Strawberry Blonde Ale

[Korben]

Update...just racked 5.5 gal off of the strawberries and into terrtiary. The strawberries did NOT soak up any beer!!!!! I got all 5.5 gal into the terrtiary. It tasted really good. I don't know if I can wait 3 weeks before bottling and then another 2-3 weeks to drink it! It is truly going to be hard to wait.

How strong was the strawberry taste Jason?

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

You can defintiely taste strawberry but it is not overpowering. The aroma is really strong though! Smells amazing. I think that after 3 weeks in terrtiary, it is going to mellow out a little. So far, it seems perfect.

I don't think I would leave the beer on the berries much more than week though. The berries looked pretty bad. My wife and son thought they looked moldy. There was no mold on them, for the record. They had turned a whitish-gray color though and although the alcohol may preserve them, I think one week is plenty.

 

[viking73]

So I bottled this and let it sit for a week, tried it and it appears that I picked up an infection of some kind. Has a funky medicinal aftertaste to it. Tried it again after a week and its still there.

I'm guessing that I didn't get the strawberries pasteurized well enough. Next time I'll use Oregon fruit...

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

That sucks viking! Did you use frozen strawberries? How did you attempt to pasteurize them?

I have had mine in terrtiary for 2 weeks now. I'm going to move it to the fridge and cold crash it today for another week. I hope to bottle it next weekend. I hope I don't have the same issue as you. I have been looking forward to this beer for a long time!

 

[weirdboy]

Did you use commercial frozen strawberries from the store? Some of those don't do the best job washing the strawberries, and use chlorinated water which you definitely don't want in your beer. Could be a possible cause of the off flavor.

 

[viking73]

I used frozen strawberries from Costco. And I only use bottled non-chlorinated water in my beer so that shouldn't be a problem. Sanitation isn't an issue, everything gets cleaned and sanitized before use.

I'm going to leave it for a month or two before I throw it out.

 

[weirdboy]

No what I mean is, they use chlorinated water to wash the frozen strawberries, which then gets into your beer.

 

[viking73]

Oh. That's different then!

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Update...After two weeks in terttiary I cold crashed at 46 degrees for 5 days. Brought it back up to room temp and bottled today. The aroma is still great and it has more strawberry flavor than I expected. I will probably test one or two next weekend but not expecting it to be complete for at least two weeks.

 

[kawickstrom]

Jason

How did you prepare your strawberries? I will be making a strawberry beer here soon and am following the succulent strawberry blonde recipe. As from what I read you just racked on to the frozen strawberries. Is that right?

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

That's it. I opened the bags of frozen strawberries and dumped them into my secondary bucket then racked the beer on top of them. The beer is really good. The strawberry flavor is a little strong but I have noticed that it mellows with time. I made some adjustments to the Succulent Strawberry recipe due to my LHBS being out of some items, but the beer is great. I think I figured out that if you make a really good light, blonde ale and rack it onto the fruit, it's going to end up good! Good luck