I am wanting to ‘cucumber’ a saison, but would like a bit of direction before I screw this up.
How exactly would you cucumber a beer? Dry-cucumbering? Juice it and blend? Do I remove the skin? What about the seeds? I would imagine that one or both of those would be bitter/unpleasant.
I’ve come across several threads on this forum and others about cucumber saisons, but they just generally say “add cucumber” - which is unhelpful.
I have a bumper crop of cucumbers (3-8 a day) and need to do something with them - help!
I would remove the skin and seeds, puree, and add the puree to secondary. I think one of the commercial breweries that makes one does it that way.
EDIT - Actually, you could strain the puree through a strainer or cheesecloth to remove most of the ‘pulpy’ matter and be left with a cleaner product in your secondary. Though standard fruit purees never cause me any issue.
Cucumber is nearly all water. I would just slice it up and toss it in. Not sure about the skin. I personally don’t mind it, but I know others that don’t. I guess sanitation would be easier if you peel it.
There was an article in the latest Zymurgy That mentioned Cucumber Saison. THe dude in the wacked out suit said he removes the skins because it can cause a chlorophyll note and then juices them. I would think using part cuke juice part water for your beer would be the way to go. Maybe treat an AG batch like an extract batch(brew a concentrated wort with corrected IBus) and “top up” with the cuke juice to save the gentle flavors that is cucumber.
I might even keg with a bit of the juice to bring out more of the flavor. Never having brewed one, I don’t know what the threshold is to get cucumber flavor to be apparent. I know I use double the amount of a milder fruit like peach to get the same level of presence as using something like cherry or raspberry. I’ll be curious to hear how it comes out !
I just made falafel the other day and put together some cuke sauce to go with it.
~1 cup greek style yogurt
~4 inches of english cuke shredded on the box grater and squeezed of as much moisture as I could
~ .25 tsp lemon juice
~2 tablespoons of chopped fresh dill
Cumin, corriander, salt, and black pepper to taste.
You can always jar some. They keep forever, so you don’t get burnt out on them. The cool thing is you don’t have to pressure can them, just a boiling water bath is enough due to the acidity. of course I have a kid who could live on them. I did cukes and kohlrabi last weekend.
I’m jealous. My cucumbers didn’t make it this year. Most summers I eat a whole cucumber with lunch at work every day. Cut into sticks with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cukes are one veggie that I’ve never had too much of.