[ryang]

my buddy made a blueberry apfelwein that's pretty darn tasty.  I can't remember how much he added to that, I'd have to ask.  He also did a strawberry (wheat I think) that wasn't so strawberry-y.

[Beer Monger]

You seem like the man to ask - I'm gonna start a cider this weekend - apple base, but I'm gonna make it strawberry by adding strawberries to the 2nd fermenter.

For 5 gallons and if I want a pretty prominent strawberry flavor, I'm thinking 4-5 lbs of berries in the seondary.  Sound about right to you? 

Thanks!

sorry, never directly dealt with strawberries myself, but with a 'softer' like strawberries, I'd go with at least that much.  perhaps even up to 1.5 lbs or 2lbs per gallon.

Gotcha.  I'll up it a bit.  Thanks. 

From my experience with strawberries I think you'll be disappointed.  It's been a long time, but strawberries probably haven't changed much.  The flavor just never comes through all that strong and fades quickly, the color was weak . . . it was a bummer.  It still tasted good, it just didn't have the impact I was looking for.  It's been ~15 years though, so I don't have any notes on the quantity I used.  Maybe with 10lbs in 5 gallons you'll be happier, I'm sure I didn't use that much.

Hmmm.  Perhaps I need to use some berries AND some extract.  That should do the trick 'eh?   


EDIT: Just called my homebrew shop. They have strawberry extract in. I'll pick some up on my way home & use that AND 10lbs of fruit.  

[tschmidlin]

EDIT: Just called my homebrew shop. They have strawberry extract in. I'll pick some up on my way home & use that AND 10lbs of fruit.  

Dose the extract into a cider in a glass first and make sure you like it.  I don't have any experience with it, but I had a strawberry porter in Germany that was awful.  The strawberry flavor was clearly extract and really artificial and not appealing.  The beer was also cloyingly sweet, but that's a different issue.

[Beer Monger]

EDIT: Just called my homebrew shop. They have strawberry extract in. I'll pick some up on my way home & use that AND 10lbs of fruit.  

Dose the extract into a cider in a glass first and make sure you like it.  I don't have any experience with it, but I had a strawberry porter in Germany that was awful.  The strawberry flavor was clearly extract and really artificial and not appealing.  The beer was also cloyingly sweet, but that's a different issue.

Great idea!  I'll pick up a few apple ciders & an extra bottle of extract.   

[tschmidlin]

EDIT: Just called my homebrew shop. They have strawberry extract in. I'll pick some up on my way home & use that AND 10lbs of fruit.  

Dose the extract into a cider in a glass first and make sure you like it.  I don't have any experience with it, but I had a strawberry porter in Germany that was awful.  The strawberry flavor was clearly extract and really artificial and not appealing.  The beer was also cloyingly sweet, but that's a different issue.

Great idea!  I'll pick up a few apple ciders & an extra bottle of extract.   

Maybe stick with one bottle until you know if you like it   Is your local Larry's?

If you do use it I'd recommend dosing it at bottling/kegging as opposed to during fermentation anyway, it will be easier to get the proportion right.

[oscarvan]

Kegged my Belgian ale with a vile of Brett..... Kegged an IPA and brewed 10 gallons of American Brown Ale......

[gordonstrong]

Oh come on.  Brett isn't *that* bad.   

(You meant 'vial' not 'vile')

[Wheat_Brewer]

Been thinking about an ESB based on Charles' recipe!  I'm trying hard to stay focused on recipe design but with the weather here in Denver being almost 80 degrees it's almost impossible to not drop anything involving the inside and not go hiking or something!

[Beer Monger]

My IPA is kegged!  I had an early taste.  For my first beer in about 7 years, it came out pretty good!  It has some 'haze' (i.e. Not 'clear') but so far that seems to be the only flaw & it tastes pretty good.  I think that may have been due to a longer than expected mash. 

My cider is in the fermenter - next up, crafting my recipe for a chamomile ale.  

[realbeerguy]

10 gal of Kolsch (finally!)

Keg 10 of Stout, 5 of a Rye IPA

[brontotex]

Brewed a Porter and an IPA yesterday.

[andrew]

nothing gotta work

[Thirsty_Monk]

Another Bohemian Pilsner

[phillamb168]

Last night was the end of my first ever two-brew day. That was a little too much for me, though, as now I've got a fever, although that may have to do with the 30-degree temperature swing over the past 24 hours.

I did a Bell's THA clone that was a little higher gravity than I expected (1.068 OG) and what I'm going to call a "Garden hose Summer Kolsch" that was SUPPOSED to have an OG of around 1.040 but ended up at 1.035-ish. I didn't have enough boil volume and ended up with a stuck sparge towards the very end of the mash (too much cracked wheat I think. All flakes next time.) so I had to use the, you guessed it, garden hose to fill 'er up to boil volume. I'm not worried about it though, should be an interesting experiment at the least.

[beersk]

Eeek, you really used water out of the garden hose?  Them's ain't food grade, brudda. 

I brewed 5 gallons of oatmeal porter with a full pound of black malt, half pound of chocolate rye and a pound of oatmeal.  Should be num num nummers!  Oh and I also built my water up for the first time with RO; only for the mash though.  Used my tap water with the chlorine removed for the sparge.  I'm pretty excited, I hit a much higher efficiency than normal.  I'm thinking I hit a good pH, so that would be why...