Rhubarb Beer

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If you google for rhubarb beer recipe, this is the first item:

http://brianbeer.blogspot.com/2007/01/rhubarb-experiment.html

It should be noted that the blogger never did update with sampling info. This may be because he DID sample.:D

The biggest problem I see is the tartness of rhubarb will be impossible to balance with sweetness as you normally would in a pie or tart. But, you can always experiment & report back.

I've got a 200 sq. ft. 40-year old patch on my property, could be useful.
 
technically you could back sweeten with lactose to balance out the tartness.

whether it'd taste good, with or without the sweetness...who knows!
I'd probably do a half batch for experimentation purposes.
 
im a novice to beer making, last year i made a few bottles of nettle beer which went horribly wrong despite following the recipe to the letter.. this year however for my 18th birthday party (last night) i had a go at rhubarb beer. much like yourself i couldnt find a recipe so i just guessed, so ive no real measurements but it was amazing beer that knocked me off my feet for the whole night and tasted delicious..

basically a few bunches of rhubarb blended and then boiled for an hour or so in a gallon of water, then poured over just over half a bag of sugar and stirred. then i added a healthy squirt of honey and left it to cool to just below body temp, then added a teaspoon of dry active yeast.
covered it and left it in a warm place for a couple of weeks then bottled it in swing top bottles putting a squirt of honey in the bottom of each bottle before adding the beer.. at this point i drank it after a week of it being in the bottle so it was still quite sweet perhaps had i left it longer it would have been even better again.

as i say im a novice so my methods are probably flawed but at the end of the day im the one who made a good rhubarb beer off the top of his head :L
apologies for the lack of exact measurements but it was all guess work. any experienced brewers out there might want to refine my recipe a bit.

drink it carefully, its a very strong beer. haha
 
Sounds like you made rhubarb wine... ish. I would be very interested in a true rhubard beer that uses malt to balance the tartness... probably wouldn't even need hops (maybe just aroma?)... anyone ever had a go at this in a true beer?
 
I entered this one into this years Sam Adams Patriot contest, here it is from memory.

10 gallon batch og 1.050 fg 1.012
mash in 142F batch sparge

12lbs belgian pilsner malt
5 lbs white wheat
.5 ounce hallertau hops 30 min
4lbs of strawberries
8 stocks rhubarb
Wlp 001 California ale yeast

Let beer ferment as normal in primary for 2 weeks until you reach desired FG.
macerate rhubarb, and strawberries with 2 cups sugar, and 2 cups water, until fruit becomes broken down. Add to secondary ferment for 2 weeks, and remove fruit.
add to tertiary for 2 more weeks to make sure all of the fruit sugars are completely fermented. Bottle or keg as usual.

I chose to let the fruit do the talking on this one and make it almost like a berliner weiss. What I was trying to do was to get the tartness of belgian beers without all of the funky yeasts. This beer came out fantastic, a great aroma of strawberries, and a great tart aftertaste. The wlp001 did it's job, and fermented cleanly. Great summer beer.
Women really love this beer, because of that this one is great to have on hand at summer parties.
No I don't know what the 2 cups of sugar did to the alcohol content. I really didn't care, I just wanted to get the most of the fruit flavors that I had, and I thought that the sugar would help it to ferment quicker, and more cleanly.
 
I entered this one into this years Sam Adams Patriot contest, here it is from memory.

10 gallon batch og 1.050 fg 1.012
mash in 142F batch sparge

12lbs belgian pilsner malt
5 lbs white wheat
.5 ounce hallertau hops 30 min
4lbs of strawberries
8 stocks rhubarb
Wlp 001 California ale yeast

Let beer ferment as normal in primary for 2 weeks until you reach desired FG.
macerate rhubarb, and strawberries with 2 cups sugar, and 2 cups water, until fruit becomes broken down. Add to secondary ferment for 2 weeks, and remove fruit.
add to tertiary for 2 more weeks to make sure all of the fruit sugars are completely fermented. Bottle or keg as usual.

I chose to let the fruit do the talking on this one and make it almost like a berliner weiss. What I was trying to do was to get the tartness of belgian beers without all of the funky yeasts. This beer came out fantastic, a great aroma of strawberries, and a great tart aftertaste. The wlp001 did it's job, and fermented cleanly. Great summer beer.
Women really love this beer, because of that this one is great to have on hand at summer parties.
No I don't know what the 2 cups of sugar did to the alcohol content. I really didn't care, I just wanted to get the most of the fruit flavors that I had, and I thought that the sugar would help it to ferment quicker, and more cleanly.

Thanks for that recipe, I've already got the base beer in the primary, I hadn't found this till after I brewed it so my recipe is for a 5 gallon batch.

I used all extracts because I haven't moved to all grain yet. I'm waiting until I move to my new apartment in June where I will have a bigger kitchen.

I used the following ingredients:

I took the SG at 1.050 but I threw in some more water to bring it down a little and I forgot to take a new reading so it is probably more like 1.040-1.045

6lbs LME Wheat from Northern Brewer
3lbs DME Munton's Wheat
.75oz Cascade hops 60min
.25oz Cascade hops 10min
Wyeast American Wheat Yeast

When this is finished fermenting I'm going to add 4oz of strawberry extract with some maltodextrin and rhubarb. Do you think 4 stalks of rhubarb would be enough? And should I throw in some corn sugar to help with a clean ferment?
 
4 stalks of rhubarb is what I used for 5 gallons, and came out nice and tart, but not overly so. I fermented in 2 5gallon fermenters, the wlp001 came out great, but I fermented the other with wlp051. I always make 10 gallons, and split it into 5 gallons, so I can use 2 different kinds of yeast. The wlp051 came out great to, but had a faint smell of sulfur, almost like a lager. I don't know why, maybe it reacted with the rhubarb, who knows. The wlp001 came out the best.
 
This was the best recipe we brewed last year. Really easy to drink and tasty. Most of it was drank by men who didn't think they would like it, but then have been raving about it all year.

Brewed it with extract using a simple conversion from promash or something. We did steep some grain, i'd have to dig into my poor records from that time period to find out exactly what we did. This year i'm brewing all-grain, so it will be a new adventure. That mash temp seems real low, but we'll see!
 
So, I just popped the top on my own Strawberry/Rhubarb beer.

SPECIALTY GRAIN
-- 0.25 lbs English Extra Dark Crystal
-- 1 lbs Belgian Biscuit Malt
-- 0.5 lbs Briess Caramel 60L
FERMENTABLES
-- 3.15 lbs Maris Otter Malt Syrup
-- 1 lb Pilsen DME
-- 1 lb corn sugar
HOPS & FLAVORINGS
-- 1 oz UK Kent Goldings (60 min)
-- 1 oz Styrian Goldings (Celeia) (5 min)
YEAST
WLP009 Australian Ale Yeast

Fermented for 2 weeks by itself transfered 2.5ish gallons into a second better bottle and added 4lbs of strawberries and 2lbs of rhubarb into each better bottle. Let fermentation go for 2-3 weeks and then bottled with honey.

The original recipe called for an additional oz of hops at 60min but I left it out as rhubarb is naturally tart. I used the australian ale yeast and the biscuit malt to get a bready pie crust flavor on the back end. I think next time I will add just a little bit more biscuit and caramel 60L.

This turned out amazingly well considering I was just experimenting. It did everything I wanted and produced an excellent beer that everyone is raving about. By all means, steal my recipe and tweek it to your liking. Let me know how it goes.

Cheers :mug:
 
So, I just popped the top on my own Strawberry/Rhubarb beer.

SPECIALTY GRAIN
-- 0.25 lbs English Extra Dark Crystal
-- 1 lbs Belgian Biscuit Malt
-- 0.5 lbs Briess Caramel 60L
FERMENTABLES
-- 3.15 lbs Maris Otter Malt Syrup
-- 1 lb Pilsen DME
-- 1 lb corn sugar
HOPS & FLAVORINGS
-- 1 oz UK Kent Goldings (60 min)
-- 1 oz Styrian Goldings (Celeia) (5 min)
YEAST
WLP009 Australian Ale Yeast

Fermented for 2 weeks by itself transfered 2.5ish gallons into a second better bottle and added 4lbs of strawberries and 2lbs of rhubarb into each better bottle. Let fermentation go for 2-3 weeks and then bottled with honey.

The original recipe called for an additional oz of hops at 60min but I left it out as rhubarb is naturally tart. I used the australian ale yeast and the biscuit malt to get a bready pie crust flavor on the back end. I think next time I will add just a little bit more biscuit and caramel 60L.

This turned out amazingly well considering I was just experimenting. It did everything I wanted and produced an excellent beer that everyone is raving about. By all means, steal my recipe and tweek it to your liking. Let me know how it goes.

Cheers :mug:

is your recipe for 5 gallons? I see you only transferred 2.5?
 
Strange as it sounds, a rhubarb dunkelweizen might be pretty tasty? Those tend to have some sweetness to spare, and the tart fruitiness might go well with the banana/chocolaty flavors.
 
With the addition of the fruit, it was way more than 6 gallons. Had to transfer it in half (2.5 x 2 six gallon better bottles) to fit the strawberries and rhubarb. I then transfered it back into a 6.5 gallon bottling bucket for bottle day. had to bottle some and then add the rest to the top. It ended up being 7 gallons of the stuff.

The original recipe is for 5 gallons but you gotta have that second fermentor for fruit addition.
 
Alright, going to resurrect this thread. Anyone want to provide some feedback on this recipe?

Rhubarb Saison
Type: All Grain Date: 11/15/2013
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.0 gal
Boil Size: 11.9 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment:
Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
18 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 73.5 %
1 lbs Caramel Malt - 20L (Briess) (20.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.1 %
1 lbs Caramel Rye (Weyermann) (35.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.1 %
1 lbs Honey Malt (Gambrinus) (25.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.1 %
1 lbs Wheat - Soft Red, Flaked (Briess) (1.6 SRM) Grain 5 4.1 %
8.0 oz Oats, Golden Naked (Simpsons) (10.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.0 %
2.00 oz Strisslespalt [4.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 7 15.9 IBUs
2 lbs Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 8 8.2 %
2.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 9 -
2.00 oz Strisslespalt [4.00 %] - Boil 8.0 min Hop 10 4.4 IBUs
2.00 lb Rhubarb (Secondary 5.0 days) Other 11 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.065 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.0 %
Bitterness: 20.3 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 8.3 SRM

Single Infusion mash, medium body with batch sparge.

Thinking 3724, 3711, 3726PC or 670 for the yeast.
 
I don't like rhubarb by itself. Typically you would combine it with another fruit like strawberries or raspberries. I made a sour about a year and a half ago and added about 4 lbs rhubarb and 3 lbs raspberries (reduced the mixture) to the sour beer (2.5 gallons) about 8 months ago. Hydro samples are pretty amazing, but I have almost no use in cooking with rhubarb itself (without a ton of sugar).
 
Alright, going to resurrect this thread. Anyone want to provide some feedback on this recipe?

Rhubarb Saison
Type: All Grain Date: 11/15/2013
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.0 gal
Boil Size: 11.9 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment:
Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
18 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 73.5 %
1 lbs Caramel Malt - 20L (Briess) (20.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.1 %
1 lbs Caramel Rye (Weyermann) (35.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.1 %
1 lbs Honey Malt (Gambrinus) (25.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.1 %
1 lbs Wheat - Soft Red, Flaked (Briess) (1.6 SRM) Grain 5 4.1 %
8.0 oz Oats, Golden Naked (Simpsons) (10.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.0 %
2.00 oz Strisslespalt [4.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 7 15.9 IBUs
2 lbs Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 8 8.2 %
2.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 9 -
2.00 oz Strisslespalt [4.00 %] - Boil 8.0 min Hop 10 4.4 IBUs
2.00 lb Rhubarb (Secondary 5.0 days) Other 11 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.065 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.0 %
Bitterness: 20.3 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 8.3 SRM

Single Infusion mash, medium body with batch sparge.

Thinking 3724, 3711, 3726PC or 670 for the yeast.

Cant comment on the recipe because I dont speak allgrain yet but, How did this turn out??

Mine was such a raving success that I will be kegging another batch this weekend.

My rhubarb patch should be bigger this next year so need other ideas for it. Hoping yours turned out. :mug:
 
Cant comment on the recipe because I dont speak allgrain yet but, How did this turn out??

Mine was such a raving success that I will be kegging another batch this weekend.

My rhubarb patch should be bigger this next year so need other ideas for it. Hoping yours turned out. :mug:

I actually haven't brewed it yet. But I will soon as I will be home for a few weeks with a newborn.
 
I made a Rhubarb Wit over the summer... it was a little light since it was my first all-grain and I didn't know what I was doing (still not sure I know, but that's another story.) It may have also had a mild infection, but when I took it to Oktoberfest (Local Homebrew Club made some money by working the fest and we donated beer to the fest) people drank it and I got some pretty positive comments. :)
 
I entered this one into this years Sam Adams Patriot contest, here it is from memory.

10 gallon batch og 1.050 fg 1.012
mash in 142F batch sparge

12lbs belgian pilsner malt
5 lbs white wheat
.5 ounce hallertau hops 30 min
4lbs of strawberries
8 stocks rhubarb
Wlp 001 California ale yeast

Let beer ferment as normal in primary for 2 weeks until you reach desired FG.
macerate rhubarb, and strawberries with 2 cups sugar, and 2 cups water, until fruit becomes broken down. Add to secondary ferment for 2 weeks, and remove fruit.
add to tertiary for 2 more weeks to make sure all of the fruit sugars are completely fermented. Bottle or keg as usual.

I chose to let the fruit do the talking on this one and make it almost like a berliner weiss. What I was trying to do was to get the tartness of belgian beers without all of the funky yeasts. This beer came out fantastic, a great aroma of strawberries, and a great tart aftertaste. The wlp001 did it's job, and fermented cleanly. Great summer beer.
Women really love this beer, because of that this one is great to have on hand at summer parties.
No I don't know what the 2 cups of sugar did to the alcohol content. I really didn't care, I just wanted to get the most of the fruit flavors that I had, and I thought that the sugar would help it to ferment quicker, and more cleanly.

sorry to drudge up an old post, but my rhubarb should start coming in soon, and I'm definitely going to give this beer a shot.

A couple of quick questions on the strawberry/rhubarb addition...did you do anything to prep these other than wash off as normal--pasturize, freeze, etc.? And, when you macerate, did you physically mash it up, or just let it sit in the sugar water until it was broken down?

Thanks! :mug:
 
What do you guys think about a rhubarb stout.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Might be good.

I'm wondering how the folks who've brewed with rhubarb prepared it for the beer, and when they added it.

I'm planning a fruit sour brew that I'm going to split in three for secondary, which is when I'll be adding the puréed fruit. Into a third I'm planning to use 12.5-15# blueberries! and another third rhubarb, and the last third possibly guava, though guava isn't in season yet, that carboy can sit a while.

I wondering if the fibrous parts of the rhubarb should be separated and if I should juice it, or just process it in food processor and add raw, or if I should just cut up and cook with water and let it break itself down and then let it cool ad add to fermenter. I'm thinking that the bug farm blend will chew through just about anything.

TD


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 
I went with a Belgian style ale only did a three gallon batch just in case. I grow fresh rhubarb so I have that picked and chopped and ready to go in secondary with strawberries. I'm thinking 2lb berries and 3lb rhubarb. Anyone have any comments on that.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
When I brewed mine it was an American wheat with 3lbs of strawberries and 3lbs of Barb.

Results were a good drinkable beer. But the strawberries didn't come through and it was really tart

I would like to do it again but pass on the berries and do just the barb and either back sweeten or use lactose.

Hope that helps people.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Why not use carapils to sweeten? You could find a recipe for a sweet stout and just use that amount of carapils (probably a pound or so). That way you won't have to add lactose and you can still bottle condition.

If you have the equipment for it (an ice cream maker), you could make sorbet out of it if it's too tart to drink.
 
Alright, going to resurrect this thread. Anyone want to provide some feedback on this recipe?

Rhubarb Saison
Type: All Grain Date: 11/15/2013
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.0 gal
Boil Size: 11.9 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment:
Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
18 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 73.5 %
1 lbs Caramel Malt - 20L (Briess) (20.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.1 %
1 lbs Caramel Rye (Weyermann) (35.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.1 %
1 lbs Honey Malt (Gambrinus) (25.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.1 %
1 lbs Wheat - Soft Red, Flaked (Briess) (1.6 SRM) Grain 5 4.1 %
8.0 oz Oats, Golden Naked (Simpsons) (10.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.0 %
2.00 oz Strisslespalt [4.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 7 15.9 IBUs
2 lbs Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 8 8.2 %
2.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 9 -
2.00 oz Strisslespalt [4.00 %] - Boil 8.0 min Hop 10 4.4 IBUs
2.00 lb Rhubarb (Secondary 5.0 days) Other 11 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.065 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.0 %
Bitterness: 20.3 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 8.3 SRM

Single Infusion mash, medium body with batch sparge.

Thinking 3724, 3711, 3726PC or 670 for the yeast.

Ack, lactose in a saison? How did this turn out?

Might be good.

I'm wondering how the folks who've brewed with rhubarb prepared it for the beer, and when they added it.

I'm planning a fruit sour brew that I'm going to split in three for secondary, which is when I'll be adding the puréed fruit. Into a third I'm planning to use 12.5-15# blueberries! and another third rhubarb, and the last third possibly guava, though guava isn't in season yet, that carboy can sit a while.

I wondering if the fibrous parts of the rhubarb should be separated and if I should juice it, or just process it in food processor and add raw, or if I should just cut up and cook with water and let it break itself down and then let it cool ad add to fermenter. I'm thinking that the bug farm blend will chew through just about anything.

Keep it simple. Clean and cut the rhubarb, freeze it till you're ready, then thaw and add to the beer. You can break it up a little with your hands (in a ziploc) as it's thawing, but that's about it.
 
Why not use carapils to sweeten? You could find a recipe for a sweet stout and just use that amount of carapils (probably a pound or so). That way you won't have to add lactose and you can still bottle condition.

If you have the equipment for it (an ice cream maker), you could make sorbet out of it if it's too tart to drink.

I am making a saison and already have some caramel 20 and caramel rye in mine.

The lactose is to provide a creamy sweetness to deal with the sharp tartness of rhubarb..

I don't understand why I wouldn't be able to bottle if lactose is in the recipe. Or I suppose it was directed at someone else.
 
As far as the recipe goes I think it maybe overly complex for a rhubarb beer. But it's not my brew. I have had the best luck with simpler wheat ales with the fruits added after say 3 days to the primary. You might want to rethink the lactose and replace it with Belgium candi (beet sugar). It ferments really nice with a sweet tone that may mellow out the tartness and tone down the alcohol taste, similar to Belgium Tripels. I may even have to try this myself now that you got me thinking. Also perhaps the addition of sweet orange peel may work. I also cook and can and just made a rhubarb chutney with orange peel and raisins that was the hit at the last barbecue.
 
I just harvest the rhubarb, clean, cut up, freeze and then add it when I add the strawberries. Zero issues in a few batches.

It has become a staple for the keezer and a favorite of friends and family.
 
I've been looking at doing a strawberry rhubarb wit. Essentially, toss 5lbs of rhubarb into the mash, and then 3lbs rhubarb and strawberry to secondary.

I feel like a nice light beer like a wit would pair nicely with the berry/rhubarb combo. Tartness is well accepted in a wit, and if I like the residual sweetness as I sample, I'll just knock out the yeast with sorbate and campden.

Also entertained 1/3 pilsen, 1/3 wheat flake and 1/3 rye. But think that might be a bit too much going on. :S
 
My first Rhubarb beer has been in primary for a week. I took some samples from it, and it tastes great!
So if things don't go wrong in the fermentation, it might become a very good beer.
It's my first homemade recipe, so I'm starting to get proud :)

I did a 10l. batch. (more like 9l) OG was 1054
I used pure Maris Otter grains in a BIAB mashing.
Did a 60 hour boil with 12g of Nugget hops for bittering and another 8g if Nugget for the last 15 mins.
Added 250g of Light DME for the last half hour of the boil.

I added 100g of peeled rhubarbs together with 200g of Raspberries in a hop bag during the last 15 min. of the boil.

The yeast is a mixture of US-05 and Wyeast London Ale (reharvested)

The tartness is lovely, and it goes well with the hop bitterness. The beer has a bit of the pinkish coloring from the raspberries.

Head and Body might be a bit off, since I only used one kind of grains, But Maris Otter is suposed to be good as a single grain, and I added the 250g of DME just to be sure.

I'll try to keep you updated if I haven't jinxed myself by braggin about a beer yet to be fermented :)
 
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