Summer Cucumber Brew

[GrizBrew]

Does anyone have an all-grain grain bill for this? Or a saison recipe they've tried it will. I love a good experiment and this could be great.

That said, most people are racking a saison onto the cukes, some people used a blonde. Thoughts?

I made a Saison with heavy Citra notes. I also tried a brew club member's blond very recently. My opinion is that they were both great. The blond was a bit more refreshing and the Saison more complex and spicy, kinda like you'd imagine. The cukes came through well on both.

So, why not make one of each?? It really is a nice beer. I might do another soon. Very quaff able. If you want my recipe, I will post it later when I can get home to it. It's a Partial Mash.

 

[bwatts4200]

great post! i willing be trying once my garden produces! Also gonna do a watermelon wheat

 

[Blackmuse]

Here's an update for everyone on my Cucumber Blonde... I racked onto two peeled, deseeded and chunked cucumbers (.75 - .8 lb after peeled and deseeded) and let sit @ 60-65 degrees for 3 days. Then I put it in my freezer and dropped the temp to 38 degrees and let sit another 4 days.

2 days before bottling I decided to add some orange zest.... I zested 3 oranges and came up with .75 oz of zest (perfect I thought)... Soaked the zest in some vodka overnight and poured it all in the secondary the next morning.

So, when I went to bottle this past Saturday the beer smelled like HI-C!!! Seriously, like some cool-aid or something. Dang... Took a taste test and it was actually pretty good though the orange zest had just about taken over.... I think next time I will use less zest and just add the zested vodka to the beer rather than vodka AND zest!

I still have the "backseat" cucumber taste I was looking for but unfortunately, the orange has taken the front.

I have a good feeling it will all mellow out with a month in the bottle so I'll be sure to keep you posted! Hell, I'll even try one around Mother's Day and let you all know what it tastes like carbed up.

Damn Orange zest....

 

[GrizBrew]

Here's my recipe for the Cucumber Citra Saison

Enjoy!!

5 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) US
1 lbs Munich Malt
1 lbs Wheat Malt, US
3 lbs Extra Light DME

1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.50 oz Citra [13.70 %] - Boil 30.0 min
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)
0.25 oz Citra [13.70 %] - Aroma Steep 2.0 min

1.0 pkg French Saison (Wyeast Labs #3711)

I added a cup of light candi sugar at high krausen as well

 

[captained]

Here's my recipe for the Cucumber Citra Saison

Enjoy!!

5 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) US
1 lbs Munich Malt
1 lbs Wheat Malt, US
3 lbs Extra Light DME

1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.50 oz Citra [13.70 %] - Boil 30.0 min
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)
0.25 oz Citra [13.70 %] - Aroma Steep 2.0 min

1.0 pkg French Saison (Wyeast Labs #3711)

I added a cup of light candi sugar at high krausen as well

that sounds great, but if you don't mind me asking, when and how do you add the cucumber? i'm curious because i finished a batch of ahs saison with 12 oz of grapefruit juice when i kegged and it was an outstanding hot weather beer. being a fan of hendricks gin and tonic with a cucumber slice during the summer, i think i would like to brew a cucumber saison soon. thanks!

 

[ksubowman]

I am racking my American Wheat onto 4lbs of cukes tonight. I was thinking about letting it sit for 4 days. Do any of you think I may need to let it sit longer?

 

[Blackmuse]

4 days should be fine. I did mine for about 6 and it came out great. I think 4 days should be plenty with 4 lbs. I only used 3/4 of a pound (peeled and deseeded).

 

[sieglere]

Great posts everyone. I might try this out if I can source some farm fresh cucumbers. I'm hoping to go on a tour of a honey farm and pick up a big bucket of honey too. This has potential to be a yummy combination

 

[Blackmuse]

Here's an update for everyone on my Cucumber Blonde... I racked onto two peeled, deseeded and chunked cucumbers (.75 - .8 lb after peeled and deseeded) and let sit @ 60-65 degrees for 3 days. Then I put it in my freezer and dropped the temp to 38 degrees and let sit another 4 days.

2 days before bottling I decided to add some orange zest.... I zested 3 oranges and came up with .75 oz of zest (perfect I thought)... Soaked the zest in some vodka overnight and poured it all in the secondary the next morning.

So, when I went to bottle this past Saturday the beer smelled like HI-C!!! Seriously, like some cool-aid or something. Dang... Took a taste test and it was actually pretty good though the orange zest had just about taken over.... I think next time I will use less zest and just add the zested vodka to the beer rather than vodka AND zest!

I still have the "backseat" cucumber taste I was looking for but unfortunately, the orange has taken the front.

I have a good feeling it will all mellow out with a month in the bottle so I'll be sure to keep you posted! Hell, I'll even try one around Mother's Day and let you all know what it tastes like carbed up.

Damn Orange zest....

This has been in the bottle now for a couple months... Here's the skinny:

This ended up Carbing really well and has an awesome head that lasts quite a while! The beer finally mellowed to a point where the orange zest and cucumber finally came together but I still feel there is too much orange zest. Most of my friends love it! My brother doesn't much like it all while I think it is decent (not my best brew but decent). So if I tackle this again I think I will lay off the orange zest and just go with the cucumber as I had originally planned.

 

[KidDynamite]

I brewed the base for this beer last Monday, and added 4 lbs of garden fresh peeled and de-seeded cukes today. (I estimated: I used 9 cukes)

Anyone have guidance for how long to leave this before bottling? Will 2 weeks be too long?

 

[GrizBrew]

that sounds great, but if you don't mind me asking, when and how do you add the cucumber? i'm curious because i finished a batch of ahs saison with 12 oz of grapefruit juice when i kegged and it was an outstanding hot weather beer. being a fan of hendricks gin and tonic with a cucumber slice during the summer, i think i would like to brew a cucumber saison soon. thanks!

I added the cukes to secondary. I just peeled them and cut them up with sanitized knife and cutting board. I let them sit for prolly 10 days and racked to keg. Fabulous!

 

[Woodyswoodchuck]

Never heard of adding cucumbers to a brew. Sounds really interesting though. Do you really get a big cucumber flavor in the beer from it? Does the juice in the cucumber effect the brew? I always thought additives needed to be dried.

 

[McBrewskie]

Necrobump.

Question for folks. I have a saison going at the moment and am gonna do this. Any advice on how. Was thinking of just sanitizing a knife and a cutting board and peeling and chunking the cucumbers. Any thoughts? Should cucumbers be sanitized in vodka first? Or go the vodka tea route? Would prefer to just rack on the cucumbers.

 

[Blackmuse]

I made one last year and I just used a sanitized knife and board. It came out fine. Actually, people have been asking me to make it again so I'll be brewing next weekend! Cheers.

 

[FullDraw]

^+1 i did the same thing. A simple saison base, then pretty much just "dry-cuked" it. 3.5# of just the meat, no pulp or peel, no vodka. It turned out well, despite those that just couldn't imagine cucumber in a beer. Our club guys still joke about it. I do believe I could sell it all day at the farmers market though.

 

[TBaGZ]

There is a discussion in my homebrew club going on about doing cucumber beers. One guy seems to think:

"if you try adding just cucumber the yeast will eat at it strongly and leave you with a cabbage taste so to battle the yeast from doing that you use sacrificial fruits like red apples or pears and your yeast will eat that first and leave you with a refreshing cucumber zest"

Has anyone had any issues with the yeast fermenting out the cucumber taste, or problems bottle conditioning it?

 

[FullDraw]

I ended up Dry cucumbering for about 2 weeks. I can easily say, I'd have done 7-10 days, but I certainly had no issues with lack of cucumber taste. I'd like to think that's enough time to startup a secondary fermentation if the cukes added enough sugar. Mine did not. If you added a sacrificial sugar to the mix, you would kick off another fermentation and then risk losing your flavors (at least the aromas) through the airlock.

I did keg mine, but I also bottle condition a few from every batch. No difference between either. I also have 2 bottles left (from july/aug) that, while mellowed out, still have cucumber notes that are obvious.

 

[Dylan42]

Sounds like a good brew for this summer. Subscribed.

 

[bovineblitz]

This is real nice with a grisette (small saison) grain bill.

1.053 OG

~71% pils
~29% wheat malt
8-10 IBU, maybe finish with a little sorachi ace or other spicy/peppery hop
A touch of coarsely crushed peppercorns if you'd like, no more than a half oz/5gal
Clean yeast strain

 

[GrizBrew]

There is a discussion in my homebrew club going on about doing cucumber beers. One guy seems to think:

"if you try adding just cucumber the yeast will eat at it strongly and leave you with a cabbage taste so to battle the yeast from doing that you use sacrificial fruits like red apples or pears and your yeast will eat that first and leave you with a refreshing cucumber zest"

Has anyone had any issues with the yeast fermenting out the cucumber taste, or problems bottle conditioning it?

This is interesting....My Saison definitely had a distinct flavor but not a typical fresh cucumber flavor. I would not call it cabbage though. This years batch is set to go on cukes this weekend.Maybe I will add a few pears to the party. I think the flavors would mix well anyway. I will report back and see if there is a difference.

 

[Blackmuse]

Wow - I don't get that at all! I'm about to head over to a neighbors house and drink one of my Cucumber Blondes... Definitely smells and tastes of Cucumbers! Hmmm.
Pears would definitely go well though! Won't hurt that's for sure.

 

[GrizBrew]

This time around I used 3711 at 68 degrees and it attenuated fully down to 1.01. It is a pretty clean Saison yeast really, but a little bit if that character. I also use candy sugar, so it ended up nice and dry. Instead of letting it sit on the cukes for two weeks this year, I peeled them fairly roughly (left a bit of the green peel) and then juiced them in a juicer. I bet a blender would work as well. I used 3 lbs in 5 gallons and just put it all right in the keg. It turned out phenomenally delicious! Better than last year for sure. Huge fresh cucumber taste. The first couple of pints poured cloudy but after that it is a nice clear beer as well. I used Citra last year and chose Sorachi Ace this year as my hops. Neither of them overtook the cucumber or the yeast flavors. It all plays very well together.

 

[inflictor-of-grimness]

This time around I used 3711 at 68 degrees and it attenuated fully down to 1.01. It is a pretty clean Saison yeast really, but a little bit if that character. I also use candy sugar, so it ended up nice and dry. Instead of letting it sit on the cukes for two weeks this year, I peeled them fairly roughly (left a bit of the green peel) and then juiced them in a juicer. I bet a blender would work as well. I used 3 lbs in 5 gallons and just put it all right in the keg. It turned out phenomenally delicious! Better than last year for sure. Huge fresh cucumber taste. The first couple of pints poured cloudy but after that it is a nice clear beer as well. I used Citra last year and chose Sorachi Ace this year as my hops. Neither of them overtook the cucumber or the yeast flavors. It all plays very well together.

Sounds a lot like the CCB Cucumber Saison. They use 3711 with citra AND sorachi ace

 

[doublebogey10]

I subbed to this thread a while back because I loved the concept. But I never ended up brewing anything with cucumber.
Last week, was in San Diego and visited Modern Times. Great place, great beer.
They had their Lomaland Saison with a cucumber addition on tap. So good.
Pulled this thread back up to explore a new brew with cukes.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[rickytim]

5 Gallons

3.3lb Briess Wheat LME
1lb Light DME
8oz Honey
1oz Cascade @ 60mins

I'll probably just use Notty yeast because that's what I have on hand. Primary ferment for about a week and then rack onto ~5 pounds of peeled, and chopped cukes (with a Campden tab) for about 2 weeks.
QUOTE]

For shauntraxler recipe I am just wondering what the boil schedule would be? Should the LME and DME be added in the beginning of the boil or split? Unsure of the addition of the honey. I would think it would be towards the end like the last 10mins or so. Just looking for some input probably going to brew this weekend.