Fruit Beer Succulent Strawberry Blonde

[wolverinebrewer]

Just as an FYI, I brewed up BM's Centennial Blond and racked onto 4 lbs. of frozen strawberries and was disappointed. It's been in bottles now for 5 weeks but it's just too tart. I think the reason is that the strawberries were not quite ripe enough. You know when you buy them in the store a lot of times they are pink and sometimes have the white tip. I think that's what happened in my case. I used Costco berries and strawberries are one fruit that does not ripen more once picked. I think that if I did this again, I would pick my own berries during picking season to make sure I get the ripeness to help sweeten it up a little. Just my $.02.

 

[pwndabear]

just racked onto 5lb strawberries. definitely more than i thought they were gonna be. also chose to use a bucket instead as fitting all those strawberries into a carboy seems like tedious work (1 by 1). FG too high (1.022) but then again so was my OG.

*EDIT* - One thing I might recommend to people trying this recipe is putting the strawberries into a paint strainer bag or something of the like so as to be able to easily remove the strawberries and get as much out of them as you can. Haven't seen that anywhere in this thread but noticed it in the Strawberry Alarm Clock AG thread. Oh well, I personally didn't do it because I didn't think of it beforehand. HAPPY BREWING!

*EDITEDIT* PICTURES!!!

 

[BlueZooBrewing]

For those who have commented on the lack of clarity in this one, i used the knox geletin method mentioned in other threads and it worked perfectly and was super easy. My first batch i tried secondary, cold crashing, and kc finings. All three didnt clear it up half as well as a week with gel.

 

[NWAleDad]

I transferred this last night onto the berries and all looks good so far. One question, has anyone ran seen fermentation activity in the secondary? I'm not really worried about fermentation at this point. I’m mainly worried about enough yeasties for carbonation. I'm fairly new to brewing and this is my 4th batch.

 

[pwndabear]

there'll be enough yeast. rdwhahb!

 

[pwndabear]

so my fermentation schedule was way different than what i initially postes i realize. i actually let this brew sit in the primary for 3 weeks to completely finish up. i then racked it onto the strawberries for a week and just last night i racked into the tertiary where it will sit for a week until I bottle it. Thought i'd clarify on that.

The strawberries definitely turned into a nasty white color (kinda like how E.T. looked when he was laying almost dead in the bathroom) but i didnt notice any off smells or anything like that. In taking off the lid of the bucket, I would have thought the smell would be more strawberry-y but definitely fell short of that expectation--then again, im thinking that most of the strawberry essense and aroma was taken into the beer as when it was racking, the beer definitely gave of a sweet smell. I also did not see one tiny blip of fermentation once the beer was on the strawberries. Im thinking with the "strawberry volcano" that happened to someone else was due to an incomplete fermentation.

It's currently sitting in the tertiary with way too much headroom but after i put it in there, the airlock bubbled for a few minutes which tells me there is a thin layer of CO2 on top of the beer. no worries here.

will post tasting notes once i crack a bottle open in a few weeks

 

[nootay]

i plan on brewing this tomorrow. i just read through the whole thread and it seems like half the people add the strawberries to primary, half to secondary. anyone done it both ways with comments?

 

[pwndabear]

i personally would not do the strawberries in the primary as i want the beer to finish actually fermenting first and then work on taking in the strawberries (ie. do your homework first before playing). Thats just my take on it.

In reading the thread through a few times, it seems to me like most people use the berries in the secondary which just makes the most sense to me. the best tips i can give it to 1) us a bucket for secondary as the open top makes life very easy, and 2) use a sanitized paint strainer bag with the strawberries so when it comes time to tertiary, you can simply slowly lift the strawberries out of the bucket and get as much beer of out them as possible. Strawberries don't soak up any liquid per say but you won't be able to get ALL of your beer as it will want to hide in the cracks between the berries if you rack with all the berries in the bucket..

 

[nootay]

good deal thats what ill do. thanks!

 

[BlueZooBrewing]

Just to clarify, I (and i think at least a few of the others who put the strawberries in the primary) dont put the strawberries in right from the start, I add them after the first 4-5 days once the yeast has done its heavy lifting and is starting to clean up and settle. I pop off the lid, throw in the strawberries (i like the strainer bag idea and will try that next time), re-sanitize the lid, and pop it back on. Give it a quick swirl, and set it away for two weeks. I then transfer to secondary, add gelatin, chill for three days(takes away all the cloud), and transfer to keg. Beer isnt on the yeast cake for too long, and having the yeast cake below with the strawberries on top doesnt cause any problems. I use a bucket with the BB racking adapter and simple flow valve as primary and a BB for secondary. With the racking adapter i just keep the arm inlet between the strawberries and the yeast cake and stop when I start seeing junk come through.

 

[smithnick0]

I am trying this tomorrow also. Using a little more LME, but everything else the same. I plan to let sit for 2-3 weeks in primary, then add 8 lbs of fresh halved strawberries that i freeze before in secondary for 1 week. I havent decided if ill move to a tertiary or just move to bottling bucket yet. Im going with 8 lbs of strawberries only because ill have 9 ish lbs of LME. Ill update too when its all done.

 

[pwndabear]

what does the LME have to do with the amount of strawberries?

 

[smithnick0]

im thinking with the more extract it will be a little stronger, therefore using more strawberries to get a more strawberry flavor out. I have no clue but just thinking out i guess LOL

 

[pwndabear]

just wondering. are you looking to counteract the alcohol with the strawberries?

 

[smithnick0]

not counter the alcohol, but make sure there is a strong strawberry taste in there. Any advice from your experience?

 

[nootay]

got this one in the bucket today. OG of 1.054 using the all grain recipe posted in this thread. also used safale us-05. will post updates as it progresses!

 

[smithnick0]

I brewed this sunday and my OG was 1.060. HAd some good fermentation for 2 days. Now wait to transfer to a secondary with the berries. I will try a paint strainer bag.

 

[pwndabear]

bottling tonight. well post pics of a pint./

*edit* absolutely lied about posting a picture of a pint. i literally had exactly 48 bottles of this stuff and i was not about to waste a whole bottle full of flat beer for a picture. i had a tiny taste and the strawberry is not very forthcoming as i only used 5 lbs worth of it. i personally didnt taste the strawberry but then again i was pounding pale ales so i wouldnt have expected to. girlfriend said she did. mine was fairly sweet as i ended up with a much higher grav than suggested.

 

[D_Nyholm]

I actually just purchased AHS Texas Blonde to try this with. Gonna put 5 lbs of strawberries in the secondary and rack on top of them for 1 week to see how it comes out. Have a party in late august that this would be perfect for!

 

[Tizzomes]

I ordered my ingredients the other day and was thinking about replacing the strawberries with apricots.Any thoughts on that, would this be a well rounded brew to substitute fruits?

 

[pwndabear]

i was going to brew this again with more wheat and cherries sometime in the near future so i would say it would work well with other stuff

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

In my opinion yes. The base brew is a very nice light blonde, so I would think just about anything you throw on it would work.

 

[Tizzomes]

Thanks, this will be first brewing attempt with fruit.

 

[pwndabear]

i think i would actually like to brew this beer without any fruit just to have something on hand for a lawnmower beer

 

[NWAleDad]

I'm going to bottle this on saturday....so excited!

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I brew my AG version during the summer for a really good "light" beer. I'm sure you could do the same with the extract version and have a great beer!

 

[BackyardHB]

Who do you sanitize the fruit? Will frozen work?

 

[smithnick0]

today is 2 weeks since i brewed mine. Next weeekend i will be adding 8 lbs of strawberries. Im hoping the extra week gets me some riper strawberries.

 

[NWAleDad]

Freezing works

 

[pwndabear]

i just bought a 5lb bag of frozen dole strawberries. worked out perfect as they are washed and then immediately frozen.