasten with something you have santizied. That should releive you of the larger fruit pieces that can clog.

Final piece of advice, drink this while its still young. You mentioned drinking it during the hot summer months.. now if you mean July that would be fine, but Im not sure that flavor stability will be there if you keep it for a couple months.
Thats what I've heard around here for wheat beers, low abv and fruit beers.

 

[HPEtech]

Thanks for the advice.. I'll definitely try a few things differently on the next batch. I'll let it sit for a few more weeks and try it again. This was my first experience with fruit, and it was interesting for sure.