Strawberries in Secondary

[the-adjunct-hippie]

I purchased 2 lbs of fresh picked strawberries and threw them in the freezer before brewing a batch of what I'd likely call a strawberry white stout. It's about 2 gallons. Instead of going with coffee flavors, I have gone on more of a vanilla route, though I may choose to steep some cacao nibs in secondary as well.

My question here is (and I've been reading a lot as well), what's my best course of action? I know it takes a lot of strawberries to make an impact, and I'm not really wanting a wine flavor from the strawberries. I've also read that it can be a major headache wherewith strawberries mold quickly and can ruin your beer. I don't want that.

I was thinking of pulling them from the freezer, hard chopping them (or leaving them whole, is there a big difference)? Then splashing them with a little vodka, boiling a large hop bag and then placing it in a sanitized bottling bucket and racking the beer on top of them. Maybe let them sit for a week and then rescue the bag from the bucket and begin bottling.

Yay or nay? Maybe I should try some pre-made extract instead?

Thanks all

 

[S-Met]

I'm trying something with watermelon that might work for you. I chopped the watermelon into 1gal containers. I added 1/2 tsp of pectic enzyme and let it sit overnight in the fridge before freezing the following day. 6 gal of watermelon in the freezer now, planning on freeze concentration.

Next weekend when I have time, I'm going to allow them to defrost 1/2 way reserving the 1st running, hoping for appox 3 gal. Then refreeze and repeat until I get about 1.5gal from my original 6 gal.

I was then going to use the freeze extract for a brew and/or cider. You could probably do something similar with your strawberries. I'm not sure that the pectic enzyme adds that much to juice extraction efficiency, but its cheap and I have plenty. I dont see a negative to trying under my circumstances.

 

[Biscuits]

I added whole and halved frozen strawberries to a recent IPA I brewed and the strawberry flavor is definitely noticeable. I added 1lbs per gallon.