Fruit Beer Wild Strawberry Blonde

[iijakii]

So I tried searching but I am still not sure. Do you add strawberries during all three stages or just the secondary?

This looks good and it might be the "gateway" to get my wife into my new hobby.

Just in secondary.

 

[HalfWit]

OK we did out 1st batch a few months ago. It is amazing!! Took it to Beer Stock and it was one of the biggest hits out there. Many folks coming back 3 and 4 times It was hot as hell and was VERY REFRESHING!!. We took the leftover berries and made small strawberry short cakes with sponge cakes topped with wiped cream. That too was a huge success for our club. Going to be entering into Washington State Fair next month. Will post results.
Side notes:
Used 18 pounds of frozen Berries from Costco. Fresh were not quite ready. $30.00 at Costco Calif. grown compared to $75./$80.00 for fresh. Color was perfect , Aroma was incredible and flavor rocked every bodies world.
They didn't have American Pls so I used Belgium Pls.
Re-racked with frozen berries and put in cooler ( a walk-in cooler 38deg ) for around 5 weeks.
Kegged and Bottled.

 

[iijakii]

18lbs and for 5 weeks? Quite a bit! Sounds good though.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

18 lbs??? 10 gal batch?

 

[HalfWit]

18lbs and for 5 weeks? Quite a bit! Sounds good though.

That's only 2 lbs more then the recipe. They come in 6lb bags. 5 weeks at 38 degrees. It would have been much less if it was 68-70 degrees. Can't wait to do this one again!!

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

No, the recipe is for 8 lbs. You added 10 lbs more! :cross:

 

[4arrows]

I am excited about trying this one out. It will be my second brew ever and first AG attempt. I have had a herd time getting my wife interested in a style of beer to keep her interested in me continuing to brew, but she is as excited about it as I am. She is going to Costco on Monday and bringing back fresh is possible, frozen is necessary and I will try and get to local home brew store and brew next weekend.

4>---->

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Enjoy!

 

[4arrows]

You mentioned earlier in this thread that you are no longer doing 2x 10 min. dunk sparges and have condensed it to a single sparge. Could you clarify a little? Are you doing 1x 5 gal dunk sparge for the same duration and temp? or have you gone to a pour over sparge at the same temp? I am brewing this tomorrow and it will be my first AG brew, just wanting to get it as right as I can.

 

[mackus2]

You mentioned earlier in this thread that you are no longer doing 2x 10 min. dunk sparges and have condensed it to a single sparge. Could you clarify a little? Are you doing 1x 5 gal dunk sparge for the same duration and temp? or have you gone to a pour over sparge at the same temp? I am brewing this tomorrow and it will be my first AG brew, just wanting to get it as right as I can.

What is your equipment set up for? I think you could do this recipe well with either a batch or fly sparge. I think I did it as a partial mash with a fly sparge and it came out great. This is an awesome recipe and I can't wait to give it another go!

 

[iijakii]

Sparge methods just don't really impact recipes at all. Do whatever you prefer, and scale the recipe to hit the efficiency numbers you get with your system.

Loving this beer, by the way. I might experiment and add more strawberries next year. I wouldn't mind a touch more impact from it, but I'm wary of too much astringency - there's a definite hint of it now, which is lovely and dries it out a bit.. but more might be overpowering. Have you tried more berries, Gingerbro?

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

The batch sparge, two 10 min or otherwise, is the easiest way to sparge. As your first AG, this is what i recommend. Not 100% sure what you mean by "dunk" since this is not a partial mash or brew in a bag. The sparge is just to rinse the remaining sugars from the grain, so whatever process you are comfortable with works.

As far as more berries goes, i've never tried more than 8 lbs. and when i made this with blackberries last year, i also did 8 lbs. It just seems to be the magic number.

Glad everyone is still liking this! I think i will fill a growler and take it to Houston with me today!

 

[HalfWit]

Again it was a 10gal. batch not a 5gal. 8lb for 5X2=16 It's that new math

 

[4arrows]

I did mine BIAB, is all I am able to manage with my starter setup. I had a burner malfunction and was only able to do 1 sparge and didn't quite hit my OG, but it being my first AG brew day I think it was a success. I definitely need to get a bigger boil kettle and look into converting a cooler into a mash tun.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Im sure it will be fine! And a learning process as well! Let us know how it turns out!

 

[4arrows]

Wife found 8lb of fresh strawberries at Costco for $20 today. Stemmed, halved, star-san'd, and in the freezer waiting for Sat. to rack on.

 

[4arrows]

Racked into secondary on top of strawberries yesterday, there was a bout a gallon or so too much beer to fit in the bottling bucket with all the strawberries, so I figure I will let it ferment on its own and add back when I rack to tertiary.

 

[4arrows]

Bottled yesterday, beautiful color, I used gelatine to clear. Good taste, though a little astringent. I can see the need for a bit of conditioning time. I think the astringent grapefruit flavor will give way to the strawberry underneath.

 

[4arrows]

Before gelatin fining.

View attachment 1441585802964.jpg

 

[4arrows]

After clearing. And in the glass during bottling.

View attachment 1441585877724.jpg

View attachment 1441585895558.jpg

 

[HalfWit]

Is anyone putting in potassium metabisulfite to keep the berries from fermenting in the bottles? Should have added to mine. Was one of the best beers ever but became over carbonated after a month. I use it in my ciders and kicking myself for not adding in in this one.

 

[sfrisby]

I added vanilla beans and lactose. Fantastic.

 

[skitter]

I brewed a half batch of this (my fermenters are the Mr Beer LBK's) and at 2.5 gallons of beer adding the strawberries ended up making it extremely full, like 2 inches from the top. 2 days later my strawberries where pushing out the top of the fermenter! I had to tune my chamber down to 60 degrees for 3 days to let the fermentation slow down so the strawberries would settle. After that I tuned it up a degree a day until the week was over.

Bottled it and tried it, very tart for me. I used fresh strawberries cut in half and frozen. I got almost no beer soaked into the berries. Definitely waiting to see how this ages.

I want to try adding some sweetener next time but I'm not sure how much to use? It would be either Lactose or Xyletol. 2oz?

 

[mackus2]

I added vanilla beans and lactose. Fantastic.

That sounds awesome!

 

[bern1]

May have to give this a shot. It certainly sounds interesting. I recently experimented with a gallon of Biermunchers Centennial Blonde after my wife tasted a Blueberry Beer at a place near Pittsburgh....she loved it. I racked onto 2 lbs of blueberries for a week, terrtiary for a week, then bottled. After reading this thread I decided to crack open a bottle to see what I had and after 1 week in the bottle, the taste is quite good and I'm pleasantly surprised. I ended up with 8 bottles to sample. It is a bit tart at first but you can taste the sweetness of the berries too and it finishes with the taste of the hops. Seems the color is a much deeper red then what I'm seeing here with the strawberries. I'll be curious to taste it after a few more weeks in the bottle. May try applying some of your technique's to the Blueberry beer for a near future brewday so thanks for all the info WildGingerBrewing.

 

[skitter]

I opened a bottle at the 3 week mark, the Strawberry notes have increased and the Tartness has notably decreased from Warhead Sour to just a little sour. Great tasting beer, good mouthfeel!

 

[4arrows]

I cracked the first bottle of this last night, after only 10 days in the bottle, couldn't wait. It is DELICIOUS!! Family claiming it is my best brew so far.
Spritzy strawberry aroma, clean blonde ale taste, strawberry aftertaste on the tongue.
I think I may have over carbonated this a little. But, it does not take away from the great taste of this brew at all. I doubt much of this will last to even see if it ages into something better. I used fresh strawberries and the bitter grapefruit flavor that I tasted when bottling was gone. I will definitely be brewing this again and probably trying different fruit combinations as the seasonal fruit prices change.

 

[HalfWit]

I cracked the first bottle of this last night, after only 10 days in the bottle, couldn't wait. It is DELICIOUS!! Family claiming it is my best brew so far.
Spritzy strawberry aroma, clean blonde ale taste, strawberry aftertaste on the tongue.
I think I may have over carbonated this a little. But, it does not take away from the great taste of this brew at all. I doubt much of this will last to even see if it ages into something better. I used fresh strawberries and the bitter grapefruit flavor that I tasted when bottling was gone. I will definitely be brewing this again and probably trying different fruit combinations as the seasonal fruit prices change.

Mine over time became very over carbonated. Strawberry sugars kicked back in. I think I needed to add potassium metabisulfite because I did a force carbonation kegging and bottling. Had one bottle explode and many others over carbonate.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Havent posted a pic of mine in awhile. Here's the most recent batch. Man, it's good! View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1444705325.563223.jpg

 

[buddy5582]

I had to substitute German Pilsner for the American Pilsner. Any thoughts on how this may affect this recipe?

I plugged everything into Beersmith and it's telling me the ABV is gonna be 5.9%. Seems high and definitely more ABV than I'm looking for out of this beer.

Regardless, can't wait to brew this on Sunday.

Thanks!