Wild Beet Farmhouse Ale

[Joewalla88]

I wanted to brew a "home grown" beer. So, this weekend I brewed it. I used home grown beets, home grown centennial hops, and wild yeast caught from the backyard. I'm pretty excited. Hope it's ready for Halloween. I'm not sure what to expect from the beets. I hope they come through a little. I added about 2.5 lbs. Anyone have much beet beer experience?

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[day_trippr]

That first pic looks like a vat of Pepto-Bismol

 

[Joewalla88]

Yeah, the foam was pretty funny looking. It ended up looking like blood. I hope the head ends up this pink though. It might make it fun to serve.

 

[65C]

That looks fantastic - how much beet did you use 2.5lbs to 5 gallon?

Really interested how this turns out - looks like something I'd drink - I bet it works well in a Porter too.

 

[Joewalla88]

Yeah, 2.5 lbs to 5 gallons. I was hoping for more, but my garden didn't do too great this year. It was my first time growing beets too. I might add some cucumber too, but that might be too much going on.

 

[Omahawk]

That is crazy cool looking. Just to clarify - it’s just beets and hops? No malts?

 

[Joewalla88]

There's malt too. Pale malt, malted red wheat, and some rolled red wheat

 

[Omahawk]

There's malt too. Pale malt, malted red wheat, and some rolled red wheat

Perfect. Would love to see the recipe and hear about the results.

 

[Joewalla88]

I'll let you know when it's finished. The recipe wasn't as exact as usual. It was about 7.5 lbs of pale malt, 2 lbs of malted red wheat, and 1ish lbs of rolled red wheat. I didn't cereal mash the rolled red wheat, and I don't think I got much conversion from it. Not a problem though, I half expected that. It was just from the bulk food aisle at the grocery store. Then it was 2.5ish oz of homegrown centennial hops at 60, 10 and 1 minutes. I added the beets when there was 5-10 minutes left. Chilled and pitched the wild back yard yeast. It was a fun batch. Usually I'm a little more particular in my recipe creation, but this one was a lot more free flowing. I figured since I had no idea how it was going to turn out or what exactly I was trying to make, I couldn't really screw it up.

 

[ericbw]

Gross! I make beet kvass, which is not really alcoholic. It's lacto not yeast.

 

[Grod1]

awesome man. can you please explain your yeast catching process

 

[TasunkaWitko]

This is nice - I just bottled some beet wine and was pretty impressed with it.

 

[Joewalla88]

awesome man. can you please explain your yeast catching process

I just put a little wort in a mason jar with some cheese cloth on top, and left it outside till I saw some activity and it smelled like beer, and then I propped it up, and made a small batch to grow it up. I did it when it was still cooler out side, but not cold yet. I think it was really early spring.

 

[Joewalla88]

The small batch started off tasting like a rustic wit, but I screwed it up with some tinkering, and it got weird. But I thought if I designed a beer around the yeast it would work nicely. I like the earthiness of beets, and thought they'd work well in something like this. I'm a little concerned with the amount of hops, bit I'd heard from lots of people that home grown hops aren't nearly as potent. As commercial hops are, so I think it'll be okay.

 

[AkTom]

Looks good to me. I'd drink it.
Cheers

 

[Grod1]

I just put a little wort in a mason jar with some cheese cloth on top, and left it outside till I saw some activity and it smelled like beer, and then I propped it up, and made a small batch to grow it up. I did it when it was still cooler out side, but not cold yet. I think it was really early spring.

have you tried beer with this mixed culture yet?

 

[Joewalla88]

Just the small batch I used to grow it up. It was..... interesting, but it was a VERY low hoping rate, and just some wheat extract. I thought if I designed a recipe around the yeast a little more, it would be pretty good. I think if I'd had more hops in the small batch it would've tasted a little like a wit, a bit farmier.

 

[Joewalla88]

Fermented out to 1.006. It's an acquired taste for sure. Maybe after it's carved it'll be a little different. The beets come through a whole lot, but the wild yeast give some aromas that I'm not stoked on. Maybe I'll dry hop in the keg or something. Or maybe I will add those cucumbers. Not bad, but definitely different. I like the flavor, but not sure about aroma. Any ideas of something that would pair well with beets that I could add for that?

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[Joewalla88]

Well, huh.... I can see some people really liking this, but it's definitely not my favorite thing. I think I went a little over board on the beets. I also added some cucumber in the keg and dry hopped with more centennial. The beets and cucumbers really come through way more than I expected. So much that it doesn't really taste like beer. It tastes like some sort of vegetable spritzer. I can drink it, so that's good, but definitely not my favorite, and for sure one of the weirdest beers I've made. If I were to do it again I would cut the beet addition by at least half. Maybe no cucumbers or at least cut that in half also. I think there's potential for a really cool beer here, but my execution came up short, at least for my pallet. Normally for fruit I use at least a lb per gallon, but apparently veggies are much more potent.

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[Northern_Brewer]

Heh, well at least you got your "something weird for Halloween" box ticked. Even if it doesn't quite work as beer, it would be fun to play with for cocktails - or imagine taking off the crust of a steak and ale pie to find that lurking in it....

 

[Joewalla88]

Cocktails! That's a pretty good idea.

 

[Shwagger]

Beets taste like dirt

 

[Joewalla88]

Beets taste like dirt

Yeah, it's even more noticeable when yeast has gone through and eaten all the sugar.