I was interested in brewing a Strawberry Saison. From what I've read about brewing with fruit - and especially strawberries - is that the fruit is primarily composed of fermentable sugars (fructose) - and so large quantities of fruit impart little to no flavor in the final product.
Well, Samuel Smith's figured out how to do it. Their Strawberry Ale is so overwhelming with Strawberries in the nose and in the flavor that it almost exceeds the BJCP's guidelines on what a fruit ale should be.
Now I want to go natural on this. So no artificial flavoring junk. The only thing I can think of to get as much strawberry flavor into this saison as possible is to complete get rid of the yeast. The only way I can think to do that 'naturally' is to rack it off the yeast. Once its off the yeast, filter it from a 5 micron down to a 1 micron filter. If memory serves me correctly, the yeast are 2 microns in size, so that should pull off all the yeast.
If worse comes to worse, I suppose I can add some of those tablets (I forget their name), that people use to kill most of the microbes in cider before they add the yeast?
For the fruit, I was planning on freezing the strawberries (since that imparts more flavor by causing the cell walls to burst). I was also planning on over rippening the strawberries as that seems to give them a sweeter, less bitter character.
I haven't brewed a whole lot with fruit, so any tips you guys can give me on maximizing their flavor while minimizing their quantities is appreciated.
Well, Samuel Smith's figured out how to do it. Their Strawberry Ale is so overwhelming with Strawberries in the nose and in the flavor that it almost exceeds the BJCP's guidelines on what a fruit ale should be.
Now I want to go natural on this. So no artificial flavoring junk. The only thing I can think of to get as much strawberry flavor into this saison as possible is to complete get rid of the yeast. The only way I can think to do that 'naturally' is to rack it off the yeast. Once its off the yeast, filter it from a 5 micron down to a 1 micron filter. If memory serves me correctly, the yeast are 2 microns in size, so that should pull off all the yeast.
If worse comes to worse, I suppose I can add some of those tablets (I forget their name), that people use to kill most of the microbes in cider before they add the yeast?
For the fruit, I was planning on freezing the strawberries (since that imparts more flavor by causing the cell walls to burst). I was also planning on over rippening the strawberries as that seems to give them a sweeter, less bitter character.
I haven't brewed a whole lot with fruit, so any tips you guys can give me on maximizing their flavor while minimizing their quantities is appreciated.
