Rhubarb Wit

[Newsman]

I'm going to be making a Belgian Wit style, with some rhubarb based off a recipe I found here in the recipes section. I was thinking of adding some orange peel to the mix, since a lot of rhubarb pies call for a tablespoon or so of grated orange peel.
Anyone have any thoughts on that? Oh, and one change I'm going to be making from the original recipe is to use 20 oz of rhubarb, total....10 oz in primary and 10 oz in a secondary, and I"m using a different yeast as well. I'm using WLP400 instead of the Wyeast 3333 that was called for in the original recipe as my LHBS didn't have that particular yeast.
My hope is to have a good rhubarb flavor, but not too bitter. Maybe back sweeten a bit just before kegging. Thinking of adding some Splenda so it won't kick the yeast back to life.
Anyway, thoughts/ideas/comments welcome.

 

[deadboy182]

Are you doing a partial mash or all grain? I would am intrigued by the recipe and would love to do an all grain before the summer ends. In colorado the warm weather can hang on...this might make the perfect indian summer beer

 

[mac21]

That sounds pretty good. I used 2lbs of rhubarb in secondary and it was so tart it was almost sour. I also did 2lbs or strawberries. Not terrible. Good luck with the brew!

 

[Newsman]

Are you doing a partial mash or all grain? I would am intrigued by the recipe and would love to do an all grain before the summer ends. In colorado the warm weather can hang on...this might make the perfect indian summer beer

Looking to do a partial-mash as that's what is called for in the recipe the LHBS and I found. My thought was that it would be tart, but still flavorful.

That sounds pretty good. I used 2lbs of rhubarb in secondary and it was so tart it was almost sour. I also did 2lbs or strawberries. Not terrible. Good luck with the brew!

Yeah. Thanks. I may add a bit of Splenda to back-sweeten a bit. any suggestions how much??? Do you think 2 cups in 5 gallons would be too much?

 

[Newsman]

Racked into the secondary yesterday onto another 20 oz of rhubarb. It took awhile, but I'm seeing activity in the blowoff tube again, so I guess it's still going. Have to see how it tastes after it's completely done fermenting. I'm keeping it in a temperature controlled environment set to about 65 degrees F. I'll probably check the gravity next Saturday and again on Sunday and maybe Monday to see if it's done fermenting. Hopefully it'll be done by then and I can keg this stuff!

 

[Newsman]

OK. It's been two weeks. ABV is about 5.5%, a little low, but that's OK. I used my handy-dandy PH meter to see that it's at 3.9. Is that too acidic? Should I add some gypsum to it to help it out? Very tart as well, thinking about adding some Splenda to it. Any thoughts?

 

[TNGabe]

A pH of 3.9 isn't very low. Around 4.1 - 4.3 is pretty average. 'Sour' beers tend to be under 3.5.

Have you tasted your beer? Do you like it? Think of how it might be well carbed, spritzy and a little tart? It sounds good to me and adding gypsum or splenda both sound like bad idea. I really don't like the way artificial sweetners taste.

I've got a wit in the fermenter now that I added 3.5 lbs of rhubarb to in the kettle. I've used over a lb per gallon in secondary before, but I like sour beers.

 

[Bsquared]

If you want to make a wit, you should be using unmalted wheat.

 

[Newsman]

If you want to make a wit, you should be using unmalted wheat.

Too late now. My question is, how do I fix the acidity? 3.9 seems awfully acidic to me.

 

[Newsman]

A pH of 3.9 isn't very low. Around 4.1 - 4.3 is pretty average. 'Sour' beers tend to be under 3.5.

Have you tasted your beer? Do you like it? Think of how it might be well carbed, spritzy and a little tart? It sounds good to me and adding gypsum or splenda both sound like bad idea. I really don't like the way artificial sweetners taste.

I've got a wit in the fermenter now that I added 3.5 lbs of rhubarb to in the kettle. I've used over a lb per gallon in secondary before, but I like sour beers.

Ok. I'll just keg it up and leave it. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't have more Rhubarb flavor.

 

[TNGabe]

Ok. I'll just keg it up and leave it. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't have more Rhubarb flavor.

It's probabyl for the best that there isn't a lot of rhubarb flavor. A lot of rhubarb flavor in beer needs some bugs and brett to work in my opinion. When I made the beer with 6 lbs of rhubarb in secondary for 5 gallons, it initially was very savory. Not bad, but a strange quality in a beer. It made me want to eat steak kinda savory. I bottled it fairly young, but with about 6 months in the bottle it's lost the savory quality and is really getting nice. I'm adding lacto and brett to the current batch as well.

Consider dry hopping with something fruity. I used mosaic and it really compliments the rhubarb flavor and tartness.

 

[Newsman]

Thanks. The FG is pretty darn close to 1.0, so there's some concern that there may be some bugs in it already. I put in some Potassium Sorbate and some K-Meta to kill anything that may have grown in there, including yeast. I'm taking a sample to the local homebrew club next week for them to tell me what I should do with it -- backsweeten or maybe add some puree or something. We'll see what they say.