Odd secondary with rhubarb... What's this picture???

[mrbunn]

Alright, so I have a few batches under my belt (all extract and partial mashes up to this point) and they have all turned out very good. I thought I'd get a little cute and add rhubarb to the secondary of the saison I was brewing. Anyhow, it has looked like this for weeks and it doesn't seem to be going away or changing. I was thinking of bottling, but I'm open to advice on how to proceed... In fact, I was hoping for advice, so thanks in advance if anyone has seen something like this and can steer me in a direction.

Oh, the junk you can see just below the krausen-looking-head is rhubarb that has floated...

What to do, what to do?

 

[JLem]

hard to tell from the photo - it looks pretty normal from here. What was your process for this? Can you get a close-up photo?

 

[eastoak]

looks like the rhubarb has disintegrated. looks cute but be sure to let us know how it tastes.

 

[onipar]

Well, the pic looks okay. I've read that people tertiary when doing fruit to help get off all that fruit trub, so you might want to try that.

Rhubarb was an interesting choice, that stuff is *super* tart. I made a strawberry rhubarb pie once that--even with all the sugar--was very tart. Let us know how this comes, very interested.

 

[mrbunn]

hard to tell from the photo - it looks pretty normal from here. What was your process for this? Can you get a close-up photo?

So the basic idea was to take a saison extract kit and add rhubarb in the secondary. (I used the High Gravity Maison de Ferme kit with Wyeast Belgian Saison yeast... can't remember the number offhand.) Primary went fine and I racked it to secondary on top of 3 lb of rhubarb that had been boiled, frozen and then thawed. It looked pretty awful at first... like beer sitting on four inches of boogers. I'm guessing that fermentation picked up again and formed a new krausen in the secondary which trapped some of the rhubarb on the surface. (Sorry about the crappy picture, I'll try to get another one posted tonight.)

Basically my question is whether I should rack it again or try to siphon it under the krausen into the bottling bucket. It's been about 4 weeks in secondary now and this head/krausen beast thing hasn't changed at all.

 

[yodalegomaster]

Having done this before, This is exactly what I would expect with Rhubarb, strain out of the fermentor, watch your sanitation, into a bottling bucket. I will tell you I back sweeten a little to cut the tartness. I have people who will kill for this beer.

 

[unionrdr]

I love rhubarb pie,no other fruit in it,just a few cups of sugar when it's simmered to sweeten it just right. Kinda the same as using choke cherries. I did that in a wine once. They're so sour they'll surprise you. Rhubarb is no different.
So yeah,I'd say some back sweetening will be needed. just don't use too much.

 

[mrbunn]

Having done this before, This is exactly what I would expect with Rhubarb, strain out of the fermentor, watch your sanitation, into a bottling bucket. I will tell you I back sweeten a little to cut the tartness. I have people who will kill for this beer.

Alright, so I went ahead and bottled the rhubarb saison experiment. I really like how it tasted going in to the bottle, so we'll see. It's pretty edgy and tart, though. Since you seem to have a little experience with all this, how do you strain it when you go to bottle. It gunked the heck out of my racking cane, siphoning attachment, etc. Rhubarb everywhere and I lost over 1/2 gal due to the messiness of it all. Wondering if you have any tips...

Thanks for any help you can give...

 

[yodalegomaster]

What I did was put a bucket strainer over a bucket and racked into that. I have a big colander that would help now. But I will tell you I had problems sanitising all that surface area. If I did it again I pour it all through once to get the big pieces and rack like normal to get it off the yeast a couple of days later.

 

[renshaw]

I wouldn't personally bother,
I'd just rack it to another bucket without any form of filter,
Leave it over night to settle hopefully all the bits have gone to the bottom, transfer to another bucket to bottle OR leave for another night a repeat process (This is how i do fruit wine)
Each time you transfer you leave behind a bit, you end up loosing about 1 to 1.5 litres though, stupid fruit!

 

[unionrdr]

That's why I use muslin sacks for any & all additions. Makes things cleaner & easier.

 

[ruralbrew]

If I have a mess in my carboy, like from dry hopping, I sanitize a hop bag and rubber band, and attach it to the auto-siphon when I transfer to the bottling bucket. Works well for me.

 

[mrbunn]

So a quick update is in order... This was a little bit of a scary experience, even given my understanding of the rule "don't freak out about strange fermentation stuff," but the final product is darn tasty. It lacks a little bit in the malt bill, if I had to be honest, but man! I love it. Thanks to all who chirped in with valuable insight!!!