Arugula Saison Experiment

[s0615353]

One of my favorite food/beer pairings is beer and arugula. For my palate, the spicy nutty flavor of Arugula is a perfect compliment to Saison, Classic Pilsner (Czech/German) and IPA. But can the two be brewed together in some way?

An Internet search led to an Arugula Saison with very few lackluster reviews, and a fellow homebrewer who showed interest, but did not post any results or guidelines. For this reason, I am going to document my thought process, and step-by-step experiments followed by an eventual brew day and tasting notes. The only thing I ask is that future homebrewers that would do me the honor of using my results, do not copy them verbatim. These choices I made are based on my own palette, my own system (with 85% efficiency), and my own brewing philosophy. Please make something that YOU like, after all that is what this hobby is all about!

Step 1: Is it Worth Brewing?
After the lack of results online, I was not even sure if an arugula saison was worth brewing. For this reason I decided to create an arugula extract, and blended into beer to see how the ingredients worked together.

Arugula Extract
1. I first put 5 oz. of arugula and a 375 ml bottle of vodka in a blender until the leaves were chopped. After it was blended, I sealed it in a 1 pt. mason jar for 24 hrs. SAVE THE VODKA BOTTLE FOR AFTER!!!

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2. Strain the extract as best as you can (there will be some vegetable matter on the bottom of the bottle). Pour the liquid back in the vodka bottle.

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Testing the extract in beer:

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A. 1/8 oz extract and 6 oz. of neutral beer (I used High Life, but Coors, Corona, Bud, etc. would be fine). Arugula was not detectable

B. 1/4 oz extract and 6 oz. of neutral beer. Arugula was noticeable, but not overpowering. The nutty and herbal flavors
We're what came through (no spice).

C. A. 1/2 oz extract and 6 oz. of neutral beer. Too alcoholic tasting and a dominating amount of arugula flavor/aroma (still no spicy character.

From this experiment I determined that:
A. Arugula and beer can go together.
B. Arugula extract transfers the herbal and nutty flavors of arugula, but not the spice.

The next experiment will be to try boiling the arugula to try to extract some spice and bitterness.

 

[Revvy]

You might want to try my nitrogen cavitation extraction method which I know works with herbs like rosemary and thyme as well as hops and lavender. I give an in depth explanation along with a link to a podcast I was on about it, here.

I think boiling with probably not be that good, BUT you could try a hot infusion like with a coffee press keeping the water at no more than 150 or 180 degrees, I've done hop steeping that way both to make hop sugar for hop cotton candy and as another extraction method for adding more hoppiness at kegging.

Oh, if you're still doing research or looking for commercial examples, remember in the "Commonwealth" Arrugula is called "Rocket" so British or Australian breweries might have done some beers with it (as well as homebrewers) under that name. (After years of watching British and Australian Cooking shows and hearing them talk about Rocket, I finally googled it one day and was surprised to see it was the same thing, and also how the different terms came about.)

I love experiments like this, keep me posted.

 

[s0615353]

That is very interesting, I may experiment with that in the future.

I was planning on boiling the arugula for 60, 45, 30, 15, and 5 min to see the result. I was also going to "whirlpool" it as you had recommended within the next week. Thanks for the support!

 

[Revvy]

Did anything ever happen with this?

 

[myerstyson]

Yes, very interested. How'd it go?

Also, could you get the peppery taste of Arugula simply by fermenting the Saison warm? (I think it is warm for peppery saisons.) Or how about "cheating" and adding black peppercorn to the end of the boil?

 

[s0615353]

After experimenting with arugula in the boil I decided that this experiment was not worth continuing. Whether put in alcohol, or boiling the green flavors of the arugula were the only thing extracted. As stated, if you want pepper ferment hot, or add black pepper.