Strawberry Blond

Question

This is my second attempt at home brewing, my first came out very well. I added a couple of pounds of strawberries to my primary. After one month a racked to my secondary. I was not expecting to see such nasty looking strawberries. Most of it was clearly eaten bu the Yeast but the ones that remained were grey in color. To be safe I was extra conservative when racking and left a good inch and change at the bottom in order to take as little of the solids as possible. The beer in the secondary looks fine, a little cloudy but I expect that to settle. Has anyone ever done this before and had a similar experience? I want to make sure it is safe to drink etc.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Beer does tend to bleach out the strawberries, its perfectly normal. I make strawberry blond the same way every summer. The berries come out pretty scary sometimes.

Answer 2

Let us know how this turns out. In Radical Brewing, Mosher says that strawberries rarely live up to their promise of beautiful fresh aromatics and perfect balance of sweet/tart when added to beer. Pick up a beer thief though, or sanitize a turkey baster. The only way to ever know if fermentation is completed (or if your beer is ruined, aside from a bacterial pellicle) is to check gravity (and taste afterwards!)