Cucumber in beer?

[podz]

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.

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...

 

[schematix]

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...

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.

 

[podz]

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.

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!

 

[Kwitty]

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

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!

 

[Wruckus]

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.

 

[xico]

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.

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.

 

[Wruckus]

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

 

[unionrdr]

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.

 

[Loco]

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.

 

[Loco]

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!

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

 

[xico]

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

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.

 

[xico]

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.

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.

 

[Loco]

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 ?

 

[Loco]

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 -

 

[Rank_Amateur]

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.

 

[Revvy]

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

 

[Dynachrome]

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.

It's been a while, any feedback?

 

[Dynachrome]

I'm thinking of giving it a whirl.

 

[sibelman]

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.

 

[sibelman]

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.

 

[BugAC]

I used the search function, but couldn't find what i was looking for. I want to make a very light cucumber session beer this summer, around 3.5-4% and 20 or so IBUs. I was wondering if anyone had experimented with cucumber as an ingredient. I was thinking of juicing a bunch of cucumbers for about a gallon of juice and adding the juice right at turn off so that the juice is pasturized, but not boiled. I want to have a crisp refreshing cucumber flavor for the summer months, any feedback on my idea?

I made a cucumber gose a couple years ago. It was pretty good, but the beer tasted like pickle juice. For the refreshing cucumber, i'd use it in a clean lager, like maybe a helles or pilsner. Cucumber has a very sleight flavor.

For the Cucumber gose i think i peeled and used 2 cucumbers for a 5 gallon batch, in secondary.

 

[sibelman]

My second cucumber pilsner was an improvement. 9 lbs. GW 'pure Idaho' pilsner malt, so slightly lower gravity and more delicate maltiness than with 10 lbs. Gold Rush pilsner malt. Also, I used Saaz instead of Tetnang, and Imperial Urkel instead of Omega OYL-101 and did not experience as much sulfur nose during active fermentation. It took a few days to clear, but is now sparkling and refreshing -- just in time for our next bout of "hot" weather (in Portland, Oregon, 90°F passes for hot).

 

[Dynachrome]

@sibelman how small of chunks please?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/cucumber-in-beer.226450/page-2

This popped up again today....

I went as far as buying cukes.

 

[sibelman]

I use ~2 pounds in a 5 gallon batch. Chunks about 1/2 inch. Seeds removed. Best of luck, @Dynachrome

 

[sibelman]

My latest cucumber Pilsner is almost carbed up now. Fairly tasty, maybe I'll up the cukes next time.

Side note: I'm hoping it will clear further, but I had mash trouble with Tchecomalt, which may not have fully converted.

 

[skibb]

I make a very tasty Cucumber Lime Gose that comes out to .45lb per gallon of peeled, and chopped up English Cucumber

 

[Snuffy]

Has anyone considered a nice turnip saison?

 

[Indian_villager]

Has anyone considered a nice turnip saison?

You are behind
https://untappd.com/b/local-relic-artisan-ales-turnip-beet-sour-and-riesling-saison/3138131