Strawberry Bomb!

[bullinachinashop]

Yesterday morning I prepared 8# of fresh strawberries with 1# of honey and added it to a wheat secondary.

I came home to a lid blown off and strawberry goo overflowing down the sides of the ale pale.

I cleaned most of it up and put the lid back on with out the grommet and air lock. Then I covered the hole with a SS pot lid and set something heavy on it.

This morning, there is another pile of strawberry goo running down the side of the bucket.

I guess the yeast are still pretty healthy!

Bull

 

[usfmikeb]

That's a lot of sugar, so it isn't too surprising.

 

[bullinachinashop]

Still @ 65 degrees after 2.5 weeks in the primary, I thought it would just chug along.

Bull

 

[smithnick0]

what did you do to your strawberries to prepare them?

 

[davefleck]

Be sure to let us know how that flavor works out. I've heard it is tough with strawberries to keep the taste

 

[bullinachinashop]

what did you do to your strawberries to prepare them?

Took off the tops and cut out anything bad, then I put them in the blender and pulsed them until they were lightly chopped. Then I put everything into a pot and brought it up to 180 degrees and held it there for 10 minutes. then I dumped it into the secondary.

 

[biochemedic]

Took off the tops and cut out anything bad, then I put them in the blender and pulsed them until they were lightly chopped. Then I put everything into a pot and brought it up to 180 degrees and held it there for 10 minutes. then I dumped it into the secondary.

It's a good thing you're doing this in a wheat, b/c you're going to have a lot of haze from the pectin...you might consider adding come pectic enzyme, but I think after heating the berries that hot, you may have set some of the pectin (ie, you got started making jelly, and then added it to beer...)

 

[SD-SLIM]

It's a good thing you're doing this in a wheat, b/c you're going to have a lot of haze from the pectin...you might consider adding come pectic enzyme, but I think after heating the berries that hot, you may have set some of the pectin (ie, you got started making jelly, and then added it to beer...)

+1 on the haze from cooking your strawberries....As for the vigorous fermentation as others said, that should be expected with that much sugar...if your lid continues to blow off, I would recommend not putting it back on for a few days, instead take a towel and cover the top...if you have a bunji cord or a large rubber band you can use this to make sure the towel doesnt come off.

 

[bullinachinashop]

I wasn't worried about the haze, I actually want it in this beer. I think it'll bring out some of the color from the strawberries.

The cooking or the strawberries was to pasturize them. I don't want a sour beer.

The seconary fermentation has settled now and I lost about 3 cups of the goo. I cleaned up again, sealed it, airlocked it and moved it up to about 68 degrees to finish.

This was an experiment based on Papazian's reccomendation to use only locally available items.

The other 1/2 of the split batch was done with WLP400, fermented @ 68, then a tea mixture of citra hops and corriander was added to the bottling bucket. That one is bottle conditioning now. It's a NE Ohio, Belgin style wit.

Keep on brewing!

Bull

 

[biochemedic]

FWIW, I don't think it was necessary to pasteurize the berries. I've added berries directly to secondary before and not had an issue with any infections. I generally do freeze the berries first (this helps break up the cell walls and release juice better -- I guess you accomplished this with the pureeing). I think the conditions of the already-fermented wort (alcohol content, and pH) prevent any issues with whatever might end up getting added. Also, if you are really concerned, you can pasteurize at much lower temps...you just need to hold the temp longer.

 

[bullinachinashop]

FWIW....

I cold crashed for about a week (lazy) and then kegged last night.

Wow! Strawberry Smothie!

The aroma and flavor really came through on this one.

This should be great, light and refreshing.

Bull