Cucumber in beer?

If you want a taste-tester for it, my brother who's planning a cucumber IPA lives just north of Milwaukee

Ya know, the biggest problem with this website sometimes is finding a thread like this that never ends with any real-world results.

Got some free wheat yeast from a homebrew comp and thinking of doing a cucumber lime beer with some grains of paradise. Was looking for a starting point for cucumber ratios. Any of these guys still around that can share what they did (if they ever did it)?

ok.. so i tried someones cucumber saison at the LHBS. Quite different i must say. If i recall correctly.. i think he said he juiced them (no skins) and added into secondary, for how long, IDK. There was just a faint odd cucumbery type aftertaste not really much to speak of, but you knew it was deff in there. i also got what seemed like bubblegum flavor as well. IDK if that was yeast or what.. Not my cup of tea but worth a try if your adventurous.!!!!

I still have a 6pack of a cucumber mint saison I made a bit over a year ago. Definitely true to its name

A local brewery has a Cucumber Basil Saison. Its pretty good. The cuke flavor is in the background, but its definitely there. The basil flavor is pretty light. Its a nice beer, good for a hot day

Do you get Wild's Cool as a Cucumber over there? Good commercial beer

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/fyne-ales--wild-beer-cool-as-a-cucumber/218493/

To revive this interest, has anyone done anything since?

I was thinking about making a cucumber farmhouse and I'd like to have the fruit come through strongly. I appreciate Trinity's Elektric Cucumbah which is worth a try if you can find it. They say they add a large amount of English cukes per barrel.

Thin slices of skinned, seeded cucumbers in secondary sound great. But how many per gallon? I'm intrigued by the vodka infusion idea. I suspect that would be a way to retain a potent amount of aromatics in a minimal volume of liquid to add, along with the benefit of sanitizing your addition.

When I make my gazpacho ale I use 3# of cucumber peeled, sliced very thin, in the secondary for 7-10 days. Flavor and aroma balance well for me with this technique

Wruckus said:

When I make my gazpacho ale I use 3# of cucumber peeled, sliced very thin, in the secondary for 7-10 days. Flavor and aroma balance well for me with this technique

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Thank you for the input. Is that for 5 gallon batches? Do you remove the seeds as well?

Yes it's a 5-5.5 gal batch. I do not remove the seeds. The "seed sacks" hold more soluble cucumber water for flavor where the "flesh" will give you the aroma. Slicing thin is important for surface area to extraction.

Wruckus said:

Yes it's a 5-5.5 gal batch. I do not remove the seeds. The "seed sacks" hold more soluble cucumber water for flavor where the "flesh" will give you the aroma. Slicing thin is important for surface area to extraction.

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Thank you for all your input. This will be a part of the next beer I make. Were you easy on the malts and hops? I'm liking these saisons mentioned here too. I guess I'm trying to figure out what could complement a beer that puts cucumber at the center.

Yes very light in the grains, but they are blend of base malts. If you go the saison route stay within style and bump up the cucumber. What I did wasn't cucumber forward. It complimented the tomato. Saison would be great! French yeast, Pilsner malt, 90 min boil, low ibu, 4% ish, go up around 5-6 # cucumbers, 7 day secondary, cold crash.

Good luck. This is a pretty tasty brew.

It's a good one if its fresh! Both the cucumber and hop aroma diminish quickly in this beer! They use noble hops so it's bitterness comes through more. Just my opinion. Like unpeeled cucumber, lil aroma. And that company doesn't care about their patrons! So I don't care about them. Live in FL.

I made a cucumber Gose. Used about 5 lbs peeled thin sliced cukes in 5 gal in secondary for 2 weeks. For about 3-4 weeks it was outstanding then the cuke flavor and aroma faded into the sour beer and it was still very good but not cuke.

I hope someone makes one that comes out reasonably good.

At NHC this year we had a cucumber Saison from one of the clubs. One of the best beers offered on Club night. I really wish I remember the clubs name. Was very crisp and clean, almost like having cucumber water. Would be great in the summer. Wish I had that recipe and notes. Not sure how long the cucumber stays fresh though. I know watermelon wheats seem to only last a couple weeks before losing it.

As per recommendations from this thread and my own readings I have a recipe I am working on. I want to utilize essential oils in hops to coincide with the cucumber. The sorachi ace I have available throws off a lot of lemon and dill, tahoma adds lemon and a little cedar. I will probably split the batch and try a French Saison and US-05 in each. I can't quite tell if the saison will clutter the brew or provide a pleasant complexity. White wheat is used because of its ability to retain hop aromas (and perhaps cucumber too?).

I will mash for a dry ale, 60 minutes in beta amylase before moving to a shorter alpha.

Batch size 15.00 gallons
1.059 OG
1.011 FG with 6.21% ABV (to account for water in cukes which will drop it)
IBU 18-20

Pilsen 40%
Vienna 25%
White Wheat 20%
Flaked Oats 6.67%
Crystal 20L 8.33%

Sorachi Ace (10.50% AA) 1.75 oz for 60 mins
Sorachi 1.50 for 8 mins
Tahoma (7.70% AA) 1.50 oz for 5 mins
Tahoma (dry hop) 1.50 oz for 7 days
Sorachi (dry hop) 1.75 oz for 7 days

16# fresh skinned and sliced cukes in secondary for 10-14 days

I suspect some will say the hops are heavy for the cukes and I'm open to scaling back. My thinking is that if the cuke flavor and aroma is as unstable as it seems to be, it'd be nice to have an enjoyable beer in its absence. Thoughts?

To follow up I fermented this above beer out from 1.062 to 1.005, I love that 3711 but also held a mash step of 146 for 60 minutes to dry the beer out.

I racked 4.5 gallons of it onto 5.25 pounds of skinned and mandolin thin sliced cucumbers with a strong aroma. A few days later I dry hopped with 1.5 oz of Amarillo. I will follow up with some photos and impressions next week.

Sounds great! I love how you fermented out more and went to the dry step! I believe you will love the blend of saison to cucumber and hops. I'd like to hear if you prefer it over the 05. I bet I would. Anticipating the follow up!

Couple years ago when I first started brewing (around the time this thread started), I gave about 20 cukes from my garden to someone making a cucumber hefe. They used them like a dry hop in secondary.

They gave me a bottle since i supplied the cukes. They thought it was a great beer and said it was well received at a local HB get together. I thought it was foul and swirled it.

schematix said:

Couple years ago when I first started brewing (around the time this thread started), I gave about 20 cukes from my garden to someone making a cucumber hefe. They used them like a dry hop in secondary.

They gave me a bottle since i supplied the cukes. They thought it was a great beer and said it was well received at a local HB get together. I thought it was foul and swirled it.

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You people have this whole "false politeness" thing going on when it comes to face-to-face encounters. Probably a result of allowing people to carry handguns or something...

podz said:

You people have this whole "false politeness" thing going on when it comes to face-to-face encounters. Probably a result of allowing people to carry handguns or something...

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Yah we're not nearly as obnoxious as you Europeans.

Unfortunately it is a pervasive trait in our culture that you can't give your honest opinion of something without being considered a jerk. This frequently gets me in trouble. I don't think it has anything to do with guns though. Overwhelming majority of people in this country don't have a firearm and wouldn't even be able to use one if they had to.

schematix said:

Yah we're not nearly as obnoxious as you Europeans.

Unfortunately it is a pervasive trait in our culture that you can't give your honest opinion of something without being considered a jerk.

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Did you ever take a drink of something and then instantaneously spray it because the taste was so not what you were expecting? Happened to me once when I encountered a pitcher of cranberry juice in the fridge which I was expecting to be something else and took a big drink of it. Took a long time to clean up all that red spray from all over the kitchen walls.

Probably would happen again should I put cucumber beer into my mouth with the preconception that it was supposed to be real beer!

podz said:

Did you ever take a drink of something and then instantaneously spray it because the taste was so not what you were expecting?

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Twice! The first was a cucumber wheat beer. No joking! It was interesting is about the best I could say about it. Rather lick the bottom of my shoe than have that again! The other was Budweiser. I started my beer drinking on craft beer. I figured if Budweiser was that popular it must not be that bad. Let's just say I've only ever had one. Well maybe 1/2? I don't knock people that drink it. The way I see it is I drink stuff they wouldn't even look at much less drink. They can have their McDonalds, I'll have my Steak!

Great thing about this place is that ppl can voice their opinions of what they like and don't like. Being a beer forum, no need to continue on the firearm subject. Home brewing as a craft can encompass many things coming together. Supposing that style category of veg/spice beer in bjcb guidelines is enough to argue that it is still"reel" beer, s apparently wrong. I applaud creativity and experimentation.

Wruckus said:

Great thing about this place is that ppl can voice their opinions of what they like and don't like. Being a beer forum, no need to continue on the firearm subject. Home brewing as a craft can encompass many things coming together. Supposing that style category of veg/spice beer in bjcb guidelines is enough to argue that it is still"reel" beer, s apparently wrong. I applaud creativity and experimentation.

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I'll admit regarding other posts, I have only had one successful cucumber beer but I think the envelope needs to be pushed and exploration is a worthwhile process. I made a pineapple cayenne gose a while back that folk on the forums poopooed to no end and it was the best damn beer I've made to date.

To further Wruckus' point, even those guidelines that have been established are a result of practices that weren't the norm until they were. If brewer's of old weren't open to explore new possibilities, lighter kilned malts would never have been used and we'd only know brown and black beers. The industrial practices that allowed for less primitive malting practices were themselves unorthodox at some point, and then they weren't. Brewing seems to be like the creatures that make it, in constant flux, undergoing evolution. I love the old traditionals like stout porters and grut but I like to remind myself that these were also derivations from the norm at some point in time.

Xico, time to follow up. I'm anxious for your results. Also I'd try that goes!

I like rockfish's reply. Borage has a great cucumber flavor. It'll be used in the German mumme' I'm putting together the ingredients for.If memory serves, it was 7g dried Borage for 5-6 gallons.

Hi , i'm new here, i've just brewed a 5 gallon batch of the Jalapeno Saison recipe in BYO's Dec 15 issue, i't's been 2 weeks in the primary as of today.

Has anybody tried it ?

I had to replace the 3 Jalapenos by 2 Moroccan peppers, i'm clueless on their scoville rating though, so i took out the seeds before adding them to the boil.

The recipe says to add a cucumber in the secondary and leave it 3/4 days before bootling, which seems short.

This thread is interesting, id' like to know as well how Xico's effort came out.

podz said:

Did you ever take a drink of something and then instantaneously spray it because the taste was so not what you were expecting? Happened to me once when I encountered a pitcher of cranberry juice in the fridge which I was expecting to be something else and took a big drink of it. Took a long time to clean up all that red spray from all over the kitchen walls.

Probably would happen again should I put cucumber beer into my mouth with the preconception that it was supposed to be real beer!

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Your post reminded me of this Denis Leary bit
https://youtu.be/Roky52aR02E

Wruckus said:

Xico, time to follow up. I'm anxious for your results. Also I'd try that goes!

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Follow up is here, the beer exceeded my expectations as far as the cucumber and saison combination. I used Sorachi Ace as a bittering hop which I would sub out for something more muted. Because it was a first time on a new system and a 90 minute boil I lost more wort than I had anticipated, making my IBU higher than the intended 28-33.

When first drinkable the cucumber was more vegetal in flavor and a punch in the nose but now after conditioning (something always beneficial for saison yeasts in my experience) the cucumber is still the dominant presence but seems to play nicer with the yeast. I'd recommend at least a month conditioning in keg or bottle before really drinking it down. I'll send along photos tomorrow, it's brew day and I'll be opening a couple bottles.

As per the pineapple gose I used the recipe from here:
http://citybrewer.blogspot.com/2009/06/gose-enlightenment.html

I pitched Roselare yeast blend and let it ferment out (3 months) before racking onto 4 pounds (into 5 gallons) of steamed pineapple chunks I froze and 3 grams of cayenne. The steaming wasn't for sanitary reasons but to denature the enzymes in the fruit that would potentially harm your yeasts. It kicked up fermentation and finished out another 10 weeks later before it was safe to bottle. Interesting thing about it, was that it retained an intense pineapple flavor unlike other pineapple beers I've had. I suspect letting the yeasts weaken themselves over months of lowering pH and climbing alcohol content helped to stop fermentation at the right time.

unionrdr said:

I like rockfish's reply. Borage has a great cucumber flavor. It'll be used in the German mumme' I'm putting together the ingredients for.If memory serves, it was 7g dried Borage for 5-6 gallons.

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I was impressed by the cucumberness of borage a few months back. I got a chance to graze some flowers in a garden and I would definitely be interested in experimenting with it!


Regarding Loco's enquiry, I would agree that 4 days seems rather short. It depends on how cucumber do you want your cucumber beer to be I suppose. My beer was on the fruit for 17 days before carbonating and bottling. 14 of those days it was very cold (31-34F), which may have slowed the conditioning process. Even then, I would probably keep it on the cukes for a couple weeks.

Thanks for your feedback, so I kinda got influenced by your DH experiences and separated my batch in 2 for DH.

11l (3 gal): 1/2 cuke + 1 jalapeno + 20g (0.75oz) Centennial
10l (2.6 gal): 1/2 cuke

I'll give them the time they need, right now the temp is around 13/16c (55/60F), would one recommend a cooler DH temperature and why ?

Well My Cucumber spiced up Saison is ready for drinking.
Turns out the cucumbers over powered the chilis so it ressembles more a green beer to be enjoyed on a hot day.



If of any interest

Ingredients

4,75 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (3,0 EBC) Grain 1 72,2 %
1,48 kg Wheat Malt, Bel (3,9 EBC) Grain 2 22,5 %
0,25 kg Caramunich II (Weyermann) (124,1 EBC) Grain 3 3,8 %
0,10 kg Melanoidin (Weyermann) (59,1 EBC) Grain 4 1,5 %
50,00 g Glacier [6,40 %] - Boil 60,0 min Hop 5 32,0 IBUs
3,00 Items Cucumbers (Boil 5,0 mins) Flavor 6 -
57,00 g Willamette [3,90 %] - Boil 5,0 min Hop 7 4,1 IBUs
2,00 Items Red Moroccan Pepper (Boil 5,0 mins) Spice 8 -
1,0 pkg Belle Saison (Lallemand #) Yeast 9 -
1,00 Items Cucumbers (Secondary 7,0 days) Flavor 10 -
40,00 g Centennial [8,50 %] - Dry Hop 7,0 Days Hop 11 0,0 IBUs
1,00 Items Jalapenos (Secondary 7,0 days) Spice 12 -

Interesting thread... I decided to brew a Pilsner with cucumber recently... The Pilsner recipe was fairly middle of the road although dry hopped with 50g/2oz riwaka hops cos I am a kiwi and I love riwaka hops in a pils!

For the cucumbers I juiced 2 big telegraph ones that we get here in Germany. I added the juice just after flameout to sterilise without boiling it and killing the flavour. I kept the juicer pulp and added 1.25oz/35g with the dry hops.

I always make a hop tea with boiling water to sterilise and cut down on beer absorbtion, which seems to Work well with adding these type of ingredients and minimising infections

I Dry Hopped 2 days ago on starting the diacetyl rest which is planned for 3 days.

I tasted it tonight and the cucumber flavour has developed nicely. It was barely there when I dry hopped but is now distinct without being overpowering

I really wanted a balanced crisp Pilsner with a moderate fruity hop aroma and a light but noticeable cucumber flavour in the back... Which should result in a great summer thirst quencher... But with a bit more to it than a plain old pils.

I am also using the brulosophy quick Lager method and it seems to be working well. Will update once bottled and carbed in a coupla weeks along with recipe if anyone wants it.

I actually had an amazing Cucumber (either wit or Kolsch) beer at Grand River Brewing Company in Jackson, Michigan last summer. It was amazing, light, crisp and refreshing.

Since this thread I've done some "molecular Gastronomy" stuff with cucumber- gels mostly and I've found is that all you really need to do with the cucumber is to juice it. If you have a juicer it's great. If not, just a blender/food processor with work (that's what I've used) but you need to pass the "mush" through a fine sieve to just get the water.

I'd do a light base beer like a kolsch and possibly add it at bottling or kegging. Cucumber lime might be worth exploring. That's the flavor profile of the gel I made when I made this salmon dish

mutedog said:

This past weekend I brewed a sort of Hefe/Dunkelweizen (somewhere in between). Once it was fermenting fairly well I siphoned off a gallon into a separate fermentor containing a little more than a pound of peeled and mashed cucumbers and a half oz of grated ginger.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

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It's been a while, any feedback?

I'm thinking of giving it a whirl.

I've got a cucumber Pilsner in the fermenter now. ~2 pounds of Persian and regular chunks in a 5 gallon batch, with Omega OYL-101. Hoping for the best from this experiment.

My cucumber Pilsner is reasonably successful. Not sure how clear it's gonna get - maybe should've done a protein rest. Next time I would aim lower than 1.057 OG. Attenuation was more than expected (to 1.010) but even so it's perhaps a bit maltier than ideal.