Using cucumber??

Tried doing a couple searched but didn't really find an exact answer. Wanting to make a light pale ale and use cucumbers in it. I dont really want to boil the cucumbers since i feel it would break them down and the flavor would be lost.

If I were to peel a bunch of cucumbers and cut it up on a board that was sprayed down with starsan, would it be ok to just drop the chunks in to a bag in secondary?

 

Iv'e thought about this a little too but been too busy with beers that other people want me to brew.

I think there's 2 options, post fermentation and mash. I think the post fermentation would be the best way to go for the first time to see what they do to the beer.

when the beer has finished fermentation and the yeast are cleaning up all their byproducts it would be safe to add the cucumber straight to the beer. I wouldn't bother with the bag, just slice em up keep a lil skin on them and toss them in, and when you rack off, leave them behind.

when the yeast is in that final stage it becomes very hard for bacteria or other infections to get a foothold. There is very little sugars left for the bugs to feed on and the high competition with the yeast and the alcohol make it hostile for anything to grow (at least not at a fast rate)

Those cucumbers contain a good percentage of vitamins A, C and K, and the skin has fiber and minerals such as silica, potassium and magnesium. These minerals and vitamins would be the reason to toss the cucumber in the mash. added nutrients to make the yeast happy. Not sure how much will evaporate out during the boil but its defiantly worth a shot.

Another thing I was thinking was a little oven toasting to form some Melanoidins and residual sweetness that hopefully wont ferment out. going for that cucumber bread flavor.

 

Read a great thread on this recently! - Posted below - Sounds like a great recipe and people seemed to love it! I'ma try next year if not this year!

They racked secondary on top of cucumbers - no spraying with starsan just clean cucumbers peeled and cut on a sanitized cutting board and with sanitized hands. Read through the thread they talk through a lot of options and make their decisions.

You could soak in Vodka too if you were that worried about it.

Seemed like the secondary was the way to go - he used 3lbs and the cuc. was up front but he said it was good. YOu could dumb it down a lb or two if you wanted. - They peeled and cut the seeds out.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/summer-cucumber-brew-235010/

 

Thanks for the feedback guys. Should give me enough info to push me in the right direction.

 

Here's a thread (with pictures!) discussing the same beer as the thread that Blackmuse posted: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/cucumber-coriander-wheat-238257/

 

If you soak in vodka too long it will strip all the cucumber flavor out and leave the cucumber tasking like pure vodka. I infuse alot of vodka.

 

Holy Cow! I really, really thought this thread was a troll! Reminds me of an episode of the 80's sitcom Cheers where they run off the new bartender by creating a new drink called the Screaming Viking. Woody "Norm, do you want your cucumber bruised?" Norm "slightly".

classic!

[ame="http://youtu.be/LBazaWO03Fo"]http://youtu.be/LBazaWO03Fo[/ame]

 

Exactly how long would be too long? I have some Cacao nibs in vodka as we speak (because I read it somewhere else) - They have been in the vodka since 5 pm yesterday... Planned on racking tonight - so 24 hrs. This morning when I checked them out the Cacao seemed to have sucked up all the vodka and it smelled like Chocolate - yummy really.

Hope I didn't waste 8 oz of nibs!

 

My experience is 24 hours will take alot of flavor out of whatever you put in vodka. To fully extract all the flavor it's probably closer to a week. When I add peppers, vanilla bean, oak to secondaries I usually put them in a glass container with some water and cover with a damp cloth. Microwave that for 15 minutes. It steams whatevers in it. I then add the ingrediants including the water since it has absorbed alot of the flavor to the secondary.

 

Good to note! Thanks for the info.

I just racked to secondary today. The nibs still tasted like chocolate! Actually, the nibs had sucked up almost all of the vodka and and the whole thing smelled of chocolate! I doubt I'll soak in vodka again though as I doubt it was really necessary.

 

Well I ended up brewing this and it worked out pretty well. Used 3lbs of cucumber that I chopped up in to cubes and added in to secondary. Used star-san on everything as i chopped and peeled. At first the beer was pretty pickley but as it matured it went back towards cucumber. I think I "dry-cuked" it for 7 days and next time I'll probably take it down to 5 days and maybe only go with 2-2.5lbs of cucumbers, but it still tastes good. Entered it in to a competition and managed to go home with a 3rd place.