Fruit Beer Succulent Strawberry Blonde

I save one beer from every batch, stick in the back of the closet and pull it out a year after bottling. I tried last years Strawberry Blonde the other day. After one year, it was amazing! Maybe better the remainder of the batch. So I defintely agree that aging is a key factor.

 

How would one go about stabilizing and sweetening? Lactose?

 

Just racked to tertiary with gelatin. Ended up at 1.009 from about 1.060. Immediately dropped it into the keezer to cold crash. How long until I should keg? I'm thinking at least a week. Thoughts?

 

Just cracked this one after ~3 months in my beer fridge. It tastes as good as it looks!

 

Looks just like I remember it!! I may have to break out the equipment and brew this one again as my "back to brewing" beer!

 

Come on! Get to brewing again! I may have kept it alive, but the inspiration was all you. Now brew some damn beer Blue!!!

 

You sure have!! Thanks!! I still can't believe this beer had such a good response!! Ok, you've inspired me. Lol. I'm breaking out the ol brew equipment and brewing your AG version of this! Hmmm... Better do some reviewing so I don't screw it up! Meh, I'm sure its like riding a bike...

 

Glad to hear it! Im sure it will all come flooding back once you begin! And if not, rdwhahb hahahahaha.

Btw, Im brewing tomorrow!

 

I brewed this a couple of months ago. Make sure you give this one time to develop. It was really good after being kegged for a couple of weeks, and luckily I didn't drink it too fast; by the time it was gone, it had a very smooth and full mouthfeel, and it was almost "creamy." This just got better and better, and I was really sad when it was gone. I'm posting here now because I'm gonna brew another batch really soon! Thanks again for this great recipe!

Pic from when I put the last batch in the secondary.

-Josh

 

I'm reading a fair amount of "tart" finish from this. A few questions (I've read through 160 posts, but admittedly not all posts in the thread).

Has anyone sweetened the recipe with some crystal or honey malt? I've had great luck with 10% or so honey malt leaving nice sweetness.

Also, has anyone made this into a pale ale? I'm wondering how the strawberries (tart, even) would work with a somewhat bitter beer, perhaps a nice neutral hop like Nugget, Willamette or a noble hop? You could even go citrusy and have a nice citrus/strawberry V8 Splash type flavor?

Considering making this for a Spring Beer Competition coming up very soon.

 

Has anyone tried this at 52F with lager yeast? Thoughts? I may give it a whirl with Wyeast Urquell.

 

I had this in my primary for a week and the airlock never bubbled. I was a little worried, but the gravity dropped from 1.058 to 1.026 after the first 4 days, so obviously it was working... Racked onto 7lbs of strawberries after a week (wish I'd of used a bucket, but all I had ready was a carboy). Within a few hours I had a strawberry volcanoe, blew the top right off.

 

Some time constraints have put me in a pickle with this brew. Today I am scheduled to go to tertiary, but I won't be able to get it out of the tertiary for about 8 weeks. Should I go ahead and just keg it from the secondary (it's in with the strawberries right now)? Which would be the least damaging for this brew? Thanks.

-Wolf

 

You would have no problems letting it sit for 8 weeks in tertiary. However, if I was kegging this beer, I would absolutely skip a step and rack it to the keg. You are going to force carb it anyway, I assume, so as long as it is airtight, I would say you are good to go.

 

Yep, I'll be force carbing, but I won't have it on gas the whole time I'm away. I'll just keg it, purge it, and give it a healthy shot of CO2 before I leave, and then I'll just keep it in my ferm chamber so the temp won't fluctuate too much. Thanks for your input, WildGinger!

 

That will work. I juat got my kegging system and for the beers i will secondary (or tertiary) i plan to do it directly in the keg and eliminate a step. Good luck. Safe travels!

 

I second the straight to keg option. Or keep in tertiary. Obviously just don't keep it on the strawberries that long. When I made this batch, it would have really benefited from a longer holding phase perhaps in a tertiary or in my keg for a few weeks or months to kill some tartness. But I drank it all. Hope you enjoy!

 

My OG was 1.058, spent 7 days in primary, then 7 days in secondary (w/berries), and now 2 full weeks in tertiary. For the last 2 weeks my gravity has been 1.017... gonna give it one more week, maybe 2, before I bottle... gravity just seems high. Anyone else have a FG this high?

 

My OG was 1.052 and finished at 1.010. It only spent 8 days in primary at about 65* and 7 in secondary at about 70* with the strawberries. Turned out great. Made the mistake of letting people taste it. Now it is disappearing very quickly.

 

I did a variation of this. I did a redhook blonde extract recipe I have done before that my wife thoroughly enjoyed so figured I'd brew it again and rack it onto the strawberries. Should turn out nice. Here's the extract I did.

6lbs Light LME
1lb Honey
8oz Flaked Barley
1oz Tettnanger - 60 min addition
Edme Dry Yeast

It has been in the primary for a week today. I'll be racking it onto the strawberries next weekend. I keg so I'll be skipping the tertiary step and just letting it clear up and carb in the keg.

I wanted to do the original recipe as is, but my LHBS looked at the recipe and said it would be a lot higher than the 1.060 range. Not sure why they said that...and then I believed them on top of that. I wanted a sessionable beer for my wife. After doing some of my own calculations, the 8lbs of LME in the original recipe calculates right out to the 1.060 range. So, I think the LHBS were smoking the good stuff that day. Anyways, I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

I may actually do the All Grain version next time. I was limited on time this round so wanted a quick brew so went with the extract. My wife is super excited for this brew regardless.

 

Is it better to add the strawberries frozen or thawed? I think thawed then funnel it to a carboy. Thoughts? Or should I primary 1 week then add them to primary for another week. Then secondary?

 

I did a ton of research on that exact issue. There were so many ways people did it and I am pretty sure all had the same results. I sanitized a couple plastic containers/lids cut the tops of the strawberries,cut them into thirds, froze them, thawed them and added to secondary for one week. I have only made this once but It came out just as I had hoped. I only used 5lbs also and I am glad I didn't use more. Also I sanitized my hands and just shoved them in the carboy.

 

Yea sounds good. Just don't know why you would rack on to them when you can add to primary. Interesting. But... If they are thawed then mashed into secondary through a funnel then it would be easier.

 

Just my $0.02, but when i developed the AG version of this, i was still in the "get the beer off the trub as fast as possible" stage of brewing. I dont secondary most of my beers anymore. I always rack this one to secondary, however. Something about dumping berries into all of the trub doesnt sit well with me. Thats the crap i'm trying to keep out of my beer by racking it two different times. That being said, i usually leave it in primary for 10-14 days before racking to a bucket. Berries always frozen. 7 or so days on berries then to terrtiary, which from now on will be a keg since i am now kegging. Good luck. This beer is great!

 

Sounds like I got a good answer. So I will primary, then rack on top of frozen berries, then secondary. Thx for the info. Really looking to this cause it's my next batch.

 

This saturday is my racking on to berry day. I'll leave it for a week then rack to keg. Do you guys that go to a keg instead of tertiary put it on gas and carb as it clears? or do you just cold condition it for X number of days/weeks before gassing it up to drink?

 

Just finished brewing this one, am uber excited about it! My OG clocked in at 1.062 and I can already tell this is going to be a tasty beer. Just put the airlock on an hour ago and it's already bubbling gonna ferment this for 2 weeks, rack onto frozen strawberries for a week, and then tertiary for another week before bottling. Man oh man I can't wait for 1) this batch to be ready to drink and 2) the warm spring weather to drink it in! 6 weeks and counting!

 

Today is kegging day for me! The bucket smells freaking FANTASTIC! I can't wait to try this. I won't lie, I probably won't let it age too much longer before trying it. Yeah yeah yeah, it gets better in time but this is too hard to wait any longer. I'll probably tap the keg this weekend.

 

I'm concerned about my batch- I'm still a newcomer to homebrewing and this was my first attempt at using a yeast starter. Not realizing that my fermentation was going to rocket off as fast as it did, I only cooled my wort down to 80* F before pitching the yeast. Within an hour of pitching I noticed the airlock was bubbling and the thermometer was reading 75* (despite the ambient temp being 66*). I was able to keep the ambient temp right where it needed to be, but the thermometer on my fermenter just would not drop below 75 throughout the entirety of fermentation. Now since fermentation it's gotten colder and the temp is sitting at 62... :/ my 2 questions moving forward are can I remain hopeful for a decent finished product despite my troubles with the temperature? And what are some good tips in helping me better regulate my temperature for future batches? (I'm already planning to chill my wort to fermenting temp before pitching my yeast next time)

 

75F is not too terribly high. Check the temp range of the yeast you used. You should be able to find it online. More than likely, it will be great. As far as controlling your temps, the obvious answer is a temp controlled fermenting fridge. If you cant do that, search for swamp cooler. It will help control your temps. Good luck.

 

The temp range maxed out at 72, so hopefully it will be fine. Now that it's done fermenting should I be too worried about my temp being ~63? I also really want to get a fridge for fermenting, but am also limited on space. I'm hoping to find a mini fridge big enough to fit a carbon and airlock, I'm thinking 5 cu ft might be big enough?

 

Yep. Should be fine. Once it's done fermenting don't worry about it. It's going to get really cold when you rack onto frozen berries!

 

Awesome, thanks for the support! Not to derail the thread but wildginger I noticed that you're from McKinney- that's where I grew up! Small world!

 

No kidding! Been living there for about 8 years now. I love it. It's gone from about 50K people to 150K in that short amount of time. Really nice town! Good luck with the beer!

 

So I got too anxious that I couldn't wait the second week to rack onto the berries; here's what it's looking like so far and needless to say I am incredibly excited about this one! It's very tasty and smooth without any noticeable fruity esters or high alcohol notes (which is what I was worried about) from the warm fermentation I'm also completely sold on using the yeast starter from now on, the beer came out so clean!

I am seriously considering expediting my purchase of a ferm chamber so I can CC this bad boy in tertiary. Been digging around on the forums and I think a wine cooler with a DIY ebay temp controller is gonna be the route I'm gonna go with that. When that's done the next task at hand will be making the jump to AG, for which I've already signed up for an AG brewing class that my local brew store is teaching at the end of the month. Man I am so pumped about everything, I can literally feel myself (and the quality of my brew) evolving!

@wildginger McKinney is a great place! It grew exponentially while I grew up there and has grown even more since I left (about 8 years ago, now that I think about it). I'm an original MHS graduate, but my baby sister is currently attending Boyd HS (which wasn't around back in my day...) Next time I'm in town we'll have to trade a few brews!

 

Looks great! My kids actually go to frisco schools. We live right on the border. But we know lots of kids in mckinney schools too. Next time you're up, definitely let me know. Beers on me!

 

My family is going NUTS over this brew. They blew through over half my keg in 1 night and there were only 4 people drinking it lol. Needless to say, this is a WINNNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER recipe that I'll be working into my normal rotation. I didn't follow the recipe to a T but rather used a Redhook Blonde recipe I have done in the past and racked that on to strawberries. However, I give full credit to this recipe as it spawned my interest enough to try it.

PROST!

 

Brewed this about a month ago. Primaried for 3+ weeks (out of town) then put 10lbs. frozen strawberries (from Sams) into primary (9 gallons of beer pre-strawberries). Left the berries in for just under 2 weeks. Here's my grain bill for 9g batch at 80% efficiency:

American 2-row 14.75
Honey Malt 1.5
American Vienna 1

Tettnanger 2.0oz at 60

US-05 repitch.

Cloudy, tastes great though. Tart but sweetened some from the Honey Malt. Next time I'm thinking of upping the Honey a TON to really give it that sweet taste for my wife...I like it the way it is but it's definitely more on the tart side. Very well balanced, easy to drink, OG was 1.051 and came out around 6% ABV, finishing at 1.006

 

Ok just brewed this last night. I changed up the recipe a little by adding 1lb of honey malt and using wheat DME. OG came out to 1.070. Will prob let this sit for two weeks and then rack on 8-10lbs of strawberries with .5-1lb of lactose for 10 days. Then rack again to clear for two weeks followed by bottling. I cant wait to try this once it is done.