So I made a cucumber saison and incorporated my cucumber slurry / tea during cool down before pitching yeast my yeast. It has been 4 days and the gravity has dropped from an OG of 1.070 down to 1.015. I believe I may have used too many cucumbers as I have an overpowering cucumber aroma and a very strong cucumber flavor. Much more than the subtle cucumber aspect I was hoping to achieve. I figure I can dry hop the hell out it to reduce the cucumber aroma, but at this point is there anything I can do to reduce the flavor?
Here is the recipe:
11 lbs Belgian Pilsner Malt
2 lbs White Wheat
1 lbs Vienna Malt
1 oz tettanger hops 45 min
1 oz Styrian Goldings 30 min
1 oz Styrian Golding 5 minutes
incorporated approximately 2/3 of a gallon of cucumber tea made from 10 cucumbers during cool down.
I would think that you might try brewing the base recipe saison you have, and then blend your cucumber saison with that. You could also blend it to the degree of cucumberness you want by making samples first, and then scaling up for the whole batch.
You might take a look at lowering your mash temp and possibly adding some fermentables (sugar, honey, etc.) to dry the beer out. The base recipe (saison) should be quite a bit drier than 1.015 (I like mine below 1.008).
The Brewing Network interviewed Cigar City Brewing from Florida, and they talked about how they did their Cucumber Saison. You might check that out for some inspiration.
I wonder how persistent the cucumber will be? It may be that after aging for a few months it’s hardly noticable. And if it continues to dry out (I assume it will since it’s only 4 days old) the fewer sugars will probably help hide the flavor. I’d first wait till it’s really done fermenting and re-evaluate. Then keep some unadultered so you can see what it would have been like.
It is still dropping in gravity. It went from 1.032 saturday afternoon to 1.015 on MOnday and on Tuesday morning it is at 1.011. Not quite as dry as I like it, but getting there.
I watched the Beer Geeks tasting of Cigar City’s Cucumber Saison and he made it sound like it was heavy cucumber on the nose and heavy cucumber on the tongue, but also very citrussy.
It will remain in primary for another week or so, but can anything be added at this point to give a little more citrus to the taste? Will lemon juice or lime juice add a little something or just mess everything up?
I am going to dry hop with a citrussy variety to give a little more on the nose.
Saison yeast and citrusy hops are a love it/hate it combo. I think if you like Brooklyn’s Sorachi Ace, go for it!
What comes to mind: Sorachi, Cascade, Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin, or a combo.
Citrus juice can get overpowering very quickly. I’d squeeze a few drops into a sample (or pint, if you’re kegging) when the beer is done and go from there.
