So about two months ago I brewed a Belgian strawberry wheat. I steamed the strawberries before adding them to the fermenter. 4 lbs of strawberries for the 5 gallon batch. I wanted it to be heavy on the strawberry side. I never noticed any pellicle during the fermentation, but it’s very possible some bacteria was introduced from all those berries. I just popped a bottle last night, at to my (good) surprise, it was pretty tart! Now this is likely due to all the strawberries, but could possibly be from some bacteria. I now have the dilemma of drinking them now or hiding them away for a while to see what develops. Thoughts?
Side note: I’ve yet to brew a sour, but I love them and plan on diving in to brew some this winter. Just bought “Wild Brews” but haven’t started reading it yet.
I’m afraid you’re going to have to send a couple bottles to me for analysis if you want a full answer
the one thing you want to watch out for if it is indeed infected is that it might continue to attenuate in the bottle causing over carbed beers, gushers, or worst case scenerio bottle bombs.
If it is not infected and you put it away to long it will go meh on you as the strawberry flavour drops.
So you will have to sample one every once in a while just to make sure it’s still good!
Awesome! I was wondering if bottle bombs were a possibility in this scenario. Good to know. It tastes good now, so i can’t go wrong with just drinking it I guess! I’ll stow a couple away for the sake of science.
Just as an aside, I’m surprised that you are getting heavy strawberry flavor with just 4 lbs of berries per 5 gallons. General rule of thumb is 1-2 lbs of fruit per gallon, and with strawberries I’ve always heard you need even more. YMMV.
