I'm new to homebrew (second batch in primary right now) and found a recipe I'm interested in trying (strawberry blonde). Part of the recipe calls for maserated strawberries. Anyone have advice on this part of the process? Does this just translate to adding strawberries to the primary? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
macerated strawberries??
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McGarnigle
Well-Known Member
Macerating fruits is adding sugar or booze to draw the juices out. Let the berries sit in sugar overnight.
I'm not sure this is common for beer. It's used for ice cream, where the fruit chunks would otherwise freeze.
I'm not sure this is common for beer. It's used for ice cream, where the fruit chunks would otherwise freeze.
What you need is for the cells in the berries to be able to release their fruity goodness and sugars. Freezing accomplishes this (as would crushing and possibly adding sugar), and you can get berries from the store like that ready to use. Now, if you were inclined to get really fresh about it, this *is* strawberry season in some places (like here) so you could pick 'em in the morning and brew with 'em in the afternoon.
There is a (small) chance you'll get an infection from the berries...either pour hot wort over them (normally a terrible thing to do), or hit 'em with some campden tablets the day before you add them to the wort/beer, or take your chances. I made a strawberry mead and didn't do anything, and it came out fine.
Typically fruit is added to the secondary so you don't lose the fruit aroma, but if the recipe calls to add in the primary, go for it. Depending on how much strawberry you add, you may or may not see the color change...the mead (15# honey, 12# frozen berries) came out a nice orangey color after aging (although it was mighty pink out of the primary).
There is a (small) chance you'll get an infection from the berries...either pour hot wort over them (normally a terrible thing to do), or hit 'em with some campden tablets the day before you add them to the wort/beer, or take your chances. I made a strawberry mead and didn't do anything, and it came out fine.
Typically fruit is added to the secondary so you don't lose the fruit aroma, but if the recipe calls to add in the primary, go for it. Depending on how much strawberry you add, you may or may not see the color change...the mead (15# honey, 12# frozen berries) came out a nice orangey color after aging (although it was mighty pink out of the primary).
bigdug
Well-Known Member
I used frozen stawberries in my blonde. If you use them be sure they contain no preservatives and are pasturized I could not find where mine listed they were pasturized on the container so I added a small amount of water and heated to 160 for 10 minutes.
+1 on adding to the secondary this will give you more aroma and color. Put your berries in secondary and rack on top. I have yet to bottle but so far my testing samples have looked and smelled great.
+1 on adding to the secondary this will give you more aroma and color. Put your berries in secondary and rack on top. I have yet to bottle but so far my testing samples have looked and smelled great.
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