So I decided to make a Strawberry Pale Ale. I started with a good recipe from Hydrobrew. As it is here:
Basic Pale Ale
Ingredients
- 7.3 lbs Bulk Malt Extract
- 4 oz Caramel Malt 20L, milled
- 2 oz Special B Malt, milled
- 2 oz Munich Malt, milled
- .5 lbs Carapils, milled
- 1 oz Liberty hop pellets (AA=6-7%)
- 1 oz Willamette hop pellets
- 1 tube California Ale Yeast
Cooking Directions
- Heat 2-3 gallons of water to 160 degrees. Turn off heat and steep the crushed malts for 10 minutes, then remove the grains and bring the liquid to a boil. Turn off heat and stir in the malt extracts until completely dissolved. Return to a boil, set a timer for 60 minutes, and add the Liberty hops. Sprinkle in the Willamette hops little by little over the last fifteen minutes of the boil. After boiling, cool to 80 degrees or less and top up with water to just over 5 gallons before pitching the yeast. Aerate well and ferment at 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Original Gravity = 1.054-1.056
- Final Gravity = 1.012-1.014
- ABV = 5.5%
I figured I would add a gallon of puréed strawberries to the mix and see what happens.
So here are the strawberries we used:
And here is the extract in my handy dandy pale (I didn’t have to buy another one cause I forgot it, YAY!):
Went to my local water vending machine and filled up 10 gallons:
Here are the grains, hops and the yeast:
Here are the puréed strawberries, they smelled so good:
Here is the wort being cooked:
Here is the wort chilling outside:
So I did the basic pale ale and followed all the normal directions but at the end of the boil, or the last 5 minutes I added the strawberries. This makes sure they are pasteurized and safe. To be honest this was a simple brew, since this is one of basic recipes. Not saying that this is not a good brew, it is just simple to make. Adding the strawberries made the straining of the wort a pain, because I put the pulp in and I should have not, it made it very hard to strain. I live and learn. I am hopeful that it will be a very good beer. I did some changes in using different type of water, so I am hoping that it will help in some of the failures I have had in the past.
I think, since I added the strawberries that it brought up the original gavity to 1.6, so we will have to see what the final gravity, I don’t really want more than 7% ARV, I don’t want this to be too alcoholic, I want it more about the taste.
So I will update this as I get more info on the beer. I will take a gravity in a week to check it and then another one right before I bottle it. Since I am going to be out of town in 2 weeks, I guess this beer will ferment for 3 weeks. It shouldn’t really affect the beer itself.
So *fingers crossed* for now, and we will see what happens in the future.
Till then, brew well, live better.
UPDATE 4/11/2011
As you can see from this photo we already have fermentation going on. There is a problem though, the air lock is clogged. I have to take it off and clear it. When I took it off it depressurized, so this is not ideal. I will check it tomorrow and if it is still having issues I will have to do a tube airlock.
Good sign that we have this good a fermentation though. so hope prevails.
UPDATED 4/11/2001 #2
So the top popped and I have to do the tube method of airlock. These are pictures are of 10 minutes after I put the tube in:
