Cucumber Beer Help

[therealpedro]

I am an amateur gardener, and one of my ambitions is to brew beers using the vegetables I grow in my garden. I am currently trying to brew a cucumber flavored beer.

As a newcomer to to beer brewing I used a Brewers Best Kolsch kit as the base. I figured a kolsch is a light enough beer that even the delicate flavor of cucumber might not be masked.

Anyway, I brewed the beer as per the instructions, but also added between a pound and a half to two pounds of shredded borage leaves about the same time as the finishing hops.

I also intend to add cucumber chunks to the beer, but I did not add it to the boil as I figured the flavor would not survive being boiled very well. I also did not add it to the fermentation bucket, as I don't know any way to sterilize cucumbers that does not ruin their flavor. So I figured I would add the chunks to a glass carboy (I am thinking from 2-4 cucumbers worth) and then moving the beer to the carboy for secondary fermentation on top of the cucumber chunks.

My question is whether the amount of alcohol present in the beer at that point will be enough to retard any bacterial growth due to the introduction of a fairly large amount of unsterilized plant matter? Does anyone know or can offer suggestions?

I suppose I should have asked prior to starting the beer, but sometimes you have to seize the moment.

Thank you all.

 

[PatrickGoss]

If you do a search there are other cucumber beer posts on here.

As for sanitation, I would run the whole cucumbers, the cutting board, and the knife through a sanitizer just like you would anything else that touches your beer.

Let me know how this goes for you. Flat 12 in Indianapolis makes a cucumber kolsh that is amazing.

My only attempt early in my brewing resulted in a rotten veggie flavored beer. I will likely try again though. I am guessing that lowering temperatures to lager levels when introducing the cucumber might prevent the issue I had. Fermentation could be stopped prior to adding the cucumber as well... the cold could more or less do that. Homebrew shops will sell a potassium something to do it chemically.

 

[Dan]

I need to be upfront and ask you a question. What is good about cucumber beer?

 

[therealpedro]

I need to be upfront and ask you a question. What is good about cucumber beer?

Heh. Great question. My answer would be:

1. I don't know. I haven't brewed it yet. Possibly there is nothing good about it.
2. Why does the man climb a mountain? Because it is there. Why did he put cucumbers in his beer? Because they were there.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Try Magic Hat's HiCu beer. It is made with hibiscus (Hi) and cucumber (Cu) and I found it to be undrinkable. That said, to each his own. I am willing to be proven wrong. Let us know how it turns out. I've had really interesting beers made with chilis or pumpkin or yams. And of course there are always strawberries, rasberries, blueberries, etc.

 

[theck]

Call over to Black Box brewing they have been doing a cucumber for a while now. People seem to really like it as well. http://bbbrewco.com or http://www.jwdover.com ask for Jerome

 

[PatrickGoss]

The only one I have had is Cucumber Kolsch by Flat 12 in Indianapolis. It is as crisp and refreshing as a cold cucumber... really wonderful stuff. It's a summer seasonal that is already off the shelves in my town.

 

[Ash1616]

I need to be upfront and ask you a question. What is good about cucumber beer?

I just did a BBS Cucumber Saison recipe and it pairs well with a nice light dinner on a hot summer day. I wouldnt have two or three in a row but it is a flavor that would pair well with most summer bbq dishes.

Like a previous poster said, just sanitize your cutting board, knives and the cucumber itself. As per the recipe I followed I used seedless cucumbers but I suppose you could just cut the seed portion out if you have seeds. I tossed the cucumbers right into the primary and transfered and strained to a secondary for a few days.

Good luck!!!

 

[joyceman]

Ive read some of the prior threads on cuke beer and Im going to give it a try. Going pils/wheat with some honey malt and low IBU northern brewer 60 min addition only. Maybe a late nobel. 3.5 lbs cukes in secondary for 3-6 days. Clean high attentuating yeast to dry it out some.

 

[therealpedro]

just sanitize your cutting board, knives and the cucumber itself.

As far as sanitizing the cucumber itself, how would one go about that? Would you just soak it in a no rinse solution?

 

[Ash1616]

I used some Star San mixture in a spray bottle and gave em a good spray before I put them in the carboy.

 

[MrG]

Just curious, what hops and yeast did you use?

 

[Ash1616]

I used Hallertau and Spaltz, for the yeast I used Safale S-33.

 

[jigtwins]

Call over to Black Box brewing they have been doing a cucumber for a while now. People seem to really like it as well. http://bbbrewco.com or http://www.jwdover.com ask for Jerome

Ive had the black box cucumber. Did not like it. Tried it on two separate occasions. It had a terrible aftertaste that was not cucumber like.

 

[theck]

Ive had the black box cucumber. Did not like it. Tried it on two separate occasions. It had a terrible aftertaste that was not cucumber like.

Ha, I didn't care for it either. I did try their trippel which I did like but cucumber I'd pass on.

 

[joyceman]

I did this about 8 weeks ago:

Pils 6 lb
Unmalted wheat 2 lb
Honey Malt .5 lb
Cascade .75 for 60
Hallertau .5 for 10
us05
3.5 lbs of cukes for 5 days in secondary

It does not taste good. I would describe it as McDonalds dill pickle ale. No bright crisp flavor, just dull soggy dill pickles.

Ill try to age it, but I have very low hopes for this one. At least the recipe only cost me around $10 & I got the cukes for free.

 

[PatrickGoss]

I did this about 8 weeks ago:

Pils 6 lb
Unmalted wheat 2 lb
Honey Malt .5 lb
Cascade .75 for 60
Hallertau .5 for 10
us05
3.5 lbs of cukes for 5 days in secondary

It does not taste good. I would describe it as McDonalds dill pickle ale. No bright crisp flavor, just dull soggy dill pickles.

Ill try to age it, but I have very low hopes for this one. At least the recipe only cost me around $10 & I got the cukes for free.

That sucks. I have such strong wishes for gaining the knowledge to nail this.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Koach]

It seems to me if your peeler is sterilized, the fruit inside (provided the skin wasn't broken and nothing is brown/rotting) should be clean. Bacteria isn't innately inside of fruits and vegetables, otherwise we'd never be able to add them.

Based on what I've seen a friend of mine do when he makes fruit beers (lambics, or others) he always puree's the fruit before adding it to secondary. It maximizes surface area, breaks down cell wall lining to release flavors, etc. If you want to get the most out of your cucumbers in secondary, you might want to consider sterilizing the inside of your food processor and breaking it down that way.

 

[Paramecium]

I've had a couple cucumber beers and none of them were very good. And to be honest it doesn't even sound appealing. Maybe you can make it work, good luck man.

 

[eric19312]

I had a fantastic cucumber Gose from 7venth Sun Brewery. A friend got a growler in a trade and we drank it right away. Was absolutely magical. The cucumber was fresh and distinct and yes salt..lactic sour..cucumber ... maybe it does help if you like pickles!

Tried brewing my own and it was pretty good but didn't even come close to capturing the cucumber punch.

What I did was brew 12 gallons of Gose at 6% ABV (it will be diluted down to about 4.5%). Pitched Wyeast lacto for 6 days held temp at about 105F. Cooled and pitched US-05 and let go for another week. Racked 4 gallons into each of a keg and 2x5 gallon carboys. The keg got a gallon of de oxygenated water and was force carbed, the carboys got cucumber and watermelon respectively.

The cucumber batch got 5 lbs regular salad cukes from the grocery store, peeled and cut lengthwise into long thin slices to make them easy to get into the carboy. Needed to add about half a gallon of do water to get that batch back up to 5 gal. The watermelon (seedless) was cut in half and mushed up in the rind then ladled into to the carboy and with probably 10 pounds pulp didn't need topping water to get to 5 gallons. After 7 days in secondary both the fruited versions were racked off the fruit into kegs and carbed with priming sugar.

After a week at room temp the kegs were chilled and connected to gas for a week and then bottled into swing-top growlers and bottles with a small dose of extra priming sugar. When very fresh both the fruited beers were excellent and the fruit was identifiable. As these have aged over course of about 2 months the cucumber has faded or more descriptively melded into the flavor of the gose and unless pointed out it just tastes like a nice sour gose. It probably tastes more like I hoped a gose would taste than the plain goes tastes (the original keg). The watermelon on the other hand is still identifiable as a fruited beer and not hard to come up with watermelon as the fruit although it also has a distinct pickle character that confuses some.

When I try cucumber again I suppose will try pureeing it.

 

[yourmama]

Simple way to get the cuke flavor. Soak peeled dukes in water for 48 hours, drain and add to , in my batch, already kegged bel wit. Served two days later at a beerfest. People seemed to like it. I wouldn't keep it on keg any longer than a few weeks, the flavor does start to evolve.

 

[joyceman]

Mine has just started to develop into drinkability. The soggy McDs pickle flavor has faded and some of the sharper crisp cuke flavor has developed. I think these things just need some time.

I also carbed mine high, not sure if that has some effect on my perception of the flavor.