Fruit Beer Wild Strawberry Blonde

[pannell77]

Brewing this up today for the wifey, she keeps bugging me that there is nothing on tap or stored away for her to drink so I gave her the link to the recipe database here and said go pick one.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Good luck. Hope you enjoy it!

 

[kodyind]

7 lbs American Pilsner Malt
1.25 German Wheat Malt
1 lb Cara-Pils
1 lb Flaked Corn

1 oz Cascade 5.0% AA @ 60 min
.5 oz Saaz 6.8% AA @ 20 min
.5 oz Saaz 6.8% AA@ 15 min

1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min

Mash 6 gal @ 154F for 60 min
Sparge with 2.5 gal @170F for 10 min
Sparge with 2.5 gal @170 for 10 min
You will want 8 gal into the kettle
Boil for 60 min adding hops as noted

Ferment @ 68F for 12 days and rack ONTO 8 lbs of frozen strawberries. Do not thaw them, do not puree them, dump them into a bucket and rack the beer on top of them.

Secondary on the berries for 7 days and rack into terrtiary for another 7 days. Cold crash for 7 more days, then bottle.

You want to get as much into the primary fermenter as possible. The berries will soak up some beer and you will lose some while racking. If you boil off more than 1 gal/hr, you will want to boil more. A 6.5 gal batch nets me 53 bottles.

This beer is my all grain version of the Succulent Strawberry extract recipe listed on here. It is phenomenal! Great summer beer.

I am new to brewing, can you tell me what is cold crashing and how to do it

thanks
Jim

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I am new to brewing, can you tell me what is cold crashing and how to do it

thanks
Jim

Sure. Cold crashing is a method of "dropping" the unwanted yeast and trub to the bottom so you can rack as cleanly as possible. Once fermentation is complete, put the beer in a temp controlled environment and drop the temp as low as you can. After a few days you will see a nice big layer of "stuff" compacted on the bottom. Then when you rack to bottling bucket or keg, it's easy to rack clean beer. Good luck!

 

[BLGolfer72]

7 lbs American Pilsner Malt
1.25 German Wheat Malt
1 lb Cara-Pils
1 lb Flaked Corn

1 oz Cascade 5.0% AA @ 60 min
.5 oz Saaz 6.8% AA @ 20 min
.5 oz Saaz 6.8% AA@ 15 min

1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min

Mash 6 gal @ 154F for 60 min
Sparge with 2.5 gal @170F for 10 min
Sparge with 2.5 gal @170 for 10 min
You will want 8 gal into the kettle
Boil for 60 min adding hops as noted

Ferment @ 68F for 12 days and rack ONTO 8 lbs of frozen strawberries. Do not thaw them, do not puree them, dump them into a bucket and rack the beer on top of them.

Secondary on the berries for 7 days and rack into terrtiary for another 7 days. Cold crash for 7 more days, then bottle.

You want to get as much into the primary fermenter as possible. The berries will soak up some beer and you will lose some while racking. If you boil off more than 1 gal/hr, you will want to boil more. A 6.5 gal batch nets me 53 bottles.

This beer is my all grain version of the Succulent Strawberry extract recipe listed on here. It is phenomenal! Great summer beer.

What kind of yeast did you use for thus recipe?

 

[pannell77]

I used s-05

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I use S-05 as well. Cant believe i left that off the recipe!

 

[pannell77]

transferred off the fruit tonight, very pink color and lots of strawberry smell. taste is not too bad, the wife was not too sure about it though. she better like it, she has lots of it to drink after having me make all of this.

 

[BWRIGHT]

Anybody used canned berries for this? I made this recipe last summer with fresh strawberries. Turned out to be the first infection I've ever had. Asked around quite a bit and came to the conclusion that the flavors I got were most likely from a wild yeast. I've actually still got it in the carboy, hoping it may clear up. Planning on making this again this spring but the whole infection thing really leaves me skeptical about using anything but canned fruit. The canned fruit will be pasteurized and leaves me less apprehensive. Problem is, I don't know how much to use. The LHBS has good quality canned fruit. I'm just looking for the proper amount to use. My thought is that 8 lbs of canned fruit may impart more fruit flavor than 8 lbs of frozen.

 

[JimmyN]

This is by far my favorite fruit beer to date. But I do have one question/comment- Why not puree the strawberries? This time around I crushed up my frozen berries a bit before racking onto them because I was using a pound less. And when I racked off of them today, its definitely not as pink as its been, and the sample tasted a bit more tart.

 

[ThaBrewFather06]

What does it mean to "cold crash"? I asked my LHBS owner what she thought about the succulent version if this she was afraid the strawberries might not be sanitary. I was thinking the "cold crash" might kill off anything in the beer, but I'm not sure what it is. Sorry I'm a newb, if it isn't for killing bacteria what could kill it or is there not any because of the strawberries frozen

 

[Jeffro74]

Other folks know better than me, but I've assumed that "cold crash" is to reduce the fermentation (or post-fermentation) temperature for the purpose of getting all the yeast and sediment to go to the bottom. It does not sanitize anything.

Lots of folks use alcohol such as vodka or bourbon to sanitize stuff to put in the fermenters.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I am really glad so many people are likin this beer! I cant give a good reason not to puree the berries, i just dont. As far as sanitizing them, it is my understanding that freezing the kills bacteria, hence the reason i use frozen instead of fresh.

Cold crashing is a method of collecting all sediment to the bottom o the fermenter. When you drop the temp down, everything falls to the bottom and "packs" together. Once done, you should be able to rack clean beer and leave the trub behind. I usually cold crash for about a week as cold as i can get it. Usually around 36-38F.

 

[Bluelinebrewer]

Ok, I've added this one to the list of "on-deck" beers!! It may get pushed to the front of the line!!

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Good call! haha

 

[JimmyN]

Excellent call. I have just started to drink my second keg of this brew. I do have a few comments on this the second time around, the only difference being I used 6lbs of strawberries (smashed frozen) instead of the 8. This gave me a beer with the same amount of strawberry flavor, less pink color, and more floaters and sediment in the beer. Cold crashing didn't help, and I doubt gelatin would have either, so its a bit of a tradeoff. But, I'm scheduling when i can brew this again, because it definitely won't last more than a week or two in the keg. Amazing recipe.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I'm dang happy that everyone likes this beer so much. My brew buddy brews it 3-4 times a year and I only brew it once. I guess it's time for me to step it up!

JimmyN, my brew buddy uses the 8 lbs per the recipe but puts them in a muslin bag. It greatly reduces the amount of berry "stuff" that he gets in the beer. The last batch was completely clear and looked like a blonde ale. Just a thought.

 

[frontiercdk]

Hey,

My wife is after me to brew her a girly beer. This sounds good to me. But some folks mentioned "tartness". Is the tartnes normal?

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

It will have some tartness to it but I think it depends on the tartness of the actual berry. It is 8 lbs of berries afterall. I've never had one too tart.

 

[frontiercdk]

Thanks, I think I will try this in the near future.

 

[Bluelinebrewer]

It will have some tartness to it but I think it depends on the tartness of the actual berry. It is 8 lbs of berries afterall. I've never had one too tart.

Hmmmm... I wonder if there would be a difference between Dole strawberries and, say, Great Value, or Always Save...

 

[Spinrathen]

Might have to try this one for wife this summer.

 

[idrinkstuffnthings]

Looks like a winner for the non-beer drinkin swmbo. Could I use white wheat malt instead of german, or is that the same thing?

 

[Bluelinebrewer]

Looks like a winner for the non-beer drinkin swmbo. Could I use white wheat malt instead of german, or is that the same thing?

Lol.. I just messaged the OP a couple of hours ago and asked the exact same thing! Basically, he said "go for it"! I did do some research before I asked, and it appeared that the white wheat would work.. but, I'm still pretty new in the all grain world, so take that lightly!

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Looks like a winner for the non-beer drinkin swmbo. Could I use white wheat malt instead of german, or is that the same thing?

Like I told Blueline "I don't see why not" I honestly can't remember why I chose German wheat for the recipe. It was probably because my lhbs was out of white wheat! ha I can't imagine that it would make a huge difference. All you're really trying to do is make a very light, blonde ale for a base. the white wheat should work just fine.

 

[idrinkstuffnthings]

Lol.. I just messaged the OP a couple of hours ago and asked the exact same thing! Basically, he said "go for it"! I did do some research before I asked, and it appeared that the white wheat would work.. but, I'm still pretty new in the all grain world, so take that lightly!

Like I told Blueline "I don't see why not" I honestly can't remember why I chose German wheat for the recipe. It was probably because my lhbs was out of white wheat! ha I can't imagine that it would make a huge difference. All you're really trying to do is make a very light, blonde ale for a base. the white wheat should work just fine.

Alright thanks fellas, just waiting for my grain mill to show up and this will be next in the bucket, Cheers!

 

[Bluelinebrewer]

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out! I hope to brew this one soon as well... Currently waiting on my stc-1000 to get here!

 

[idrinkstuffnthings]

Where do you get frozen strawberries cheap? Got enough stuff for 10 gallons. But man I never realized the high strawberry price.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Where do you get frozen strawberries cheap? Got enough stuff for 10 gallons. But man I never realized the high strawberry price.

I just buy mine at the grocery store. Wal Mart's probably cheapest. I hate wal mart.

 

[Bluelinebrewer]

I just buy mine at the grocery store. Wal Mart's probably cheapest. I hate wal mart.

+1, I hate the Wal-Marx too.. but, its about the cheapest.