Brewing an APA with fruit

[Peter_1983]

Hi there, 

 

I havent posted much, life got busy and well now its gone a little bit quiet, enough for me to sit down and start planning my next brew.

 

During spring I picked about 2 kilos of fresh strawberries and I was thinking of making a srawberry American Pale ale, my current recpie is:

1-2 Kg of Crystal medium for a grain steep

1.7 kg can of black rock pale Ale extract

1kg Dextrose

11.5 g US05 yeast

50g Galaxy hops

50g Belma (though due to current shipping contrainsts that is now banjaxed)

so 50g cascade

2Kg stawberries. 

 

I was plaaning on using the Galaxy and cascade during the boil and then dry hop. the thing is with the stawberries I am going to puuree them and strin them to try and get rid of the seeds as I have heard the seeds can add some interesting flavours.

I want the stawberries to be there when you drink it, would you add the stawberries during the boil, or do it just before you pitch the yeast?

 

Any help would be grately appreciated.

 

Kindest regards

 

Peter

Edited March 25, 2020 by Peter_1983

[Hairy]

58 minutes ago, Peter_1983 said:

1-2 Kg of Crystal medium for a grain steep

Is that 1 to 2 kg of Medium Crystal? If so, that is a fair amount.

[ben 10]

1 hour ago, Peter_1983 said:

or do it just before you pitch the yeast?

I'd dry hop a strawberry compote 

[Journeyman]

40 minutes ago, Hairy said:

Is that 1 to 2 kg of Medium Crystal? If so, that is a fair amount.

By 'fair' you mean a lot, right? I've used crystal a few times and 300g is enough to flavour the beer - I think 1 - 2 kg would overpower everything else in there.

[Titan]

4 hours ago, Peter_1983 said:

Hi there, 

 

I havent posted much, life got busy and well now its gone a little bit quiet, enough for me to sit down and start planning my next brew.

 

During spring I picked about 2 kilos of fresh strawberries and I was thinking of making a srawberry American Pale ale, my current recpie is:

1-2 Kg of Crystal medium for a grain steep

1.7 kg can of black rock pale Ale extract

1kg Dextrose

11.5 g US05 yeast

50g Galaxy hops

50g Belma (though due to current shipping contrainsts that is now banjaxed)

so 50g cascade

2Kg stawberries. 

 

I was plaaning on using the Galaxy and cascade during the boil and then dry hop. the thing is with the stawberries I am going to puuree them and strin them to try and get rid of the seeds as I have heard the seeds can add some interesting flavours.

I want the stawberries to be there when you drink it, would you add the stawberries during the boil, or do it just before you pitch the yeast?

 

Any help would be grately appreciated.

 

Kindest regards

 

Peter

Yep you dont want the seeds as they have tannins. Like you say stick them in a blender at its lowest speed or pulse blend. Then into a fine mesh sieve using the back of a spoon to push as much juice through leaving the seeds behind.

[Peter_1983]

Hi Hairy and Journeyman, I was going on advice from the brewshop.  So 300g would be more than enough in a grain steep? 

 

Ben 10 and Titan, Mrs 1983 has told me we have a slowpressed juicer and we could give it a crack with the Strawberries

 

Thank you for the advice again, im going to tweak my recepie, should I draw back on the dex or dump the stawberries in and let the yeast work its magic? However i think that might be hitting a really high abv

[Journeyman]

Going to 500 g crystal might give a nice balance to the strawberry flavour. I like what crystal does to a beer but I wouldn't go higher than that. Steep it overnight in the fridge and have a smell of it next day - luvverly grub!

I'm checking back here to find out what the advice is on when to do the strawberries - probably one of my first craft beers (apart from the Mirboo North brewery beers) was a strawberry and honey ale in a little place called Cortez in Colorado - nice beer and the flavours really only hit once you swallowed - very nice stuff.

[Peter_1983]

Thank you Journey man, I didnt relaise you could steep over night, I thought you had to do it in a pot keeping the water at a certain temp (lower than 75C) for a 20-30 mins and add the hops in at that time  to pull out as much flavour and colour as possible.  

I'll look into that beer and do a bit more research and timings etc

[Journeyman]

19 minutes ago, Peter_1983 said:

Thank you Journey man, I didnt relaise you could steep over night, I thought you had to do it in a pot keeping the water at a certain temp (lower than 75C) for a 20-30 mins and add the hops in at that time  to pull out as much flavour and colour as possible.  

I'll look into that beer and do a bit more research and timings etc

My first steep of light crystal was in the fridge 3 days - life interrupted and figured it was safer there than on the bench. Amazing caramel and toffee type of aroma. Latest was in a partial mash at 67° with some Coopers Ale malt and some amber malt - the brew smelt so good I wanted to have a drink before it went into the fridge.

[ben 10]

I don't think there is an issue from tannins in the little strawberry seeds. I would cook into a compote and use that, there are many ways to skin a cat though.