Making a strawberry beer

[rorybrown91]

I'm making a strawberry beer with the hope that it can be used for my pubs beer festival in September. We usually brew about 4 barrels worth a brew, using a 150 litre wort. I have little experience researching recipes, and am trying to find a recipe using pale malt, amber malt, crystal or acid malt as these are the malts we tend to have in stock. I have a few questions, mainly is it better to use real fruit or an essence, and if essence where can you buy them from, have had little luck looking online. I want to brew just a barrel (9 gallons) for the first brew, or until it is a good standard, does anyone have any recipes or knowledge on the matter?

 

[NickW]

I had some strawberry beer once, it was lovely!

But as I recall, the man serving me said it was mixed with a strawberry cordial sort of thing, either way. Damn tasty

 

[brucestevenson916]

I make a raspberry wheat beer(framboise). just use a 23ltr kit brewed to 21 ltrs with 2 kilos of raspberries that have been wizzed in the blender then frozen. I then thaw the rasps out, once they are room temperature pour 2 liters of boiling water from the kettle over them to kill any germs,then allow to cool.

The way I work it is to brew the kit till it completely finishes. rack it to a fresh fv to get rid of sediment, then add the raspberry concoction. It will re-ferment slightly,but keep the mixture coolish and you should keep the most of the taste+fragrance. give it a week or two to settle out, rack it off to bottles or keg and prime.

lovely beer, and it should work a treat with strawberries too.

 

[rorybrown91]

I have seen lots of brewers saying that strawberrys tend to lose their flavour really quickly, and i would need 20 kilos for 9 gallons, so i think i may now go for raspberries. I will keep you posted with how it goes!

 

[brucestevenson916]

Aye, strawbs make good wine, never heard them making a good beer, rasps do taste nice though, very crisp drink the framboise! Good cold on a hot day.

Let us know how it turns out!