how to clean up a strawberry beer before bottling

[jhudson3030]

wasn't quite sure what forum to post this in but I figured this one would work. I have a strawberry blond that has been in the secondary about three weeks. I used real strawberries. When I add the strawberries it turns the beer almost pink and really cloudy from the fruit pectins. My question is, how can I get rid of the reddish pinkish color and also any tips on keeping the strawberry pulp out of my finished product. I've made this beer multiple times with excellent results on the flavor but now I would like to clear it up. Also when I bottle I always end up with a little bit of strawberry pulp in the bottles. I didn't know if anybody knew any easy/cheap ways to filter the pulp before bottling. I was going to buy some SUPERKLEER tomorrow but I thought I'd get some input first. Thanks

 

[Rotor_Head]

My research on fruit in beer suggests 2 things for the future; put your fruit in grain bags (assuming you put the fruit in during fermentation / secondary) and pasteurize your fruit just below 170 degrees to avoid the release of pectin. For right right now, you could cold crash it for a couple days and then just siphon above the junk in the bottom of the carboy. Late addition clarifier is not something I am well versed in.

 

[Rev2010]

^^^ Agreed, not sure what else you could do at this point outside of cold crashing. But yeah in the future it's best to use a fine mesh grain bag to contain the fruit pulp, also prevents clogging when transferring out of your fermenter and dispensing if kegging. As for the color, no idea there, I don't even think filtering would remove the color, but the question is why do you want to remove the color? If it's a natural thing and people can say "oooh I can see some color from the strawberries" why not just let it be?


Rev.