Adding strawberries

[kricks111]

I’m brewing a 5 gallon strawberry blonde. I’ve tried in the past adding 3 lbs of puréed strawberry to secondary and had a vigorous fermentation. The result was a beer that tasted like strawberry wine. I hate wine. I used safali US-05. How can I add strawberry without the wine taste? Can I cold crash prior to adding the strawberry and leave it for a week without much fermentation?

 

[Jim Gamble]

Being as I'm still new the craft, I've only brewed three beers, I would try adding less strawberries. Boil them down then smash and strain them and use only the juice. I say this because the last one I brewed I boiled, then added the boiled strawberries into the fermenter, then got chunks of soft, gross, berries stuck in the spout. Give it a try next time and see how it turns out. Good luck

 

[Calder]

I wouldn't boil the strawberries as you will set the pectin's and have a cloudy beer. Maybe in a wheat beer. I usually just heat to 150 F and hold for 15 mins to pasteurize.

That doesn't answer your question. I don't know what your recipe is, but you want a decent amount of crystal (if using extract) or mash high (if all grain) to ensure you have adequate sweetness to complement the strawberry flavor. This will also add some added malt flavor to the finished product too. Strawberries have simple sugars, and just adding them, the sugars will dry out the beer. When you taste strawberries there is a sweetness to them, so you need to make sure it is there in the beer to help get the full flavor.

 

[enkamania]

I add strawberries (puree) in the primary when fermentation is essentially done (like day 4) I also use a little extract at kegging

 

[helibrewer]

I’m brewing a 5 gallon strawberry blonde. I’ve tried in the past adding 3 lbs of puréed strawberry to secondary and had a vigorous fermentation. The result was a beer that tasted like strawberry wine. I hate wine. I used safali US-05. How can I add strawberry without the wine taste? Can I cold crash prior to adding the strawberry and leave it for a week without much fermentation?

Here's what we do at work. Ferment the puree in a separate vessel for about a week then rack the finished beer onto the fruit. We also use pectinase in the fruit while it ferments.

 

[kricks111]

Here's what we do at work. Ferment the puree in a separate vessel for about a week then rack the finished beer onto the fruit. We also use pectinase in the fruit while it ferments.

 

[kricks111]

How do I ferment in a second vessel? Pour a little of the wort onto it or use a different yeast?

 

[helibrewer]

How do I ferment in a second vessel? Pour a little of the wort onto it or use a different yeast?

No wort, just the fruit puree and yeast. Think of the fruit vessel as a secondary, you're racking the beer off of its yeast into the fruit vessel once it has completed fermentation. Cold crash after about 1 week then either bottle condition or keg and force carb.

 

[kricks111]

No wort, just the fruit puree and yeast. Think of the fruit vessel as a secondary, you're racking the beer off of its yeast into the fruit vessel once it has completed fermentation. Cold crash after about 1 week then either bottle condition or keg and force carb.

I know it’s been a long time, but do I use the same yeast as the blonde ale in the strawberry purée? or should I use a separate yeast strain?

 

[WFox93]

I've done two strawberry cream ales, both times, I took about a pound of strawberries for a 2 gallon batch. The first was a MR.Beer kit where I didn't read the instruction right and accidentally added extra crystal and pilsen malt (it was my third brew). the most recent was AG and I used a combinations of carapils, crystal10 and honey malts all right around 5 percent of the bill. To add the strawberries, I diced them up and soaked them in about a third of a cup of sugar for a few days, pureed, then added after one week of fermentation. Both times, the beer came out a very definitely strawberry, but also a very definitely a cream ale