Fruit Beer Succulent Strawberry Blonde

[Bluelinebrewer]

Recipe Type

Extract

Yeast

Wyeast American Ale II 1272

Yeast Starter

No

Batch Size (Gallons)

5

Original Gravity

1.058

Final Gravity

1.010

Boiling Time (Minutes)

60

IBU

15.4

Color

4.7

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

7 @ 68

Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

6 @ 68

Additional Fermentation

4 weeks

Tasting Notes

Crisp and clean. Nice strawberry flavor.

6.5# Extra Pale LME
1.5# Wheat LME
8 oz Carapils
.5 oz Cacade 7.5% @ 60 min
.5 oz Saaz 5.8% @ 20 min
.5 oz Saaz 5.8% @ 5 min
Whirlfloc @ 15 min
Wyeast American Ale II 1272
8 lbs, yep, 8 lbs, of Dole frozen strawberries
Priming sugar

- Bring 2 gallons of water to 160* turn off heat
- Steep Carapils for 20 min with lid on
- Top up to 4 gallons, bring to boil
- Remove from heat, add LME
- Return to heat, bring to boil, start hops additions as listed
- Cool, transfer to fermenter
- Top up to 5 gallons
- Add yeast



Fermented for 1 week at 68*. Then racked onto all 8 lbs of strawberries and let it set for 6 days at 68*, then racked back off of the thawed strawberries into a tertiary. I kinda got busy and it ended up staying in the tertiary for 4 weeks, that wasn't planned and I don't know that it's necessary. Then bottled.

This was brewed for SWMBO, who wanted a "very berry" beer. That it is. I wouldn't say that it's overpowering, but you don't have to try to taste the strawberry. It's very tasty.

Here's a little label I made up for it!

 

[Scut_Monkey]

Sounds good. Can you tell me, is the strawberry flavor like a sweet strawberry or more of a tart strawberry flavor. Just curious as I might try something like this next spring. I'm thinking frozen berries will lend a more sweet flavor than fresh berries.

 

[Bluelinebrewer]

You're right, it's more of a sweet flavor, but not overpowering at all.

 

[Scut_Monkey]

I like the label..... classic. I'm glad it's more of a sweet strawberry flavor. I was afraid to get a tart strawberry flavor if I did one. Cheers!

 

[Bluelinebrewer]

Thanks! Oh, I should warn you, MAKE SURE TO USE A BLOWOFF TUBE ON THE SECONDARY!!! I ended up with a strawberry volcano!!

 

[crypt0]

After tryign pete's wicked strawberry blonde i looked aroudn and stumbled on your recipe and am giving it a shot. I have a couple questions:

Did you chop or cut the strawberries before throwing them in the fermenter? I'm thinking of chopping them in a blender for 5 or 10 seconds then adding them to the secondary.

Do I need to be worried about sanitation when adding the strawberries to the secondary? Did you boil them or is being frozen good enough?

Thanks for posting, can't wait to try it out!

 

[bckyrdkid420]

After tryign pete's wicked strawberry blonde i looked aroudn and stumbled on your recipe and am giving it a shot. I have a couple questions:

Did you chop or cut the strawberries before throwing them in the fermenter? I'm thinking of chopping them in a blender for 5 or 10 seconds then adding them to the secondary.

Do I need to be worried about sanitation when adding the strawberries to the secondary? Did you boil them or is being frozen good enough?

Thanks for posting, can't wait to try it out!

Did you brew this? If so, How did the recipe turn out for you? I'm really intrested in trying this!

 

[crypt0]

I did, it's sitting in the tertiarry fermenter now. It will be kegged and force carbed next week so I'll post a review once it's ready to go.

 

[bckyrdkid420]

Sweet! Really intrested in hearing how it turns out!
btw... what color did it end up having? Did it stay gold or did it turn a bit pink?

 

[crypt0]

There was definitely a bit of pink in there, its hard to say how much because it still has a bit to go until its clear.

Also, i modified the recipe a little bit, i used 6 lbs of strawberries, since I wanted the strawberries to be more of a hint then extreme.

Actually one other thing is I substituted Breiss Pale LME since I had it on hand (as well as the wheat LME) and I ended up with an OG of 1.072

 

[DJherman]

I cant find the extra pale LME, could i use Northern Brewer Organic Light Malt Syrup instead? Im fairly new to home brewing so forgive the newbie question.

 

[skydog4884]

I am trying this recipe out right now. I modded it a little just because of what i had on hand.

I steeped 8 oz of briess 2 row pale ale malt

6 lbs of dried golden light ME
1.5 lbs of bavarian wheat

my OG was 1.061.
After 4 days my gravity was at 1.029 and I added 7 lbs of dole sliced frozen strawberries. 5 days after (March 1st) that it was at 1.014 so i moved it to a secondary to clear a little. I will probably leave it there for another week or so then move it to a keg. we will see what happens with this method of fruit addition. Any comments on my method let me know. i will put some more feedback on how it tastes.

 

[crypt0]

Well My beer is getting there. about 10 days in the keg so carbonation is happening. I woudl say its pretty good. I made some mistakes that I would advise against:

- I used breiss light LME instead of a extra light thinking it was close enough.
- I used Wyeast american pale ale 1056 yeast instead of the american ale II 1272, thinking it was close enough.

The result is a beer that looks like a PA. When you bring the glass to your mouth you detect the strawberries right away - it smells great. The strawberries are on the bitter side though.

Also, it seems this beer is taking a while to clear. I would brew it agian, but maybe use the gelatin technique to aid in clearing.

Overall though, not bad. Anything I didn't like is my own fault

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

So how did this turn out? I really like Pete's Strawberry Blonde and was wanting to brew a nice strawberry for the summer. This one sounds good.

 

[Turisops]

Looking good so far..had to use White labs California V WLP051 due to LHBS not carrying Wyeast. Wow that yeast is a slow starter.

OG at about 1.056'ish so far so good. Maybe its just a newbie thing but had a hell of a time getting a consistent OG reading because I sample from the bottom spigot first (as one would expect it was high, lots of solids settling out) then i tried to just pour in to a pint glass from the bucket hoping it would just mix well and give me a good average. but wow it was settling out real fast and again it would stratify in the graduated cylinder. Still not real confident i even got a good representative reading, but oh well i did it twice and made sure i shaked the sample and let the bubbles settle out for about 30 seconds and i got a consistent reading.

Got 2 boxes of fresh strawberries at Costco 4.99 for 4 lbs so got those cut up in the freezer..
Should be fun Cheers all

 

[jimmywit]

Do you think I can add the straberries right into the fermenter after 7 days, and then rack off into a secondary in another week?

 

[crypt0]

I have to say after his beer has aged out a bit more the strawberry flavor has really mellowed nicely into the beer. Every bottle seems to get better.

 

[jgln]

So where are the succulents? The Cacti? The Cactus?

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Brewed this today, cooling it down now. Had to make a few changes due to "out of stock" issues. I used 7 lbs of Pale LME in lieu of extra light and used Safale S-05 in lieu of Wyeast 1272. Can't wait to try this beer! Thanks for the recipe. I'll update later.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Racked onto 8 lbs of frozen strawberries yesterday! I added the strawberries to the bucket before racking the beer. Good thing I went with a 6.5 gal bucket AND added the beer after the fruit. I didn't think about the increased volume. Now my question is, for anyone that has brewed this, how much of the beer are the strawberries going to absorb? When I rack into terttiary this coming weekend, how much can expect to actually transfer? I typically get 48-54 bottles out of 5 gal brew. Kind of wondering if this will be more like 40-46. Will strawberries suck up that much liquid?

 

[Korben]

Always seen Pete's never tried it though. I love Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager. How would the Pete's and this beer compare to the Abita.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Always seen Pete's never tried it though. I love Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager. How would the Pete's and this beer compare to the Abita.

I've never ttried the Abita so I can't answer that. The Pete's is great though!

I think I'm going to leave this one on the strawberries a while longer than the 1 week the recipe calls for. I found another thread on here about strawberry blondes and a couple of guys say they leave it on the berries for 3 weeks. And since both of my Better Bottles have beer in them, and I'm out of bottles, I can just leave this on the berries, in the bucket, until I can get one of the others bottels!

 

[Korben]

Since this thread seems to be the most active strawberry brew thread how would this brew from AHS compare: AHS Strawberry Lager

I was thinking with the added flavoring. One could brew this and possibly rack it to secondary on about 3-5 lbs of berries for a week then then to tertiary to clear and bottle.

Also, three weeks on the berries seems long to me and I base that on absolutely nothing. Don't strawberries typically go bad at about 1 week. I know they are submerged but still seems long.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I agree that 3 weeks seems long, but I have seen it on one of the other strawberry threads. My problem is that I am out of bottles and empty Better Bottles. I have nothing to rack into except 6.5 gal buckets and I hate to rack 5 gal of beer into a 6.5 gal bucket with all that head space. So I may not have a choice but to leave it in secondary on the berries for another week at least.

 

[skydog4884]

when i brewed this beer i added the strawberries to primary after a week. about a week and half later i moved to a secondary without strawberries. I added the strawberries to the original which was in a bucket and then when i went to take it off all of the strawberries were sitting on the top in kind of a mush type of substance. so i used my strainer and scooped them out and let the beer drain back into the bucket a little before i dumped the strawberries. the beer tasted wonderful and the women LOVE it. i can even drink it and enjoy it. enjoy

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

when i brewed this beer i added the strawberries to primary after a week. about a week and half later i moved to a secondary without strawberries. I added the strawberries to the original which was in a bucket and then when i went to take it off all of the strawberries were sitting on the top in kind of a mush type of substance. so i used my strainer and scooped them out and let the beer drain back into the bucket a little before i dumped the strawberries. the beer tasted wonderful and the women LOVE it. i can even drink it and enjoy it. enjoy

Added the strawberries TO the beer. Interesting. I never even though about that. I just kind of assumed that racking ONTO the strawberries would be the way to go.

I broke down and bought 4 cases of bottles today. So I will bottling everything that's in secondary this weekend. Then I will be able to rack off of the strawberries and into terrtiary. I'm going to leave it for about 4 weeks before I bottle it.

Can't wait to try it.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Update...racked off of the strawberries into terrtiary this morning. The berries did NOT soak up any beer. I got all 5.5 gal. The color is golden with a hint of pink. The aroma is amazing and it tastes great! It is going to be very hard to wait on this one. My plan is 3 weeks in terrtiary and then bottle. 2-3 weeks after that I should be drinking it. Six weeks is going to be a LONG wait!

 

[bckyrdkid420]

thinking of trying this recipe this weekend...

Jason, can you write your fermentation schedule again. (ie: how long in primary, secondary, etc..) and any other info you might think would be helpful. This is gonna be my first fruit brew, so kind of intimidated...

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

thinking of trying this recipe this weekend...

Jason, can you write your fermentation schedule again. (ie: how long in primary, secondary, etc..) and any other info you might think would be helpful. This is gonna be my first fruit brew, so kind of intimidated...

No problem. I followed Bluelinebrewers recipe for the most part (with a few ingredient changes due to LHBS being out of some stuff). I kept it in primary for 7 days then racked onto the strawberries. 7 days in secondary (in a bucket as well, 8 lbs of strawberries take up a lot of room) then back off of the strawberris into terrtiary, in a Better Bottle. I'm going to leave it there for 2-3 weeks then bottle for 2 weeks before drinking. It's going to be hard to wait. It tasted really good!

This was my first fruit beer too. I'm thinking of doing the same beer but with cherries. I like Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, but I'm not sure I would want 5 gal of it, so we'll see.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Update...After 2 weeks in terrtiary, I decided to cold crash it for a few days. I plan to bottle sometime this week. It's been 4 weeks at this point and I am getting really impatient!