Cucumber in beer?

[manortc]

I'm interested in how this beer turns out. My brother suggested a cucumber IPA. After reading this and the posts that were linked to, I'm thinking we need to go with a much less hopped beer, possibly a wheat or a lightly hopped ale.

 

[MDRex]

I'll be doing in the next few weeks. I'll be using real cucumber, sliced thin and seeded in the secondary. I am going to split a batch of wheat beer and also do jalapeno cilantro I think. Will post more once they are made.

 

[manortc]

For the people who suggested using borage as a dry herbing. How much would you use for 5 gal?

 

[rockfish42]

For the people who suggested using borage as a dry herbing. How much would you use for 5 gal?

It depends on whether you're using dried or fresh, I'd stick with maybe a half oz of fresh at flameout up to 2 oz as a start. Another option would be to make a tincture with some cheapish vodka and see if you like the flavor. You'll get different compounds from flameout, tincture or dry herbing with the same herb.

 

[vinyl_key]

One of my roommates makes cucumber water in the warm months. Just water and chopped cucumber in a pitcher in the fridge.
You could do the same thing with your mash water. If you have a big enough container, you could infuse all of your mash water with cucumbers for a day or two before brew day. Not sure what the heat of the mash and subsequent boil will do with the flavors though.

 

[BigJerk]

My new toy! Now I can do full boils as long as my stove can handle it. I'm gonna try and go all grain, then in may or june do the cucumber beer.

 

[manortc]

Cool new toy. My stove is a very cheap apartment model and it works fine with my 15 gallon brew pot. It just put it on two burners to increase the temp, then turn one off to hold the temps steady. I think we're going to shoot for our cucumber beer to be ready in July, so will be brewing about the same time.

 

[BigJerk]

This one's a 9 gallon. I did a 6 gallon test boil, and it can get up to a boil well enough , but when the lid comes off it drops and holds at exactly 211, its bubbling good, but no rolling boil for sure. the base is big enough to be on 1 1/2 burners, so I might try a test boil like that today. I'd like to brew in it next weekend, maybe do my first BIAB in 3 weeks, and if that works I might go all grain all the time!

 

[mutedog]

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.

 

[BigJerk]

Definately! I'd love to know how that turns out.

 

[manortc]

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

 

[ViperMan]

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)?

 

[ColeVet67]

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.!!!!

 

[m00ps]

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

 

[MNSmitty]

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

 

[JKaranka]

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/

 

[xico]

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.

 

[Wruckus]

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

 

[xico]

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

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

 

[Wruckus]

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.

 

[xico]

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.

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.

 

[Wruckus]

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.

 

[QuadConPana]

Good luck. This is a pretty tasty brew.

 

[Wruckus]

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.

 

[eric19312]

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.

 

[broncosmoker]

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.

 

[xico]

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?

 

[xico]

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.

 

[Wruckus]

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!

 

[schematix]

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.