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Strawberry Blonde
So we tapped into that strawberry blonde Saturday at 2PM. At 5PM people were yelling at me; "Hey, I think we kicked the keg." Crap, 5 gallons gone in about 3 hours. Next, time I'll have to do ten gallons of it.
It was a great beer with fruit. The strawberry aroma was great, and the flavor was just enough. For everyone that asks about fruit in beer, if you like strawberry give this a try.
6lbs German pilsner malt
4.5lbs American Wheat Malt
1.5lbs Munich Malt
0.75oz tetnager hop pellets (60min)
0.25oz cascade hop pellets (20 min)
Fermented with WLP051 (California common V)
After primary, I racked the beer onto 4lbs of sliced strawberries that had been steeped in water that was at near boil temp (heat off during steep). Let sit in secondary with berries for 7 days, then rack to a third fermentor for 7 days. Then bottle or rack to keg.
Sounds resally good...I'll have to add this to my never ending list of brews to make.....I need the lottery, so I can build a ginormous homebrewery....
What were your fermentation temps with this, using a California Common? Isnt that a Lager yeast?
I fermented it a 68F, it is an ale yeast.
WLP001 is the Cali Common most people are familiar with, but my LHBS was out of it at the time so I tried the WLP051.
WLP051 California Ale V Yeast
From Northern California. This strain is more fruity than WLP001, and slightly more flocculent. Attenuation is lower, resulting in a fuller bodied beer than with WLP001.
Attenuation: 70-75%
Flocculation: Medium to High
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 66-70°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High
Review this strain
Read other reviews for WLP051
Read FAQ for this yeast
That's gonna be my next next next brew................... or next next.... I have so much on my plate.
brewskinewbski wrote:
That's gonna be my next next next brew................... or next next.... I have so much on my plate.
Its tough to prioritize.
I just listed out my next 6 brews, and its impossible to get it all done when you want it done sometimes.
Back in the day I drank a lot of Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde. One of my all time faves from Pete's Stable.
I would like to try this brew. Strawberries are out of season now unfortunately. This year in my area we had a fantastic strawberry crop unfortunately my wife didn't freeze one single bag of berries. All Jam!
Now I am currious if my wife's labor of love can be turned into labor of BOOZE. Is there a reason I couldn't use Jam in the secondary instead of fresh berries? This is not that hidious freezer jam, this is the cooked and presure sealed in jars kid and tastes absolutely fantastic.
Okay now if I am missing a common knoledge point here just whisper DORK under your breath and explain my ignorance. Knowing the jam has a ton of sugar in it what if anything might need to be changed in the recipe? How many pints of Jam? Is this a stupid idea? Should I just go make a PB&J sandwich and shut up? Anyway I'm interested.
I had originally considered using jam actually. My concern though was to use some store bought stuff that had preservatives in it that would have stunted my yeast activity later on.
But berries were in season here, so I went fresh. I would consider a jar or two of jam, if you can spare them.
And combine that with a bag of frozen berries. I would't hesitate to make this beer "off-season" with frozen berries. Keep in mind that if you added alot of sugar to the jam, you'll need to allow for a longer secondary with the fruit to be sure it ferments out, otherwise the beer will be too sweet.
In fact most frozen fruits and vegetables are going to be more consistent than local fresh produce. Forzen fruits are picked and flash frozen at the peak of freshness. Although the freezing process destroys the nice appearence of the fruit, the taste is often just as good if not better than fresh. IMO
Excellent! I will pick up the all the stuff today. There are a lot of recipes I want to try but this one looks pretty easy and straight forward. Being on this forum is like being a kid in a candy store. So many goodies, it is hard to know what to try first.
Well As I type I am trying to get my wort down to 75* so I can pitch the yeast. I started the yeast almost 17 hours ago and it is starting to smell like beer in the starter bottle.
I took a gravety reading and at 78* it is 1.058 which if I understand how the math works that would make it the slightest hair off of an OG of 1.06 Correct?
This all grain brewing is a lot more fun then the extract stuff. When I brewed the cream ale I felt like I was making a can off chicken noodle soup.
Okay back to the strawberry blonde. The dude at the LHBs (Yes I said dude because thats what he is. Fairly snooty too!) Anyway he said stay away from the jam. Something about pectins, etc. etc. etc. I tuned him out when he started using the Latin names for stuff. So I was telling the wife about it and she informed me there are exactly two quarts of berries in the freezer. Pints a pound the world around as my grant mother used to say so I have beeries for the secondary.
My lauter tun made from the big round drink cooler work so well I was amazed! Of course being a new brewer I had to taste the sweet wort. It was very sweet and danged awful sticky!
Anyway I will soon pitch the yeast and get the primary settled in for a long week.