Strawberry Rhubarb Wheat Ale

[SevenBrewing]

Let me know what you all think.

for a 5 gallon batch.

5# White Wheat
5# Marris Otter
1# Rice Hulls

3# Strawberries
3# Rhubarb

1 0z Williamette @60 min
1 oz Saaz @15 min

Wyeast American Wheat 1010

I would boil the strawberries and rhurbarb seperately a day before to create a syrup then chill in the fridge for a day. I will then add the mix to the boil at 15 minutes.

 

[scinerd3000]

looks interesting. boiling fruit will release some pectins and can lead to haze but that shouldnt matter with a wheat beer...

 

[edmanster]

Sounds delicious!! I chop, freeze and then use a blender with some cambden tabs 24hrs before I throw them in and rack on top of in secondary...

 

[SevenBrewing]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I might try your method with the fruit this time.

 

[WhenInMinnesota]

I made a rhubarb beer last year and actually boiled the rhubarb in the wort the last 30 minutes or so. You could also freeze the strawberries and then steep them in the worth after the boil before you cool the wort for say 15-20 minutes. That might keep some pectin from getting into the wort. I've used this method with rasberries and blueberries and it's worked well. Just a heads up, I know my wort had a sickly green color to it when I first put it in the fermentor but after it aged for a month or so it cleared up and actually looked like something people would like to drink.

 

[BrewThruYou]

Is this based on an existing recipe? Rhubarb is really tart and 3 lbs seems like a lot.

 

[SevenBrewing]

Its one that I tweaked a bit. I did 2# rhubarb last year and didnt really get any flavor from it. So I thought I would up it a #.

 

[DeusInnomen]

The name alone has my attention! Subscribed with glee. It might do me well to get away from porters and stouts for a bit, SWMBO likes lighter stuff and I gotta keep 'er happy too.

 

[Sardoman]

I'd suggest a less attenuative strain that doesn't give you the tart flavor that the 1010 often has. 1272 maybe? My thought is that you'll get a lot of tart already from the rhubarb, and then more from the strawberries, particularly if they are less than fully ripe.

 

[SevenBrewing]

Great suggestion. I will try this with 1272 this weekend. Ill let you all know how it turns out. I also decided to try it with 2# rhubarb instead of 3.

 

[brewmcq]

Arrrrgh!! So close!! I generally dislike wheat beers, but we have a ton of rhubarb growing in the back yard, and I'd love to do a rhubarb-something... even if it's just a pale ale, or maybe an Irish red..

 

[Omahawk]

Any update on this? I was just thinking that rhubarb and wheat were meant to be together in a beer. I think the tartness would be a nice feature if you can mellow it out with something sweet - strawberries as you tried or maybe honey malt.

 

[mcaple1]

a pound of rice hulls...that might be overkill right?

 

[DeusInnomen]

I admit I'm waiting for a report back on this too. It's possibly my next brew if the recipe works out!

 

[Omahawk]

Anyone know how to calculate the fermentability of Rhubarb? The Google Machine tells me that Rhubarb's sugar content is 1.1 g / 100 gram weight. For reference, strawberries have about 5.1 g / 100 grams.

 

[Randar]

Anyone know how to calculate the fermentability of Rhubarb? The Google Machine tells me that Rhubarb's sugar content is 1.1 g / 100 gram weight. For reference, strawberries have about 5.1 g / 100 grams.

You can use the Honey.xls spreadsheet for meads. It has a sheet in it for fruit that takes the existing OG and adds proper additional gravity for the fruit you've added:

http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/FAQ/Honey.xls

 

[rigglet]

Don't know if you've brewed this yet, but I did a strawberry rhubarb Belgian blonde. I used 4lbs of frozen strawberries and 2lbs of frozen rhubarb. Plenty of rhubarb flavor came through. This has been the favorite of my brews for my family and friends.

I'll be interested to see how this turns out with a wheat. I tried a blueberry vanilla using a wheat beer as the base and I didn't get any blueberry flavor through it. I only used 3lbs of blueberry extract so I may need use more next time.

 

[Omahawk]

You can use the Honey.xls spreadsheet for meads. It has a sheet in it for fruit that takes the existing OG and adds proper additional gravity for the fruit you've added:

http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/FAQ/Honey.xls

Thanks. I think Rhubarb is about 1% sugar, which means according to that spreadsheet that 3 lbs would add less than a point to the SG of a 6 gallon batch.

My second crop of Rhubarb is starting to get closer to harvest. If I can harvest enough, the Rhubarb Wheat I'm considering something like this:

6 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 52.17 %
5 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 43.48 %
8.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.35 %
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 9.0 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (1 min) Hops 3.0 IBU
3 lbs of Rhubarb - less than 1% of malt bill fermentability
Wyeast 2565 Kolsch

SG = 1.053
IBU = 12

Low on the IBUs, assuming the rhubarb will add more bitterness than the hops. I think the Honey Malt and Pilsner will add a nice sweet malt taste to balance the tart Rhubarb. Shooting for a lower carbonation of about 2.0 volume.

Anyone with more Rhubarb brewing experience than me is free to chime in with opinions ....

 

[Omahawk]

So, the second crop of Rhubarb come in late summer and I brewed this last month.

I decided to make a small 2 gallon test batch with the ingredients I had on hand. I did a Brew-in-a-Bag batch just for simplicity. I had my first mostly-carbonated beer tonight, and it was not too bad. The tartness of the rhubarb really came through at the rhubarb-to-wort ratio I used (1.5 lb:2 gal). It almost had a Belgian-ish taste about it, and it was NOT from the yeast. The honey malt was a little too much for me - slightly cloying for my palette and didn't provide the "sweetness" in balance. I'd definitely back off on that element next time closer to 2-3%.

I changed my mind regarding the hopping from the recipe posted above - I like the citrus-y taste of raw rhubarb, and was hoping that would be accentuated by a Centennial addition at 20 minutes (only addition). In this version of the beer, I'm not sure the hopping matters much since the other two elements I mentioned above are more prominent. Overall, this was a decent start on a beer that I will try again. More wheat malt, less honey malt, and perhaps slightly smaller proportion of rhubarb (3 lb per 6 gal?) next time.


Recipe:
Type: All Grain
Date: 9/4/2011
Batch Size: 2.00 gal
Boil Size: 2.41 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 % (BIAB)

Ingredients
2 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 41.58 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 31.19 %
1 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 20.79 %
5.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 6.44 %
0.50 oz Centennial [9.20 %] (20 min) Hops 17.3 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale
1.5 lbs chopped, par-boiled and frozen rhubarb

OG: 1.052 SG
FG: 1.011 SG
Bitterness: 17.3 IBU
Est Color: 6.5 SRM

Fermented at 65 degrees for first 4 days, slowly raised to 70 degrees for days 5-8. Racked beer onto thawed rhubarb on Day 8. Bottled on Day 18. Carbonated to 3.0 volumes.

 

[tgl3nnon]

How did this turn out?