Now here’s a moment in my brewing life that’s out of the ordinary. This weekend I have been making the base beer for my first ever fruit influenced beer, a strawberry influenced golden/pale ale. Here is a basic outline of the methods:
Total volume: 4 gallons
OG: 1048 PG: 1012
In the mash:
British lager malt, Torrified wheat, Wheat malt, Crystal malt (1%) (I was going to use around 5%carapils but they smelt distinctly cheesy and were replaced by the tiny quantity of crystal)
Mashed at 66oC, sparged at 76-78 oC.
In the copper Hallertau Perle hops were used to create 20-25IBUs, and then used late at around 55min before flameout at 60min. A British ale yeast strain was pitched for primary fermentation.
The plan is to create a fairly light, soft natured golden/pale ale with some underlying sweetness to be matured in around 1-1.5kg of fresh strawberries per gallon for a number of weeks. In theory sugars from the fruit will trigger a second fermentation in the conditioning vessels effecting the flavor profile over time. Has anyone else ever tried making fruit beers, if so let me know what you think?
3 comments:
I did a wheat beer with added raspberries once. It was a disappointment as apart from the beer going pink I couldn't notice any effects. The amount of strawberries you're planning should be noticable though!
Indeed, I might have to use an extra demi-john if the strawberries take up too much volume. My original idea was for a wheat beer but couldnt afford the yeast strain and my house strain I get free from work, its pritty fresh.
I'm looking forward to reading how this turns out. Früli's the only strawberry beer I've tried and was intrigued. I'll be interested to find how much strawberry flavour you get from the amount of fruit you use.
Good luck!
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