RobWalker
Well-Known Member
My brother's wedding is coming up next year, and his wife-to-be is obsessed with Fruli, so I'm thinking it's time to put this hobby to good use. It's a Belgian Wheat Beer flavoured heavily with strawberries. It's very frothy and very sweet, very light with little hops, almost tastes like a fruit smoothie and there's very little beer taste in there. Apparently the commercial version is 30% fruit juice.
Either way I'm starting with a standard light wheat beer with some strawberry fermented in there for colour. I'll be making 2.5 gallons and bottling.
I'm either going to make a pour-in strawberry syrup that will be added when the beer's poured into the glass (this is quite common over here,) or to backsweeten the whole batch with pretty much the same stuff and pasteurize. Both will work - the syrup's easier but not as good as a "finished product," whereas the pasteurizing method would leave me with something I can literally just pour.
This beer will need a lot of head retention too, which shouldn't be difficult with wheat - any tips for this? I'm thinking of adding in some honey malt too to amplify the sweetness a bit. I've just used heading powder in a recent batch of graff, and was quite impressed by the effect it had considering the ease of use. Could be good combined with standard ways to add head retention...
Further to this, hop presence should be very low, just a little floral. She's not big on beer at all and only likes the stuff that tastes like - well, alcopops really.
Any tips on all of this will be most appreciated. I've just found out I'm my brother's best man too, so I'd like to do well and make the best beer possible! Their wedding is in May, although I'm probably not going to take 2.5 gallons over to Cyprus with us. In fact, it'll probably stay here for their reception at home. maybe...
Either way I'm starting with a standard light wheat beer with some strawberry fermented in there for colour. I'll be making 2.5 gallons and bottling.
I'm either going to make a pour-in strawberry syrup that will be added when the beer's poured into the glass (this is quite common over here,) or to backsweeten the whole batch with pretty much the same stuff and pasteurize. Both will work - the syrup's easier but not as good as a "finished product," whereas the pasteurizing method would leave me with something I can literally just pour.
This beer will need a lot of head retention too, which shouldn't be difficult with wheat - any tips for this? I'm thinking of adding in some honey malt too to amplify the sweetness a bit. I've just used heading powder in a recent batch of graff, and was quite impressed by the effect it had considering the ease of use. Could be good combined with standard ways to add head retention...
Further to this, hop presence should be very low, just a little floral. She's not big on beer at all and only likes the stuff that tastes like - well, alcopops really.
Any tips on all of this will be most appreciated. I've just found out I'm my brother's best man too, so I'd like to do well and make the best beer possible! Their wedding is in May, although I'm probably not going to take 2.5 gallons over to Cyprus with us. In fact, it'll probably stay here for their reception at home. maybe...
