RCE - russki and Fishybrewer: Strawberry Rhubarb Wheat

[russki]

I'm happy to report that our RCE with Fishybrewer is going great. Based on his great suggestion, we have decided on an interesting idea for a refreshing summer beer - Strawberry Rhubarb Wheat. Wisconsinites know that New Glarus makes awesome strawberry rhubarb beer, incidentally named "Strawberry Rhubarb". Theirs is a lambic, I believe, but we didn't want to wait a year or more for ours to be ready, so we are doing a pretty standard wheat base with a secondary addition of fruit. Hopefully the addition of crystal malt and higher mash temp will add enough sweetness to balance out tartness from the fruit.

Here's the recipe we had settled on:

Strawberry Rhubarb Wheat
an All Grain, Fruit Beer
by russki and Fishybrewer

Predicted Stats
1.054 OG
1.012 FG
14 IBU
5.5% ABV
4 SRM

Batch size: 5.5 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%

Fermentables
White Wheat (US) 5.0 lb
2-Row (US) 4.0 lb
Caramel/Crystal 10L (US) 1.0 lb
Flaked Oats 0.5 lb

Hops
Boil time: 60 min
Hallertau (DE) 1.0 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 4.5%

Yeast
Safale US-05

Extras
Whirlfloc Tablet 1.0 each 10.0 min Boil
Rhubarb (cooked) 4.0 lb 2.0 week Secondary
Strawberries (Frozen) 8.0 lb 2.0 week Secondary

Mash steps
Saccharification Rest Infusion 154.0 °F 60 min

I will use frozen strawberries and fresh rhubarb (store bought). I will not puree the fruit, otherwise trub losses will be huge due to all the loose stuff on the bottom. Here's what I'm planning to do with the fruit: after the beer ferments for 2 weeks in the primary, I will chop and cook rhubarb (probably just bake it for 30 min or so at 375F), and add defrosted strawberries, dump it into a 6 gallon carboy and rack clear beer over it, and let sit in secondary for 2 more weeks, then bottle as usual. It is important to leave enough headspace in the carboy (and rig a blow-off), since fruit will set off another round of fermentation.

I may still adjust the fruit amounts - but I definitely want to have fruit flavor front and center, and end up with a tart and refreshing summer brew.

Comments from the Borg are welcome as always!

[philm00x]

Mmmmmm pie. This sounds delicious.

[Beer-lord]

Very interesting and outside the beer box. I know nothing of this but that sounds like a lot of fruit. How do you figure how much to use?

[russki]

Very interesting and outside the beer box. I know nothing of this but that sounds like a lot of fruit. How do you figure how much to use?

I'm applying the same proportions used in meadmaking, where it's recommended to use 2-3 pounds of fruit per gallon for noticeable fruit flavor. I may scale down a bit, but the reality is that 12 pounds of fruit would make up around 20% of a 5.5 gallon batch, which does not sound excessive. To look at this another way, take one part of fruit juice and add 4.5 parts of beer - I don't think the fruit flavor will be overbearing.

Now, that's just my thinking - I'd love to hear from anyone who had used strawberries in beer!

[Fishybrewer]

Cheers! everyone. I want to thank Russki For his outstanding knowledge of brewing in developing our recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Wheat beer. He is a boatload of knowledge and has answered my many questions with ease. We are still fine tuning the fruit amounts and if anyone has any experience using fruit amounts, please chime in. Any interesting names for our beer would also be welcomed. Thanks in advance and enjoy your day. Thanks David

[FrozenInTime]

Wow, this sounds interesting! Keep us informed about the progress/outcome of this. I'm a rhubarb/strawberry pie freak. So much so I put in a huge patch of both, we have it all summer and freeze alot for winter pies. I would love to try this with my fresh from the garden veggies! The rhubarb I have is very tart but I love it fresh from the garden to munch on. I'm not a wheat fan, maybe make a session type ale and try this... thunkin out-loud. I'm definitely looking forward to your results!

[russki]

Finally getting around to brewing this one tonight - Fishybrewer already has his batch on the fruit; he went easy with 2 pounds each of strawberries and rhubarb.

Since I've not brewed in a while, I'm thinking about brewing an 11 gallon batch of the base beer, and then fermenting half with US-05 for fruiting, and half with WY3068 (German Hefeweizen). I know the grist is not your traditional weizen, but I think that added sweetness from C10 may go well with banana esters - I will be underpitching on purpose (1 smack-pack without a starter) and not doing any temperature control for the fermentation.

As for the fruited version, I'm thinking I'll ferment it in a better bottle, and use a bucket lined with a sanitized paint strainer bag for fruiting. This way, I can just pull out the bag, and give it a squeeze to extract all the fruity goodness when I'm ready to bottle (or rack to tertiary).

Now to find some rhubarb!

[jivex5k]

That's awesome! Let us know how it turns out.
NG makes fantastic beer, and the Rhubarb is one of my favorites...so rustic looking with all the floaties.

[russki]

Just wanted to post an update: brewed 11 gallons of this recipe last night, OG: 1.052, divided into two fermenters with US-05 and WY3068. And now we wait...

Ah... it's nice to brew again...

[swenocha]

Had missed this thread. Will be following this. Should be opening a Ilkley Siberia Rhubarb Saison with friends today, so this recipe interests me...

[mashani]

Although I can't say I like Rhubarb pie, I could see it working in beer if used subtly...

[russki]

A quick update: I roasted 4 pounds of fresh rhubarb for an hour and smashed 12 pounds of frozen strawberries (2 bags from Costco) - added all this to a bucket lined with a paint strainer bag and racked the beer onto it. Apparently 16# of fruit take up a bunch of space, so I was left with about 1/2 gallon of beer I couldn't fit into the secondary bucket. Smelled absolutely awesome, just like a strawberry rhubarb pie. Nothing subtle about this one - go big or go home!

I have also kegged the hefe version of this beer - hydro sample tasted like bready bananas, very nice. Both yeasts finished at 1.013.

[jivex5k]

So cool man, that's awesome to have 2 going at the same time.