Adding strawberry to 'Leffe Blonde' clone?

[girdwood]

I have a Leffe Blonde clone fermenting right now, and I have a ton of strawberries we bought a while back and kept in the freezer... trying to clear up room in the deep freezer so I'm trying to find a brewing use. Since I already have a blonde in the secondary, I figured why not? From the fruit beer recipes I've seen, it seems that 3-5lb is average in the secondary. Here are my questions:

1) Should I add even put these things together, or do a completely different recipe?
2) How much should I add? I'm not looking for a strong strawberry flavor, just something a little extra (I'm thinking about cutting the batch in half and only doing half of it).
3) Should I puree them, half them, dice them, etc.?
4) At what point should I add them and for how long?

 

[reed1911]

Being frozen, they can be added with no other prep. I would not add them to the whole batch; pull a gallon sample and add 1/2lb to that gallon and see if that will bring what you expect. Often times the result is far from what folks expect. Generally using fruit you'll get lots of strong aroma but a dry essence of the fruit used since most of the sugar will ferment out. Add to the secondary and taste at the 10-14 day mark, they will turn white to off white in color.

 

[girdwood]

Thanks! I'll pull a gallon and try that, I'll post back with results.

 

[girdwood]

Forgot to update this. I went all out; 4lb of frozen quartered strawberries into a bucket and racked on top. Left for 10 days.

Best brew yet. Everyone loved it, it didn't last long, and the only other brewer that sampled it did it the following week. Highly recommend. It was not overly strawberry-ish at all, it was a perfect balance.