I finally kegged the strawberry cider and the chocolate strawberry porter after about 4 weeks in the fermenter. Both have turned out nicely.
The cider is nice and refreshing with a very smooth texture. It has a little more sweetness than the last batch, which I'm attributing to the strawberries, but it has no noticeable strawberry flavor. I did some research and found that when using mild fruits in beer, such as strawberries, you really need to use a lot more of said fruit (one pound of puree to one gallon of beer or more) in order to get the desired flavor. I forgot to take a gravity reading (I know, I know... a rookie mistake), so I don't have a clear idea of ABV, but I'm guessing at least 8% (OG was 1.074 with fruit).
The porter really turned out well. The aroma has some dark chocolate overtones right up front, which I really like. You can also get a hint of the strawberries in the aroma, which really does add to initial impression of the beer. The beer has a nice smooth mouthfeel with a slight bitter taste to begin with and finishes off with a slight sweetness in the aftertaste (thank you, strawberries!). I was a little worried when the strawberries didn't show up at all in the taste of the cider that the same would be true about the porter, but I think the longer than normal fermentation time (a little over 4 weeks) really helped the strawberries to contribute to the flavor of the beer. I think next time I might use more strawberries, but I don't think I'll use more than about four pounds of puree (I used three in this batch). I didn't get quite the strawberry flavor I was hoping for, but you can definitely taste the strawberries. Overall, I really like this beer. It is a nice, rich porter with a lot of flavor. It did turn out to be very high gravity, so I will definitely go easy on it.
OG: 1.072 with fruit
FG: 1.018
ABV of about 7.25%
Until Next Time,
RHSC
