After enjoying Bulldog's Strawberry Pale Ale immensely I am trying an AG version from the Greg Hughes book. It doesn't say zip in the book hopw to prepare them, it just says add them, I have googled the subject quite a bit and most seem to use frozen ones in the hope of good hygiene and the ice crystals rupturing cell walls and increase flavour, anyone got anymore tips or experience ? Should I puree them, cut them up small pieces or slices ? There is 3,5 kg going into a 23l batch.
Preparing Strawberries ?
- Thread starter Brett74
- Start date
Help Support The Homebrew Forum:
IainM
Landlord.
I've made fruit ale lots of times.
Typically I got bags of frozen summer fruit from a supermarket and emptied them into the 2ndary fermenter, poured some boiling water in (stirring a bit to make sure it contacts everything) and then siphoned the beer on to it.
When starting your brew you have to allow for the extra volume of water and fruit and usually I added around 2.5 to kg of fruit.
I would bottle it when all the fruit was looking white or very pale pink and the gravity was low enough. What I then ended up with was what looked like a pint of Vimto but was a lot nicer and had quite a kick.
Be careful though it could well be one of those dangerous beers that is far too easy to drink!
One other thing I noticed is that the flavours change noticeably over time and after around 6 months it tastes more of pips and stalks which sounds worse than it is. So I imagine you would have similar results with strawberries.
Good luck!
Typically I got bags of frozen summer fruit from a supermarket and emptied them into the 2ndary fermenter, poured some boiling water in (stirring a bit to make sure it contacts everything) and then siphoned the beer on to it.
When starting your brew you have to allow for the extra volume of water and fruit and usually I added around 2.5 to kg of fruit.
I would bottle it when all the fruit was looking white or very pale pink and the gravity was low enough. What I then ended up with was what looked like a pint of Vimto but was a lot nicer and had quite a kick.
Be careful though it could well be one of those dangerous beers that is far too easy to drink!
One other thing I noticed is that the flavours change noticeably over time and after around 6 months it tastes more of pips and stalks which sounds worse than it is. So I imagine you would have similar results with strawberries.
Good luck!
Personal91
Landlord.
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2016
- Messages
- 1,223
- Reaction score
- 219
i have heard about freezing before hand and i have heard about blending, but i have not yet heard of someone freezing the night before and then blending before adding..... you are the chosen ONE , now go forth and report your findings back to us.....:clap::hat::electric:
