Strawberry Blonde Ale

[hefehawk]

Here is my plan and somebody tell me if I'm going wrong. I want a sweet Strawberry Blonde without much hop bite or tartness (if ever one existed, LOL). I ordered a Texas Blonde Ale kit from Austin Homebrew and plan on brewing that this weekend. I will primary for two weeks and then rack on top of five pounds of frozen strawberries in the secondary for a week. I will then rack to a keg and force carb for two weeks at serving pressure.

Do you have to sanitize the frozen strawberries?

Do you thaw the frozen strawberries or just add as frozen?

Do cut up the strawberries or put them in whole?

When I rack on top of strawberries, do I put the secondary in my kegerator to halt further fermentation brought on by the sugars in the strawberries or do I just put it in my fermentation chamber at ale fermenting temp?

TIA

 

[CLMCHENRY]

I just bottled a strawberry wit. I used 5lbs of fresh strawberries that I had diced in to small cubes then put them in the freezer for a day. Then once slightly thawed put them straight in to the secondary. I sanitized the outside of the strawberry bag and the funnel and the rod to shove them through. Then racked on top of them. From what I have heard the alcohol will kill off most anything bad. Its been bottled for a week now and a sneak taste test showed promise of an awesome beer.
Good luck!

 

[AdamPag]

Sanitize a blender, toss a little vodka in, and puree. The strawberries are sanitized before they're flash frozen in most cases, never heard of an infection from frozen fruit

 

[hefehawk]

So you can't just add whole frozen strawberries? I would like to stay away from a puree cause i want to be able to remove them before kegging.

 

[CLMCHENRY]

I don't think there is enough surface area using whole ones, so the taste won't be as strong as if cut up or made in to strawberry soup. I went diced for easy clean up.

 

[hefehawk]

Ok, will dice them up. Thanks.

 

[Batonga]

How did it turn out? I brewed my first beer just a while ago. I did a strawberry wheat using fresh strawberries. I halved them and froze them before. When putting into the carboy and I had to cut each one more to fit, had no idea when I froze them how I would be using them... will keep that in mind for future. Will cube them smaller next time before freezing. I fermented wheat beer, extract/grain recipe for about 12 days, then to carboy on top of strawberries for about 2 weeks. Bottle conditioned for about 4 weeks total so far. First of the batch I dipped into after 2 weeks in the bottle. Distinct sharpness on back end. I may have picked something up when cubing the frozen strawberries into the carboy... not sure.

Nice wheat beer, way to many fermnetables still in it though. It continuously bubbles like champagne when poured. Nice flavor overall, good ratio of fruit flavor, not at all overpowering as a Covingtons, but not nearly as complex and subtle as an Abita. Will work on recipe and method, thinking about a secondary fermentation on strawberries... add a little of the primary yeast into carboy next time. Maybe even dry hop while in the carboy...not idea. But I liked where I started and will continue on!

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

A lot of people just put their strawberries in a bag, then dunk them in a solution of starsan for a few seconds, then shove that bag into the secondary. A bit of starsan isnt going to hurt anything, only help the yeast.

 

[sethcros]

I just went to Costco and bought 6 lbs. of frozen strawberries and dumped them into the fermenter and racked on top of them. The beer turned out great. It is definitely a strawberry beer, but it's just the tartness and the smell of the strawberries. It's my wife's favorite beer that I've made. I had gone to Costco with the intention of buying blueberries, but changed to strawberries since they were cheaper. I didn't use vodka or star san or any of that and it turned out just fine.